Print Media BooksNewspapersMagazines

Books  The most credible form of print media  Durability  Association with formal education  Preserve thoughts, culture, legends of history  Leisure

Papyrus rolls  Earliest known rolls containing writing  Egyptian mummy cases  3500 BC  Contained writing called hieratic  Made use of pictures

First known alphabet  1400 BC  Phonecian alphabet  Writing system derived from speech rather than pictures/ symbols

Wooden block printing  Tang Dynasty ( AD)  Diamond Sutra (mid 9 th c.)  1 st printed book still in existence

Writing materials  Clay tablets  Animal skins  Parchment  Linen  Wood-pulp paper

Codex  End of 3 rd c. AD  Replaced papyrus/ parchment scrolls  Roman method of book binding  Used cords to tie sheets of papyrus/ parchment between wooden boards  Greater ease of reading  Made indexes possible

Johann Gutenberg  1430’s  Invented workable press that used movable type  European innovation (no one knew of earlier Asian inventions)  1456 Gutenberg printed “Mazarin Bible”, 1 st book produced w/ movable type

1 st printing press in England  1476  William Caxton

Social change  Spread of printing ripened conditions for social changes, esp. those affecting established religious institutions  Formation of new opinions  Fresh interpretations of the Bible, sometimes at variance with church dogma  Fragmentation of Roman Catholic Church formed matrix of Protestant Reformation

The Cambridge Press  1 st printing press in America  Est. at Harvard 1638  Issued limited # of books

Colonial period  Only literate upper class could afford books  Most books costly (printed in Europe)  Wealth/ status measured by # of leather- bound books one possessed  Low literacy rates (10% by 1800)  Cost of a book approx. 1 week’s wages ($1)

19 th Century  Compulsory education led to higher literacy rates  Industrial improvements lowered cost of books due to large scale production  Steam-powered presses  Mechanical typesetting machines

Age of Books  By the mid 19 th c., inexpensive paperback editions available for 10 cents a copy  Books became popular mass medium

Publishing houses  Significant forces during late 19 th c.  By 1900, literacy rates had reached 90%  Books, newspapers, magazines  Free public libraries allowed access for all

Publishing-goes-public Era  Period since 1945  Independent companies sold stock in themselves to individual investors  Led to mergers/ conglomerates  Causes  Competition among publishing houses  Mass demand for works of fiction  Commercialization of literature  Printing and marketing practices streamlined w/ big business

Publishing divisions  Trade books  Books sold via bookstores general consumer  Textbooks  Published for students  Professional/ scholarly books  Post grad specialists  Paperbacks  Mass-marketed titles sold in bookstores/ at news stands