John B. Thompson

These are turbulent times in the world of book publishing. For nearly five centuries the methods and practices of book publishing remained largely unchanged, but at the dawn of the twenty-first century the industry finds itself faced with perhaps the greatest challenges since Gutenberg. A combination of economic pressures and technological change is forcing publishers to alter their practices and think hard about the future of the books in the digital age. In this book - the first major study of trade publishing for more than 30 years - Thompson situates the current challenges facing the industry in an historical context, analysing the transformation of trade publishing in the United States and Britain since the 1960s. He gives a detailed account of how the world of trade publishing really works, dissecting the roles of publishers, agents and booksellers and showing how their practices are shaped by a field that has a distinctive structure and dynamic. This new paperback edition has been thoroughly revised and updated to take account of the most recent developments, including the dramatic increase in ebook sales and its implications for the publishing industry and its future.

Merchants of Culture

The Digital Revolution in Publishing

Book Wars

Paul Ricœur

Essays on Language, Action and Interpretation

Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences

What role have communication media played in the formation of modern societies? How should we understand the social impact of new forms of communication and information diffusion, from the advent of printing in fifteenth-century Europe to the expansion of global communication networks today? In this major new work, Thompson addresses these and other questions by elaborating a distinctive social theory of communication media and their impact. He argues that the development of communication media has transformed the spatial and temporal constitution of social life, creating new forms of action and interaction which are no longer linked to the sharing of a common locale. The consequences of this transformation are far-reaching and impinge on many aspects of our lives, from the most intimate aspects of personal experience and self-formation to the changing nature of power and visibility in the public domain. Combining breadth of vision with sensitivity to detail, this book situates the study of the media where it belongs: among a set of disciplines concerned with the emergence, development and structural characteristics of modern societies and their futures.

A Social Theory of the Media

The Media and Modernity

The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century

The Publishing Business in the Twenty-first Century

Political scandals have become a pervasive feature of many societies today. From Profumo to the cash-for-questions scandal, from Watergate to the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, scandals have come to play a central role in politics and in the shaping of public debate. What are the characteristics of political scandals and why have they come to assume such prominence today? What are the social and political consequences of the preoccupation with political scandal in the public domain? In this major new book Thompson develops a systematic and wide-ranging analysis of the phenomenon of political scandal. He shows that the rise of political scandal is linked to the changes brought about by the development of communication media, which have transformed the nature of visibility and altered the relations between public and private life. He analyses the characteristics of scandals as mediated events and he explains why mediated scandals in the political field have become increasingly prevalent in recent years. Distinguishing between three basic types of political scandal, Thompson reconstructs the development of sex scandals, financial scandals and what he calls 'power scandals' in Britain and the United States, showing how scandals unfold and how they form part of distinctive political cultures of scandal. In the final chapter, Thompson develops an original theoretical account of political scandal and its consequences which highlights the connections between scandal, reputation and trust. This book is a path-breaking analysis of a troubling phenomenon which has become a central feature of public life in our societies today. It will be of great interest to students of sociology, politics, and media and cultural studies. It will also appeal to a wider readership interested in social and political issues.

Power and Visability in the Media Age

Political Scandal

Paul Luna

Martin Paul Eve

Lynette Owen

Simone Murray

Michael Bhaskar

Alison Baverstock

Angus Phillips

John Oakes

Albert N. Greco

Samantha J. Rayner

Carlos A. Scolari

Alistair Mccleery

Adriaan Van Der Weel

Mira T. Sundara Rajan

Elizabeth Le Roux

Miha Kovač

Rüdiger Wischenbart

Mojca K. Šebart

Frania Hall

John W. Maxwell

Alex Holzman

Sarah Kalikman Lippincott

Niels Peter Thomas

Nunca en la historia ha existido un momento más importante para la creación y la transmisión de conocimiento. Por un lado, las tecnologías de la comunicación posibilitan transformaciones antes inimaginables, que el mundo del libro y la edición aprovechan para hacer lo que mejor saben: situarse a la cabeza de las innovaciones. Por otro lado, jamás ha habido una proliferación equiparable de estudios y análisis sobre la edición y el libro en todas sus formas, lo que nos permite reflexionar sobre el modo en que se produce esta revolución para la que no existen precedentes. Esta obra es el mejor ejemplo de dicha reflexión. Desde distintos puntos de vista, desde diversas disciplinas y con la mayor riqueza y capacidad de disección se explica qué hacen los hoy editores, qué valor supone su actividad, y cuál es la dimensión cultural y social que hace que el mundo del libro y la edición tenga un perfil propio y una capacidad real de esclarecer y transformar la realidad en que vivimos. Los fundamentos del libro y la edición es una obra colaborativa de académicos y representantes de la industria editorial y librera, que aborda cuestiones urgentes como las complejidades de la industria, los desafíos de la lectura y la educación, los mercados globales y las grandes diferencias regionales, la propiedad intelectual y los derechos de autor, la responsabilidad social de las editoriales o las relaciones de la industria de la edición con otros medios de comunicación y entretenimiento, y las siempre cambiantes tecnologías. Los libros nunca están solos. Forman parte de colecciones, conviven en los estantes de las librerías y bibliotecas, y conversan con otras obras a través de sus lectores y lectoras. En este caso, Los fundamentos del libro y la edición está en buena compañía: la colección Tipos Móviles es el entorno natural para que este volumen dialogue con otros textos que también hablan de libros, editores y librerías.

Manual para este siglo XXI

Los fundamentos del libro y la edición

This book tells the story of the turbulent decades when the book publishing industry collided with the great technological revolution of our time. From the surge of ebooks to the self-publishing explosion and the growing popularity of audiobooks, Book Wars provides a comprehensive and fine-grained account of technological disruption in one of our most important and successful creative industries. Like other sectors, publishing has been thrown into disarray by the digital revolution. The foundation on which this industry had been based for 500 years – the packaging and sale of words and images in the form of printed books – was called into question by a technological revolution that enabled symbolic content to be stored, manipulated and transmitted quickly and cheaply. Publishers and retailers found themselves facing a proliferation of new players who were offering new products and services and challenging some of their most deeply held principles and beliefs. The old industry was suddenly thrust into the limelight as bitter conflicts erupted between publishers and new entrants, including powerful new tech giants who saw the world in very different ways. The book wars had begun. While ebooks were at the heart of many of these conflicts, Thompson argues that the most fundamental consequences lie elsewhere. The print-on-paper book has proven to be a remarkably resilient cultural form, but the digital revolution has transformed the industry in other ways, spawning new players which now wield unprecedented power and giving rise to an array of new publishing forms. Most important of all, it has transformed the broader information and communication environment, creating new challenges and new opportunities for publishers as they seek to redefine their role in the digital age. This unrivalled account of the book publishing industry as it faces its greatest challenge since Gutenberg will be essential reading for anyone interested in books and their future.

A comparative critique of ordinary language philosophy, hermeneutics and critical theory.

A Study in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur and Jürgen Habermas

Critical Hermeneutics

The book publishing industry is going through a period of profound and turbulent change brought about in part by the digital revolution. What is the role of the book in an age preoccupied with computers and the internet? How has the book publishing industry been transformed by the economic and technological upheavals of recent years, and how is it likely to change in the future? This is the first major study of the book publishing industry in Britain and the United States for more than two decades. Thompson focuses on academic and higher education publishing and analyses the evolution of these sectors from 1980 to the present. He shows that each sector is characterized by its own distinctive ‘logic’ or dynamic of change, and that by reconstructing this logic we can understand the problems, challenges and opportunities faced by publishing firms today. He also shows that the digital revolution has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on the book publishing business, although the real impact of this revolution has little to do with the ebook scenarios imagined by many commentators. Books in the Digital Age will become a standard work on the publishing industry at the beginning of the 21st century. It will be of great interest to students taking courses in the sociology of culture, media and cultural studies, and publishing. It will also be of great value to professionals in the publishing industry, educators and policy makers, and to anyone interested in books and their future.

The Transformation of Academic and Higher Education Publishing in Britain and the United States

Books in the Digital Age

John B. Thompson

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