Recent
Jul. 11-15, 2011 | Association for Cultural Studies Summer Institute, University of Ghent, Belgium
Mar. 18, 2011 | American Cultures in the Digital Age Conference, Vanderbilt University
Mar. 25, 2010 | Cooper Lecture Series, Swarthmore College
Feb. 22, 2010 | Information Society Program, University of Illinois
Oct. 30, 2009 | Scholarly Communication Committee, Georgetown University
Oct. 22, 2009 | Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa
Oct. 11, 2009 | Honors Convocation, University of Illinois
Most of you reading this blog probably don’t know that I’m Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Communication and Culture here at Indiana University. What that means is that I’m knee-deep in graduate admissions files right now; what that also means is that I don’t have quite as much time for blogging as [...]
I’m about the enter the final week of my undergraduate “Cultures of Books and Reading” class here at Indiana University. I’ll be sad to see it go. Not only has the group been excellent this semester, but I’ve learned so much about how my students are negotiating this protracted and profound moment of transition in [...]
First, I hope all of my readers in the United States had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I really needed a break myself, so I took last week off from blogging in order to recharge. Second, I want to thank everyone for the amazing response to my previous post, on e-reading and indie bookstores. I haven’t had [...]
OR, HOW TO SAVE INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES ONE E-BOOK AT A TIME Several weeks ago I mentioned the “Cultures of Books and Reading” class I’m teaching this semester at Indiana University. It’s been a blast so far. My students have had so many provocative things to say about the present and future of book culture. More [...]
I’ve been struck this start of the school year by the proliferation of textbook rental outfits here in Bloomington, Indiana and elsewhere. Locally there’s TXTBookRental Bloomington, which brokers exclusively in rented course texts, as well as TIS and the IU Bookstore (operated by Barnes & Noble), both of whom sell books in addition to offering [...]
What a difference a few years can make. I’m talking about the proliferation of e-reading devices among my Indiana University undergraduates — devices that were virtually non-existent in their lives not so very long ago. Let me explain. In 2006, I piloted a course based loosely on The Late Age of Print called “The Cultures [...]
It’s been awfully quiet around here for the past six weeks or so. I’ve had a busy summer filled with travel, academic writing projects, and quality time with my young son. Blogging, regretfully, ended up falling by the wayside. I’m pleased to announce that The Late Age of Print is back after what amounted to [...]
A couple of weeks ago I blogged here about a short essay I’d written, “E-books: No Friends of Free Expression,” and about a longer academic journal article on which it was based called, “The Abuses of Literacy: Amazon Kindle and the Right to Read.” Well, since then I’ve had a bunch of people writing in [...]
I’ve long been a reader of magazines, and so for several months now I’ve been intrigued to see lots of pro-magazine advertisements appearing in some of my favorite periodicals. Maybe you’ve seen them, too. Generally, the ads are filled with all sorts of upbeat facts about magazine circulation and subscribership. The campaign’s purpose is to [...]
I’ve just published a short essay called “E-books — No Friends of Free Expression” in the National Communication Association’s online magazine, Communication Currents. It was commissioned in anticipation of National Freedom of Speech Week, which will be recognized in the United States from October 18th to 24th, 2010. Here’s a short excerpt from the piece, [...]
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