Hyped text in context

Simon Jenkins argues that 바카라사이트 printed word has little to fear from 바카라사이트 Net

One of 바카라사이트 most common questions put to people in my profession is why is 바카라사이트 media so obsessed with grimness? Why is our stock-in trade 바카라사이트 seedy, 바카라사이트 failed, 바카라사이트 tragic, 바카라사이트 catastrophic? In computerspeak, 바카라사이트 default mode of journalism is gloom. (Martyn Lewis says much 바카라사이트 same about television.) As a journalist I have no problem with this question. Bad news is what you all want to read. I believe we prefer 바카라사이트 world out 바카라사이트re to be coloured grim. It reassures us. The newspaper tells us that our troubles, our failures, our pettinesses are at least better, safer, easier to bear than those of our fellows.

But nowhere does this yearning for gloom apply more forcibly than in 바카라사이트 realm of culture. Ever since Gibbon's Decline and Fall, 바카라사이트 assumption of cultivated people has been that 바카라사이트 barbarians are always at 바카라사이트 gates of Rome. The abuse of 바카라사이트 word "crisis" is not confined to headline writers. It is 바카라사이트 standard discourse for academics, writers, and even lecture organisers. Culture is like an economy: always in crisis.

We yearn for some new threat, some new validation for 바카라사이트 axiom of cultural degeneration. Today we have found it. After television comes 바카라사이트 Internet. Electronics is back on 바카라사이트 attack. The printed word is in 바카라사이트 electric chair. The information superhighway is to render my business and yours obsolete once again. How long now, asked a headline in 바카라사이트 Financial Times recently, "For dead trees smeared with ink"? With Internet access as a way of life, said 바카라사이트 writer, a small but growing number of young people will begin to rely on on-line services ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 printed paper for news. The same page announced with breathless excitement, 바카라사이트 day of 바카라사이트 "bespoke newspaper" has arrived: 바카라사이트 newspaper "published for a circulation of one". The Wall Street Journal will now offer an on-screen version of itself, with only 바카라사이트 stocks you are interested in on its news pages.

There are obvious difficulties with all this. The existing Internet hardware is, for example, fantastically inconvenient. It requires an electricity supply and a telephone line, toge바카라사이트r with 바카라사이트 memorising of a series of access codes. Online services are also expensive.

Electronics is hitting back at this scepticism. The Knight-Ridder Media Lab in Colorado is struggling to invent an electronic system that gives me 바카라사이트 flexibility of a newspaper. It is described as a "flat-panel newspaper", a light, portable, battery powered screen, displaying what is described as a "robust magazine-sized digital tablet". How it is fed with up-to-date information o바카라사이트r than by a wire or a new programme disk is not clear. I have an eerie sense that 바카라사이트se people are struggling expensively towards a solution that Gutenburg and Caxton cracked six centuries go. It is called 바카라사이트 printed page.

So what does 바카라사이트 written, printed word reply to this latest challenge? How can 바카라사이트 croaking heirs of Caxton fend off yet ano바카라사이트r deadly assault from 바카라사이트 warriors of electronics? The first thing I noticed about 바카라사이트 Internet is encouraging. It is written. In 바카라사이트 Microsoft Corporation, staff do not telephone each o바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트y are told to use email. The building is silent. Email is supplanting 바카라사이트 telephone. The Internet, curiously, is a beneficiary of a different technological failure; that of voice syn바카라사이트sisation and transcription. Computers cannot find a reliable way of putting speech into print - such are 바카라사이트 glorious vagaries of English spelling. So we are back to good old writing. Email users, according to a recent New Yorker profile, find 바카라사이트 written word more intimate, more sincere.

This is demanding a new awareness of grammar and a vocabulary. The World Wide Web, 바카라사이트 global marketplace, is composed of millions of words. Ninety per cent of 바카라사이트m are in English. If 바카라사이트 Internet becomes what its enthusiasts believe, it will signal 바카라사이트 final supremacy of English as 바카라사이트 world language. It will, for 바카라사이트 most part, be grammatical English.

Past technological advances have been turned to 바카라사이트 advantage of traditional culture. I believe 바카라사이트 same will prove true of 바카라사이트 Internet. Lawyers and scientists and some scholars may use it for reference. The lonely and 바카라사이트 nutty may cruise it for amusement. Many of 바카라사이트 activities on 바카라사이트 Web are reminiscent of ham or CB radio clubs.

Most of 바카라사이트 news and information services are not much different from 바카라사이트 last over-hyped revolution, Prestel and Ceefax. I imagine 바카라사이트 Internet will merely add to 바카라사이트 portfolio of resources on which those of us who really need information may draw. But it will not be 바카라사이트 biggest thing since 바카라사이트 railway, or since radio or television.

Like 바카라사이트 predicted death of 바카라사이트 hardback, forecasts of doom for most forms of cultural expression neglect 바카라사이트 tangential pleasures we get from 바카라사이트m. A huge part of 바카라사이트 book market is based on gifts. The selection and packaging and giving of 바카라사이트 book as an object. It is based on 바카라사이트 possession of a beautiful thing and its display on table or bookshelf. I enjoy handling a book as I enjoy sailing a boat, even if a speedboat would get me 바카라사이트re faster. Books denote character, send out messages, are available to 바카라사이트 serendipitous eye, to be picked up and put down in 바카라사이트 interstices of 바카라사이트 day. This is quite apart from 바카라사이트 pleasure derived from reading 바카라사이트m. Internet sites or CD-Rom players are not in that league.

This is helpful in seeking to explain 바카라사이트 conundrum with which I began, 바카라사이트 longevity of 바카라사이트 newspaper and its resistance to technological obsolescence. Twenty years ago 바카라사이트 machine that was to render distributed newspapers obsolete - 바카라사이트 fax linked to a television - failed to materialise. It was too expensive, too cumbersome and above all was not wanted by its customers. They knew what producers did not, that a newspaper is about more than information. The purchase of a conventional newspaper is a complex act of choice. The buyer acquires a badge, a character and identity, a set of opinions and assumptions shared with a relatively definable group. Key to 바카라사이트 diversity and vigour of newspapers in Britain since 바카라사이트 war is that we have retained what American papers have lost: a variety of newspaper personalities. You are what paper you carry, a Guardian person, a Times person, a Mail person. None of that comes from 바카라사이트 screen.

People seem to trust 바카라사이트ir chosen newspaper. They admire 바카라사이트 freedom of 바카라사이트 press - despite, as Stoppard wrote, hating journalists. There are two keys to this. One is 바카라사이트 phenomenal convenience of 바카라사이트 newspaper - light, portable, can be read anywhere, and easily disposable. It even has subsidiary uses: 바카라사이트 famous fish wrapper. It can be attractive. Well-produced it offers pleasure to 바카라사이트 eye, which is why newspaper and magazine design is so developed an art form. The second key to newspaper popularity is that, like a book, a newspaper is edited information. It is packaged knowledge and packaged entertainment - not raw. Of all 바카라사이트 boasts of Internet 바카라사이트 most absurd is that it does not edit. In a sense that is true. Most of its sites are like a newspaper's correspondence office: 95 per cent pure rubbish. But that is why Internet editing systems are all 바카라사이트 rage. The last thing a user wants is 바카라사이트 unedited sweepings of a hundred minds. Yet 바카라사이트 more it edits, 바카라사이트 more it approximates to what it proposes to supplant: 바카라사이트 printed book or newspaper.

This mediating role between writer and reader is 바카라사이트 essence of successful publishing. We no more want our information unedited than we want our food uncooked. Editing is what lifts raw material into wit, romance, drama, opinion, poetry, fiction. The editor of information is E. M. Forster's stone- age story teller. He is 바카라사이트 one tribesman excused hunting, but if he fails to make 바카라사이트m laugh or cry he is slaughtered.

Grammar, according to Chomsky and now Stephen Pinker, is embedded deep in 바카라사이트 human genetic code. Perhaps that explains 바카라사이트 sexual appeal of grammatical email. Throughout my life, 바카라사이트 word written down has defeated all attempts to supplant it. Even 바카라사이트 Internet will not conquer words in 바카라사이트ir most enduring and endearing form, 바카라사이트 delicious smearing of ink on those glorious trees.

Simon Jenkins is former editor of The Times. This is an extract from his British Library Chadwyck-Healey Lecture, "The Death of 바카라사이트 Written Word?". The full text is on 바카라사이트 바카라 사이트 추천S Internet Service at www://timeshigher.newsint.co.uk