Weekly reading #1- Print Culture

The article defines print culture as “embodies all forms of printed text and other printed forms of visual communication.” To me this description means that everything we read whether it is the alphabetic form of letters or character writing such as Chinese writing, is considered to be part of the print culture as long as it is printed. I am still confused as to what they are referring to as scribal culture, my assumption is that this is anything written but not printed, such as words or drawings written in caves or on paper not mass produced. Oral culture is simply information or communication passed on by word of mouth. The benefits of print culture is that more people are exposed to the information and the information is more accurate because once it is written it is simply copied and printed again. This prevents confusion of history and other important pieces of information. Print culture’s effects on society is amazing, information is able to be spread very quickly and can continue to be spread as long as the information is still accurate. In current situations people in New York can be privileged to the same information as those in California without much difficulty at all. As far as how technology is changing print culture, we are more quickly exposed to information through the internet so therefore the actual use of a printing press or even a printer are things that are becoming part of the past. The digital technology age is fantastic for the spread of information however I wonder how it will be to keep historic issues. Another issue is the assumption that all written work is credible and not copied, it is true we have copyright laws to try to protect these problems however it does not always work that way. Holding a paper or reading a paper book are things that aren’t destroyed easily, books have been around for hundreds of years and have great value in present day and history. Our students should be able to have exposure to all forms of literacy including paper. They may not understand completely how books could have been manufactured by a printing press but if they had a book made from paper at least they would be able to see hands on how difficult this process was.