Book or E-Book?
With the advent digital technology and electronic format , there were apprehensions and doubts about the survivability of the traditional book form as a medium for publication in some quarters. Although there are many who firmly believe that nothing can replace the pleasure of going through the physical pages of your favourite novel or flipping through your daily newspapers or magazines. They persuasively and glibly argue the downsides of the electronic format. But the fact remains in the history of the human civilization every change has met one kind of opposition or the other and it has primarily something to do with our mindset and the mysterious ways of our mind. We feel so helpless and powerless before a dynamic situation and until and unless we feel confident about establishing our complete mastery over it, we seldom accept change wholeheartedly. And we cling on to the old ways!
It is worth remembering in this context that the medium of books which some of us so dearly wish to survive too came in the process of a change and had our forefathers stubbornly refused to acknowledge the utility of a printing press and its magnificent products – books, what would have been the situation.
Apart from this there are environmental issues involved and logically goes against books, newspapers, magazines and periodicals in physical forms. Just hazard guess on the quantum of newsprints the raw material of which is wood-pulp by the newspapers and publishing houses. It is absolutely necessary to save our forests to switch over to the digital form which is also a lot more cost-efficient, green and eco-friendly.
The latest trend in the West suggests a strong support for the electronic format. The circulation of ten national dailies published from London has slumped by one-fifth since 2000. According to the available figures one of the prominent newspapers The Daily Mirror sold 2,777,501 copies in November 2000 and 1,260,019 copies registering a fall of nearly 55 per cent. Similarly all other dailies are struggling with declining figures. A leading columnist's take on the issue is worth quoting: “ There's very little light at the end of this particular tunnel. A combination.... and the unstoppable migration of readers and the advertisers to the web has led to a widely-believed prognosis that newspapers in Britain and America are finished......”. It would interesting to know what is the scenario in India.
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