The end of the book!?
Digitalization and the Internet are often decried as the end of the book market. There are countless examples that prove the opposite. They show that literature and the Internet are not mutually exclusive, but rather enrich each other. The students Olga (25), Katharina (25), Sabrina (26), Esther (26) and Kristina (24) also found this, which is why they launched their blog Digitur - Literature in the Digital World almost a year ago.
It all started with the committed lecturer Dr. Thomas Ernst and his seminar on the history and theory of media at the University of Duisburg-Essen, which the five attended. Already during the course it was clear to the five students of literature and media practice that they wanted to continue to engage with the topic and learn more about literature in the digital age. After that, the only question that remained was how. “We then quickly agreed on a blog. For us, the blog is simply the medium that offers the most freedom because we can really try things out there,” reveals co-founder Katharina. After all, a blog like this allows for many formats, from texts to images to films.
In December last year the time had finally come and her blog went online after several months of planning and preparation. Since then, the five original blog editors have become eleven, who use a sophisticated system to provide the blog with new material twice a week. Every week there is a net find of the week, which can be pretty much anything that is in the orbit of literature, digitization or digitized literature: regardless of whether it is studies on the topics of digital humanism , e-books in Germany , or book prize candidates or the role of Amazon . In addition to the online find, there is a longer article every week and the only requirement there is that it has something to do with digital literature.
Each of the bloggers has their own approach and thematic preferences. Katharina, for example, is primarily interested in independent publishers, literary prizes and their online offerings, while Olga is interested in eBooks and book trailers and Kristina in new software. When the eleven then meet every two months for their editorial meeting, they discuss the various topic ideas and debates and which of them might be interesting for the blog.
Because each week someone different from the eleven students is responsible for either the online discovery , the article or the editing, the blog can be easily combined with their master's degree in literature and media practice. In principle, everyone only has to worry about a contribution or planning every few weeks. So if one of the bloggers has exams, exams, work, etc. coming up, that's no problem, someone else will just step in.
So far, the fellow students are doing quite well with their blog, and they are even allowed to present it at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 11, 2014. As part of the Forum Zukunft Arena Digital 2014 ideas competition, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association is organizing a series of discussions on the topic of “Digital Present – Literary Studies Today” and asked Digitur if they would like to be involved.
The bloggers at Digitur have already heard from various “players” from the literary world and science that it’s great that they don’t close their eyes to digitalization and how it influences literature. Because one thing is clear: the book market is changing, but it is unlikely that people will stop reading. So it's not about the end of the book, it's more like a new beginning for literature.
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The end of the book!? Digitalization and the Internet are often decried as the end of the book market. There are countless examples that prove the opposite. They show that literature and the Internet are not mutually exclusive, but rather enrich each other. The students Olga (25), Katharina (25), Sabrina (26), Esther (26) and Kristina (24) also thought so
