E-readers and the death of the book: or, new media and the myth of the disappearing medium

Ballatore, Andrea and Natale, S. (2016) E-readers and the death of the book: or, new media and the myth of the disappearing medium. New Media & Society 18 (10), pp. 2379-2394. ISSN 1461-4448.

Abstract

The recent emergence of e-readers and e-books has b rought the death of the book to the centre of current debates on new media. In this article, we a nalyse alternative narratives that surround the possibility of the disappearance of print books, do minated by fetishism, fears about the end of humanism, and ideas of techno-fundamentalist progre ss. We argue that, in order to comprehend such narratives, we need to inscribe them in the br oader history of media. The emergence of new media, in fact, has often been accompanied by narra tives about the possible disappearance of older media: the introduction of television, for in stance, inspired claims about the forthcoming death of film and radio. As a recurrent narrative s haping the reception of media innovation, the myth of the disappearing medium helps us to make se nse of the transformations that media change provokes in our everyday life.

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