Chapter 3 - Books

Credits go to Gutenburg and his printing press for allowing the mass production of printing to take place. This allowed for books to be the first mass medium, in specific the bible. After the mass production of the Bible, other books were printed and distributed which increased the number of literate individuals.They are a powerful cultural force as they are agents of social and cultural change, important cultural repositories, windows on the past, a source of entertainment and a much personal activity than other mediums. Because of these reasons books are often targeted to be censored. However aliteracy, when people are able to but choose not to read, does the censoring on behalf of the government. Convergence, the process where two mediums are combined together to make one medium, has allowed for new authors to get their work out there through e-publishing such as e-books. Since books are one of the mediums where advertisement has extremely limited place for it, product placement in books is the main type of advertising.