This week I came across a short article titled, “The Fallacy of the ‘Print is Dead’ Meme”, by Michael Josefowicz. Josefowicz, a veteran of the print media industry, explains that the ‘Print is Dead’ is a meme that is generally perpetuated on a basis of anecdotal generalization by a small but very vocal group of ‘info-junkies,’ who constantly scour the web for up-to-the-minute news and obscure information. Being an ‘info-junkie’ myself, I’m intrigued but skeptical of any argument favoring print media and wonder what it means for video game media.
One of Josefowicz’ most telling arguments is that the “Print is Dead” meme grew prevalent during a “disruptive change in the communication ecology.” In other words, due to the rapid change in how information is exchanged, certain individuals benefitted by garnering a larger audience while others gradually lost their audience. Assuming the shift in audience size is not a result of better or worse content, this is an effect of certain people manipulating the digital pathways of information better than others. New media evangelists benefit from this and defend their newfound digital pathways in any way they can… hence their argument that digital media is putting all other forms of communication to bed.
Continue reading Is Video Game Print Media Dying or Evolving?