Why Paper Is Eternal - Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press ...

My tables,
My tables – meet it is I set it down
That one may smile and smile and be a villain.
At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark.
[He writes] 53
That people still wrote by hand after the advent of printing is not
remarkable. After all, there was no pocket version of Gutenberg’s press that
they could carry around with them. For any literate person, writing was still
absolutely necessary. The point is that it became even more essential after
print’s arrival, and played a major role in the evolution and culture of that
technology. As I shall argue, something quite similar is happening right now
with paper and digital media.
Hamlet’s tables reflect two other truths about people and their media
that are as relevant today as 400 years ago. We have seen that new technologies
do not necessarily eliminate old ones, at least not as quickly or predictably as is
often assumed. However, when new modes of communication arrive, they do
often change the role played by the existing media. Television did not kill off
radio, but it did change the way radio figured in everyday life. Up until the early
1950s, the radio was a focal point of the American household. Families
gathered around it to hear news, sports, political speeches, musical
performances, comedy and variety shows, and other fare. By the early 1960s,
television had taken over this domestic role, while radio, no longer a habitual
gathering place, had become a secondary medium used for specific purposes –
a favorite morning show or the baseball game that isn’t televised. At the same
time, radio found a place outside the home where it could once again be a focal
point for entertainment and news: the automobile.
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