Blog #10

·       What did people like P.T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Body contribute to the development of modern public relations in the 20th century?

Phineas Taylor Barnum was the most notorious press agent of the 1800s, who used gross exaggeration, fraudulent stories, and staged events to secure newspaper coverage for his clients; his American Museum; and later his circus. It was called “The Greatest Show on Earth,” included the “midget” General Tom Thumb, Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, Jumbo the Elephant, and Joice Heth. These performers became some of the earliest nationally known celebrities because of Barnum’s skill in using the media for promotion. William F. Cody, who once killed buffalo for the railroads, promoted himself and his traveling show: “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West nd Congress of Rough Riders of the World.” Burke was one of the first press agents to use a wide variety of media channels to generate publicity: promotional newspaper stories, magazine articles and ads, dime novels, theater marquees, poster art, and early films. Burke and Buffalo Bill shaped many of the lasting myths about rugged American individualism and frontier expansion that were later adopted by books, radio programs, and Hollywood films about the American West. With Barnum, they were among the first to use publicity- a type of PR communication that uses various media messages to spread information about a person, corporation, issue, or policy-to elevate entertainment culture to an international level.

·       How did railroads and utility companies give the early forms of corporate public relations a bad name?

In the 1800s, America’s largest industrial companies, particularly the railroads. The railroads began to use press agents to help them obtain federal funds. Initially, local business raised funds to finance the spread of rail service. However, the railroads began pushing for federal subsidies, complaining the local fund-raising efforts took too long. The railroad press agents successfully gained government support by developing some of the earliest publicity tactics. Their first strategy was simply to buy favorable news stories about rail travel from newspapers through direct bribes. Another practice was to engage in deadheading-giving reporters free rail passes with the tacit understanding that they would write glowing reports about rail travel. Wealthy railroads received the federal subsidies they wanted and increased their profits, while the American public shouldered much of the financial burden of rail expansion. The larger rail companies turned their attention to bigger game-persuading the government to control rates and reduce competition, especially from smaller, aggressive regional lines. Railroad lobbyists argued that federal support would lead to improved service and guaranteed quality because the government would be keeping a close watch. These lobbying efforts, accompanied by favorable publicity, led to passage of the Interstate Commerce Act in 1851 authorizing railroads “to revamp their freight classification, raise rates, and eliminate fare reduction. The PR campaigns success actually led to the decline of the railroads. Utility companies such as Chicago Edison and AT&T also used PR strategies in the late 1800s to derail competition and eventually attain monopoly status. In addition to buying the votes of key lawmakers, the utilities hired third-party editorial services, which would send favorable articles about utilities to newspapers, assigned company managers to become leaders to community groups, produced ghostwritten articles, and influenced textbook authors to write histories favorable to the utilities.

·       What are two approaches to organizing a PR firm?

The PRSA, The Public Relations Society of America, offers this simple and useful definition of PR: “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” Firstly, there are independent PR agencies whose sole job is to provide clients with PR services. Secondly, most companies, which may or may not also hire the independent PR firms, maintain their own in-house PR staffs to handle routine tasks, as writing press releases, managing various media requests, staging special events, and dealing with internal and external publics.

·       What are press releases and why are they important to reporters?

Press releases are announcements written in the style of news reports that give new information about an individual, a company, or an organization and pitch a story idea to the news media. PR agents hope that their client information will be picked up by the news media and transformed into news reports. PR firm manages the flow of information, controlling which media get what material in which order. News editors and broadcasters sort through hundreds of releases daily to determine which ones contain the most original ideas or are the most current. Most large media institutions rewrite and double-check the releases, but small media companies often use them verbatim because of limited editorial resources. The more closely a press release resembles actual news copy, the more likely it is to be used.

·       What is the difference between VNR and PSA?

Video News Releases (VNRs)-thirty-to ninety-second visual press releases designed to mimic the style of a broadcast news report. Networks and large TV news stations do not usually broadcast VNRs, news stations in small TV markets regularly use material from VNRs. News stations have been criticized for using video footage from a VNR without acknowledging the source. Public service announcements (PSAs) fifteen-to sixty second audio or video reports that promote government programs, educational projects, volunteer agencies, or social reform. As part of their requirement to serve the public interest, broadcasters have been encouraged to carry free PSAs. When PSAs do run, they are frequently scheduled between midnight and 6 a.m., a less commercially valuable time slot.

·       What special events might a PR firm sponsor to build stronger ties to its community?

Companies have learned that sustaining close ties with their communities and neighbors not only enhances their image and attracts potential customers but also promotes the idea that the companies are good citizens. PR firms encourage companies to participate in community activities such as hosting plant tours and open houses, making donations to national and local charities, and participating in town events like parades and festivals. More progressive companies may also get involved in unemployment and job-retraining programs, or donate equipment and workers to urban revitalization projects such as Habitat for Humanity. PR has become much more sophisticated since 1965, when Ralph Nader’s groundbreaking book, Unsafe at Any Speed, revealed safety problems concerning the Chevrolet Corvair. After the success of Nader’s book, along with a growing public concern over corporate mergers and their lack of accountability to the public, consumers became less willing to readily accept the claims of corporations. PR specialists responded by encouraging companies to pay more attention to customers, establish product service and safety guarantees, and ensure that all calls and mail from customers were answered promptly. 

·       Why have research and lobbying become increasingly important to the practice of PR?

The government PR specialists monitor new and existing legislation, create opportunities to ensure favorable publicity, and write press releases and direct-mail letters to persuade the public about the pros and cons of new regulations. Government relations has developed into lobbying: the process of attempting to influence lawmakers to support and vote for an organization’s or industry’s best interests. Some lobbyists contact government officials on a daily basis. There are about thirteen thousand registered lobbyists, in Washington D.C., alone. Lobbying expenditures targeting the federal government rose above $3.3 billion in 2011, up from $1.64 billion ten years earlier. Ethical problems can often lead from lobbying, as in the case of earmarks and astroturf lobbying. Earmarks are specific spending directives that are slipped into bills to accommodate the interests of lobbyists and are often the result of political favors or outright bribes.

·       How does the Internet change the way in which public relations communicates with an organization's many publics?

Public relations practitioners have tried to earn news media coverage to communicate their clients’ messages to the public. The internet, with its instant accessibility, offers public relations professionals a number of new routes for communicating with public. A company or organization’s Web site has become the home base of public relations efforts. Companies and organizations can upload and maintain their media kits, giving the traditional news media access to the information at any time. The barriers between the organization and the groups that PR professionals ultimately want to reach are broken down. The web enables PR professionals to have their clients interact with audiences on a more personal, direct basis through social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, and blogs. Corporate executives can share their professional and personal observations and seem downright chummy through a blog. Executives, celebrities, and politicians can seem more accessible and personable through a Twitter feed. But social media’s immediacy can also be a problem, especially for those who send messages into the public sphere without considering the ramifications. Another concern about social media is that sometimes such communications appear without complete disclosure, which is an unethical practice. A growing number of companies also compensate bloggers to subtly promote their products, unbeknownst to most readers. Internet analytic tools enable organizations to monitor what is being said about them at any time. The immediacy of social media also means that public relations officials might be forced to quickly respond to a message or image once it goes viral.

·       Explain the historical background of the antagonism between journalism and public relations.

The relationship between journalism and PR is important and complex. Journalism lays claim to independent traditions, the news media have become ever more reliant on public relations because of the increasing amount of information now available. Another cause of tension is the PR firms often raid the ranks of reporting for new talent because most press releases are written to imitate news reports, the PR profession has always sought good writers who are well connected to sources and savvy about the news business. Although reporters frequently move into PR, public relations practitioners seldom move into journalism; the news profession rarely accepts prodigal sons or daughters back into the fold once they have left reporting for public relations. The professions remain co-dependent: PR needs journalists for publicity, and journalism needs PR for story ideas and access. PR by making reporters’ jobs easier, has often enabled reporters to become lazy. PR firms now supply what reporters used to gather for themselves. Instead of trying to get a scoop, many journalists have become content to wait for a PR handout or a good tip before following up on a story.

·       Overall, are social platforms a good thing for practicing public relations, or do they present more problems than they are worth?

Social platforms don’t seem to be a good thing for practicing public relations. Journalism’s most prevalent criticism or public relations is that it works to counter the truths reporters seek to bring to the public. Journalists have also objected that PR professionals block press access to key business leaders, political figures, and other newsworthy people. Reporters could talk to such leaders directly and obtain quotable information for their news stories, before the prevalence of PR. Journalists complain that PR agents insert themselves between the press and the newsworthy, thus disrupting the journalistic tradition in which reporters would vie for interviews with top government and business leaders. Journalists also argue that PR agents are now able to manipulate reporters by giving exclusives to journalists who are likely to cast a story in a favorable light or by cutting off a reporter’s access to a newsworthy figure altogether if that reporter has written unfavorably about the PR agency’s client in the past.

·       Considering the Exxon Valdez, BP, and Tylenol cases in this chapter, what are some key things an organization can do to respond effectively once a crisis hits?

An important duty of public relations is helping a corporation handle a public crisis or tragedy, especially if the public assumes the company is at fault. Disaster management may reveal the best and the worst attributes of the company and its PR firm. For example, one of the largest environmental disasters of the twentieth century occurred in 1989, Exxon Valdez spilled eleven million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, contaminating fifteen hundred miles of Alaskan coastline and killing countless birds, otters, seals and fish. Exxon was slow to react to the crisis and even slower to accept responsibility. Another example was the Tylenol pain-relief capsules, seven people died after someone tampered with several bottles and laced them with poison. Its PR representatives focused on whether or not withdrawing all Tylenol capsules from stores. As part of its PR strategy to overcome the negative publicity and to restore Tylenol’s market share, Burson-Marsteller tracked public opinion nightly through telephone surveys and organized satellite press conferences to debrief the news media. Emergency phone lines were set up to take calls from consumers and health-care providers. When the company reintroduced Tylenol three months later, it did so with tamper-resistant bottles. The public thought Johnson & Johnson had responded admirably to the crisis and did not hold Tylenol responsible for the deaths.

Blog #9

·       Whom did the first ad agents serve?

Little need existed for elaborate advertising, as few goods and products were even available for sale until the 1830s. The percentage of Americans who lived in isolated areas and produced most of their own tools, clothes, and food was 90 percent. The first American advertising agencies were newspaper space brokers, individuals who purchased space in newspapers and sold it to various merchants. Newspapers, accustomed to a 25 percent nonpayment rate from advertisers, welcomed the space brokers, who paid upfront. Fifteen to thirty percent, brokers usually received discounts but sold the space to advertisers at the going rate. In 1841, Volney Palmer opened a prototype of the first ad agency in Boston; for a 25 percent commission from newspaper publishers, he sold space to advertisers.

·       How did packaging and trademarks influence advertising?

In the mid-1800s, most manufacturers served retail store owners, who usually set their own prices by purchasing goods in large quantities. However, came to realize that if their products were distinctive and associated wit quality, customers would ask for them by name. This allowed manufacturers to dictate prices without worrying about being undersold by stores’ generic products or bulk items. Advertising let manufacturers establish a special identity for their products, separate from those of their competitors. The nineteenth-century advertisements often created the impression of significant differences among products when in fact very few differences actually existed. Consumers began demanding certain products-either because of quality or because of advertising-manufacturers were able to raise the prices of their goods. With ads creating and maintaining brand-name recognition, retail stores had to stock the desired brands. Smith Brothers, has been advertising cough drops since the early 1850s. Quaker Oats, the first cereal company to register a trademark, has used the image of William Penn, the Quaker who founded Pennsylvania in 1681, to project a company image of honesty, decency, and hard work since 1877. Many of these companies packaged their products in small quantities, thereby distinguishing them from the generic products sold in large barrels and bins. Product differentiation associated with brand-name packaged goods represents the single biggest triumph of advertising.

·       What role did advertising play in transforming America into a consumer society?

United States advertising became more pervasive, it contributed to major social changes in the twentieth century. It significantly influenced the transition from a producer-directed to a consumer-driven society. By stimulating demand for new products, advertising helped manufacturers create new markets and recover product start-up costs quickly. Advertising spread the word-first in newspapers and magazines and later on radio and television, from farms to cities. Advertising promoted technological advances by showing how new machines, such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and cars, could improve daily life. Advertising encouraged economic growth by increasing sales. To meet the demand generated by ads, manufacturers produced greater quantities, which reduced their costs per unit, although they did not always pass these savings along to consumers.

·       What influences did visual culture exert on advertising?

As a postmodern design phase developed in art and architecture during the 1960s and 1970s, a new design era began to affect advertising at the same time. Visual revolution was imported from non-U.S. schools of design; indeed, ad-rich magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair increasingly hired European designers as art directors. By the early 1970s, agencies had developed teams of writers and artists, thus granting equal status to images and words in the creative process. By the mid-1980s, the visual techniques of MTV, which initially modeled its style on advertising, influenced many ads and most agencies. MTV promoted a particular visual aesthetic-rapid edits, creative camera angles, compressed narratives, and staged performances. Video-style ads soon saturated television and featured such prominent performers as Paula Abdul, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Elton John, and Madonna. The Internet and multimedia devices, such as computers, mobile phones, and portable media players have had a significant impact on visual design in advertising. The Web became a mass medium in the 1990s, TV and print designs often mimicked the drop-down menu of computer interfaces. Visual design has evolved in other ways, becoming more three-dimensional and interactive, as full-motion, 3-D animation becomes a high-bandwidth multimedia standard. At the same time, design is also simpler, as ads and logos need to appear clearly on the small screens of smartphones and portable media players, and more international, as agencies need to appeal to the global audiences of many companies and therefore need to reflect styles from around the world.

·       What are the advantages of Internet and mobile advertising over traditional media like newspapers and television?

Internet ads offer many advantages to advertisers, compared to ads in traditional media outlets like newspapers, magazines, radio or television. The biggest advantage is that marketers can develop consumer profiles that direct targeted ads to specific Web site visitors. They do this by collecting information about each Internet user through cookies and online surveys. When an ESPN.com contest requires you to fill out a survey to be eligible to win sports tickets, or when washingtonpost.com requires that you create an account for free access to the site, marketers use that information to build a profile about you. The cookies they attach to your profile allow them to track your activities on a certain site. Internet advertising agencies can also track ad impressions and click-throughs. This provides advertisers with much more specific data on the number of people who not only viewed the ad but also showed real interest by clicking on it. Online ads are more beneficial because they are more precisely targeted and easily measured. An advertiser can use Google AdWords to create small ads that are linked to selected key words and geographic targeting. Smartphones offer effective targeting to individuals, as does Internet advertising, but they also offer advertisers the bonus of tailoring ads according to either a specific geographic location, or the user demographic, since wireless providers already have that information.

·       How does the association principle work, and why is it an effective way to analyze advertising?

American car advertisements have shown automobiles in natural settings-on winding roads that cut through rugged mountain passes or across shimmering wheat fields but rarely on congested city streets or in other urban settings where most driving actually occurs. This type of advertising is called association principle, it is a persuasive technique used in most consumer ads that associates a product with a positive cultural value or image even if it has little consumer ads that associates a product with a positive cultural value or image even if it has little connection to the product. Many ads displayed visual symbols of American patriotism in the wake of the 9/11 terroritst attacks in an attempt to associate products and companies with national pride. In trying “to convince us that there’s an innate relationship between a brand name and an attitude,” advertising may associate products with nationalism, happy families, success at school or work, natural scenery, freedom or humor. More controversial uses of the association principle has been the linkage of products to stereotyped caricatures of women. Women have been portrayed either as sex objects or as clueless housewives who, during many a daytime TV commercial, needed the powerful off-screen voice of a male narrator to instruct them in their own kitchens. The association principle is to claim that products are “real: and “natural” possibly the most familiar adjectives associated with advertising. Marlboro brand used the association principle to completely transform its product image.

·       What is product placement? Cite examples.

Product companies and ad agencies have become adept in recent years at product placement, which is strategically placing ads or buying spaces in movies, TV shows, comic books, and most recently video games, blogs and music videos so products appear as part of a stories set environment. In 2009, Starbucks became a naming sponsor of MSNBC’s show Morning Joe which now includes “Brewed by Starbucks” in its logo(page,403). In 2011, Transformers; Dark Side of the Moon had the most product placements of any film that year with sixty-nine, including deals with and references to NASA, Fox News, Apple, Mercedes-benz, Ferrari, Nokia, Adidas, Nike, and Starbucks (page, 403). Product placement has gotten out of hand for many critics. It started out as subtle appearances in realistic settings-like Reese’s Pieces in the 1982 movie E.T. has now turned into Coca-Cola being almost an honorary “cast member” on Fox’s American Idol set.

·       What is the difference between puffery and deception in advertising? How can the FTC regulate deceptive ads?

The FTC, through its truth-in advertising rules, has played an investigative role in substantiating the claims of various advertisers. A certain amount of puffery-ads featuring hyperbole and exaggeration-has usually been permitted, particularly when a product says it is “new and improved.” Ads become deceptive when they are likely to mislead reasonable consumers based on statements in the ad or because they omit information. When a product claims to be “the best,” “the greatest,” or “preferred by four out of five doctors,” FTC rules require scientific evidence to back up the claims. A typical example of deceptive advertising is the Campbell Soup ad in which marbles in the bottom of a soup bowl forced more bulky ingredients-and less water-to the surface. A 1990 Volvo commercial featured a monster truck driving over a line of cars and crushing all but the Volvo; the company later admitted that the Volvo had been specially reinforced and the other cars’ support columns had been weakened. The FTC, in 2003, brought enforcement actions against companies marketing the herbal weight-loss supplement ephedra. Ephedra has a long-standing connection to elevated blood pressure, strokes, and heart attacks and has contributed to numerous deaths. When the FTC discovers deceptive ads, it usually requires advertisers to change them or remove them from circulation. The FTC can also impose monetary civil penalties for companies, and it occasionally requires to run spots to correct the deceptive ads.

·       What are some of the major issues involving poltical advertising?

Political consultants have been imitating market-research and advertising techniques to sell their candidates, giving rise to political advertising, the use of ad techniques to promote a candidates image and persuade the public to adopt a particular viewpoint. Politicians running for major offices either bought or were offered half-hour blocks of time to discuss their views and the issues of the day. Only very wealthy or well-funded candidates can afford such promotional strategies, and television does not usually provide free airtime to politicians. Although broadcasters use the public’s airwaves, they have long opposed providing free time for political campains and issues, since political advertising is big business for television stations. TV broadcasters earned $400 million in 1996 and took in more than $1.5 billion from political ads during the presidential and congressional elections in 2004. In 2012, more than $1.1 billion alone went to local broadcast TV stations in the twelve most highly contested states, with local cable raking in another $200 million in those states.

·       What role does advertising play in a democratic society?

Advertising’s ubiquity, especially in the age of social media, raises serious questions about our privacy and the ease with which companies can gather data on our consumer habits, but an even more serious issue is the influence of ads on our lives as democratic citizens. Commercialism-through packaging both products and politicians has generated cultural feedback that is often critical of advertising’s pervasiveness, the growth of the industry has not diminished. A number of factors have made possible advertising’s largely unchecked growth. Many Americans tolerate advertising as a “necessary evil” for maintaining the economy, but many dismiss advertising as not believable and trivial. Unwilling to downplay its centrality to global culture, many citizens do not think advertising is significant enough to monitor or reform. We have developed an uneasy relationship with advertising. Favorite ads and commercial jingles remain part of our cultural world for a lifetime, but we detest irritating and repetitive commercials. We should remain critical of what advertising has come to represent: the overemphasis on commercial acquisitions and images of material success, and the disparity between those who can afford to live comfortable in a commercialized society and those who cannot.

Blog #8

·       Why was the printing press such an important and revolutionary invention?

Between 1453 and 1456, in Germany, Gutenberg used the principles of movable type to develop a mechanical printing press, which he adapted from the design of wine presses. Gutenberg’s staff of printers produced the first so-called modern books, including two hundred copies of a Latin Bible, twenty-one copies of which still exist. The Gutenberg Bible required six presses, many printers, and several months to produce, it was printed on a fine calfskin-based parchment called vellum. In the late 1400s and early 1500s, the printing press spread rapidly across Europe. Canterbury Tales by Chaucer became the first English work to be printed in book form. The social and cultural transformations ushered in by the spread of printing presses and books cannot be overestimated. When people could learn for themselves by using maps, dictionaries, Bibles, and the writings of others, they could differentiate themselves as individuals; their social identities were no longer solely dependent on what their leaders told them or on the habits of their families, communities, or social class. The technology of the printing press permitted information and knowledge to spread outside local jurisdictions.

·       What has undermined the sales of printed and CD encyclopedias?

The sales of printed and CD encyclopedias were undermined by Encyclopedia Britannica, Encarta and The World Book Encyclopedia, which are now the leading online and CD-based encyclopedias. There is struggle today as young researchers are increasingly relying on search engines such as Google and Wikipedia.

·       What is the relationship between the book and movie industries?

Most authors are professional writers, the book industry also reaches out to famous media figures, who may pen a best-selling book or a commercial failure. Other ways publishers attempt to ensure popular success involve acquiring the rights to license popular film and television programs or experimenting with formats like audio and e-books. The two major facets in the relationship among books, television and film are how TV can help sell books and how books serve as ideas for TV shows and movies. With TV exposure, books by or about talk-show hosts, actors, and politicians such as Stephen Colbert, Julia Andrews, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton sell millions of copes-enormous sales in a business where 100,000 in sales constitutes remarkable success. One of the most influential forces in promoting books on TV was Oprah Winfrey. The film industry gets many of its story ideas from books, which results in enormous movie rights revenues for the book industry and its authors. The most profitable movie successes for the book industry in recent years emerged from fantasy works. For example, JK Rolwings best-selling Harry Potter books have become hugely popular movies. Books also inspired popular television programs, including Game of Thrones on HBO, Dexter on Showtime, etc. The television shows boosted the sales of the original books.

·       Why did the Kindle succeed in the e-book market where other devices had failed?

RCA and Sony, early portable reading devices, in the 1990s were criticized for being too heavy, too expensive, or too difficult to read, while their e-book titles were scarce and had little cost advantage over full-price hardcover books. In 2007, Amazon.com, the largest online bookseller, developed an e-reader (the Kindle) and an e-book store that seemed inspired by Apple’s music industry-changing iPod and iTunes. The first Kindle had an easy-on-the-eyes electronic paper display, held more than two hundred books, and did something no other device could do before: wire-lessly download e-books from Amazon’s online bookstore. Kindle devices are the best-selling products ever on Amazon. Apps have transformed the iPod Touch, iPhone, and other smartphones into e-readers. E-books, by 2012, became the best-selling adult fiction book format in the United States, accounting for 15 percent of all books sold. Projections indicate that the figure could increase to 50 percent of the market by 2015. As the market grows rapidly, several companies are vying to be the biggest seller of e-books.

·       What are the major issues in the debate over digitizing millions of books for Web search engines?

The major issues in the debate over digitizing millions of books for Web search engines include the digitizing millions of copyrighted books without permission. Also there was having too much power to profit over digitizing these books. The Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers initially sued Google for digitizing copyrighted books without permission. Google argued that displaying only a limited portion of the books was legal under “fair use” rules. A federal court struck down the agreement in 2011, arguing that it gave Google too much power to profit from millions of books for which Google didn’t first obtain copyright permission.

·       What's the difference between a book that is challenged and one that is banned?

As societies discovered the power associated with knowledge and the printed word, books were subjected to a variety of censors. Imposed by various rulers and groups intent on maintaining their authority, the censorship of books often prevented people from learning about the rituals and moral standards of other cultures. Political censors sought to banish “dangerous” books that promoted radical ideas or challenged conventional authority. Some versions of the Bible, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses have all been banned at one time or another. One of the triumphs of the Internet is that it allows the digital passage of banned books into nations where printed versions have been outlawed. The American library Association compiles a list of the most challenged books in the United States. A book challenge is a formal complaint to have a book removed from a public or school library’s collection. Common reasons for challenges include sexually explicit passages, offensive language, occult themes, violence, homosexual themes, promotion of a religious viewpoint, nudity, and racism. Some of the most challenged books of the past decade include I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

·       What was the impact of the growth of book superstores on the rest of the bookstore industry?

The steady growth of book publishing has been relatively modest. Total revenues went from $9 billion to about $27.9 billion, in the mid-1980s to 2011. The concept of who or what constitutes a publisher varies widely within the industry. A publisher may be a large company that is a subsidiary of a global media conglomerate and occupies an entire office building, or a one-person home office operation using a laptop computer. Since the 1960s and 1970s when CBS acquired Holt, Rinehart and Winston; Popular Library; and Fawcett-mergers and consolidations have driven the book industry. In 1998, Bertelsmann shook up the book industry by adding Random House, the largest U.S. book publisher, to its fold. With this $1.4 billion purchase, Bertelsmann gained control of about one-third of the U.S. trade book market and became the world’s largest publisher of English-language books. Simon and Schuster, Lagadere, HaperCollins and Macmillan are the five largest trade book publishers in the United States. From a corporate viewpoint executives have argued that large companies can financially support a number of smaller firms or imprints while allowing their editorial ideas to remain independent from the parent corporation. Book publishing continues to produce volumes on an enormous range of topics.

·       What are the concerns over Amazon's powerful role in determining book pricing and having its own publishing divisions?

Amazon.com is the trailblazer, it was established in 1995 by then-thirty year old Jeff Bezos, who left Wall Street to start a Web-based business. Jeff Bezos realized books were an untapped and ideal market for the Internet, with more than 3 million publications in print and plenty of distributors to fulfill orders. Amazon’s bigger objective for the book industry was to transform the entire industry itself, from one based on bound paper volumes to digital files. The Kindle introduction in 2007 made Amazon the fastest book delivery system in the world. Amazon quickly grew to control 90 percent of the e-book market, which it used as leverage to force book publishers to comply with their low prices or risk getting dropped from Amazon’s bookstore. Amazon’s price slashing resulted in most of the major trade book publishing corporations endorsing Apple’s agency-mode, pricing in which the publishers set the book prices and the digital bookseller gets a 30-percent commission. By 2012, Amazon’s share of the e-book market dropped from about 90 percent to about 60 percent. The booksellers responded that government investigators should have been more concerned about Amazon, which has grown to be one of the most powerful players in the publishing industry. A concern to publishers is that Amazon has been expanding into the field of traditional publishers with the establishment of Amazon publishing, which has grown rapidly since 2009. A publishing arm that can sign authors to book contracts, the Amazon store’s distribution, and millions of Kindle devices in the hands of readers.

·       What is Andrew Carnegie's legacy in regard to libraries in the United States and elsewhere?

Large book conglomerates and superstores dominate the book industry; there are still alternative options for both publishing and selling books. An alternative idea is to make books freely available to everyone; this idea is not a new one. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, industrialist Andrew Carnegie used millions of dollars from his vast steel fortune to build more than twenty-five hundred public libraries in the United States, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. Andrew Carnegie believed that libraries created great learning opportunities for citizens, and especially for immigrants like himself. Public libraries may be some of the best venues for alternative voices-where a myriad of ideas exist side by side.