In the face of brand-new digital media, is the printed word becoming obsolete?
Kate Wilson, managing director of independent children’s publisher Nosy Crow, believes firmly that the answer is no. “The death of print has been greatly exaggerated,” she said, speaking at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival last week. That doesn’t mean digital media is irrelevant.
Alongside author Kate Pullinger, Wilson explored the impact that new forms of media are having on readers, and how print and digital media can coexist. The rapid expansion of digital media means that children have more ways to access story than ever before. Ebooks, online content, smartphone apps – and, of course, the faithful old picture book, which is unlikely to disappear any time soon.
Making content that will both engage and enrich a child’s learning experience is just as much of a challenge as figuring out how to sell e-readers to adults. The concept of “gamification”, or using game mechanics to engage an audience, has the potential to change the way children learn. It has already been demonstrated as a tool to change people’s behaviour, such as the “piano stairs” designed by The Fun Theory.
As well as consuming media, children are increasingly able to create their own content in a digital world. Pullinger, creator of digital adventure Inanimate Alice, described how a group of “hard-to-reach” 17-year-olds created their own episode of the story and shared it online. The boom in vanity publishing sites such as Lulu.com has also provided children with the ability to create their own books.
Wilson believes that no matter what form fiction takes, children will always be fascinated by it, as humans are “hardwired for story”. As long as writers, publishers, and creators can keep up with the rapid pace of technology, children will keep paying attention. As Wilson concluded: “I do not want reading to be the most boring thing a child can do on a screen.”
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