In Murphy’s article, “Books are Dead, Long Live Books,” she argues that books will not be fully replaced with new mediums. Murphy first references Octave Uzanne and his statement in 1894 in which he spoke about his fear of the phonograph overruling print. She analyzes the depth of how books are new technology relate with one another. In response to the reoccurring fear of book disappearance Murphy says, “Books are finally, intricately interrelated to the rest of the media system –economically, socially, intellectually, even symbolically; and those who have envisioned ore feared their wholesale removal from the system have generally underestimated that involvement” (p. 9). She gives several past examples of convergence and how despite the growth of these mediums the books have never been fully pushed away.

Murphy discusses the three past assumptions of the future book that display books influence to show how the book’s role in relation to other mediums in Dan Lacy’s 1957 discussion.

In the first assumption Murphy briefly discusses readers media preference in relation to money and time. Murphy spoke of an author that gave the audience the option to purchase a book as a paperback or receive it for free online. Although other mediums are being presented they are not usually received unless they are worth spending time and a certain amount of money.

The second assumption recognizes that the reader will not choose the new medium            over print unless the new medium creates a better version of the original print

medium. Most individuals are not as dependent on the newer medium because it has not created a greater and more convenient alternative that caters to the reader’s individual needs in every way. Murphy says, “Even though Uzanne was able to ponder the change in status of authors with good voices, he could not anticipate radio’s dependence on the automobile for survival” (p. 8). She argues that people will still buy books because the new mediums can be dependent upon books themselves.

The third assumption presents the idea that each medium has a specific function and purpose that result in greater use if they are similar. Some mediums as mentioned before are reliant upon one another for popular use because they do have different serving purposes. This is only seen if culture recognizes the aspects and affects these mediums such as television, computer, and print hold.

Murphy referenced and presented what considered to be a “reading-woman,” and I was wondering how this was significant in her argument. Also, Murphy briefly mentioned that socioeconomic class helped determine how much one would read but it was not discussed further. How did this help or how could this have helped her argument?