Digital Commons Network^™

Eco-Publishing In The Book Industry: An Interdisciplinary Case Study With Patagonia Books, Julie A. Collins

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

The purpose of this study is to explore eco-publishing in the book industry with an interdisciplinary approach: I will address eco-trends in human movements and essential industries; provide an overview of the book industry’s recent efforts to determine their environmental impact; and explore eco-publishing in practice by presenting findings from a case study of Patagonia Books featuring an interview with their publisher Karla Olson. This analysis of environmentalism on a broad scale gives us the ability to see how trends outside the industry may affect how we define the goals of publishing, and of particular publishing houses. Patagonia Books is …

Policing Politics: Facebook And A Politician's Right To Free Speech, Adewunmi Adedji, Nisha Hemantha Raju, Jennifer Wagner, Alfonso Herrero, Matthew Johnson

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Advancements in technology are not without their own ethical concerns. Social media technology provides for platforms which allow users to interact and exchange ideas in virtual communities. Of these Facebook is among the leaders of the pack with an estimated 2.7 billion monthly active users globally as of the second quarter of 2020 and estimated 190 million users in the United States as of October 2020.

This wide reach, in combination with low cost for advertisement makes it one of the platforms of choice for Organization to promote their products, services or agenda. This accounts for why 98% of the …

The Scicommdiversity Travel Fellowship: The Challenge Of Creating A Sustainable Intervention, Alberto I. Roca, Cynthia-Lou Coleman, Tara S. Haelle, Danielle N. Lee

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Diversifying a community requires outreach, recruitment, and retention which in this case targets the science communication (SciComm) workforce. Establishing a strategy to accomplish such diversification includes designing, launching, and sustaining the new intervention. Here we review the 6-years history of the DiverseScholar SciCommDiversity Travel Fellowship. This intervention was designed to build a community of minority science communicators that would interact with experienced professionals at the ScienceWriters conference. The travel fellowship reduces the financial burden of conference attendance while introducing the fellows to mentors who facilitate networking and knowledge-building during the event’s professional development opportunities. The first two years of the …

The Role Of Perceptual Simulation In L2 Vocabulary Acquisition, Min Zhu, L. David Ritchie

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research in embodied cognition suggests that perceptual simulation may play a role in language comprehension. In this study we use a combination of experimental and qualitative research to explore the potential of simulation exercises to improve acquisition of esoteric literary English vocabulary by English majors at a Chinese University. Through quantitative analysis of the data from one pre-test and two post-tests of the experimental and control groups, and qualitative examination of the student feedback collected from an open-ended survey and face-to-face interviews, we find that most of the students in both conditions have simulations of the learned words whether based …

Spatial Politics And Literacy: An Analysis Of Little Free Libraries And Neighborhood Distribution Of Book-Sharing Depositories In Portland, Oregon And Detroit, Michigan, Desiree Wilson

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

The purpose of this research is to interrogate whether Free Little Libraries (LFL), the largest branded book-sharing movement in the world, continues to uphold its currently stated mission to provide book access to communities where book accessibility is low (determined by how many estimated books are in each household). Though the Little Free Library nonprofit has flourished in the decade since it was founded, indicating a fondness and appreciation for the Little Library as an idea and neighborhood ornament alike, critics of the organization have raised multiple concerns about whether the library boxes provide service to those who need them. …

Ethics And True Crime: Setting A Standard For The Genre, Hazel Wright

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

True crime is a genre that has existed for centuries, adapting to social and literary trends as they come and go. The 21st century, particularly in the last five years, has seen true crime explode in popularity across different forms of media. As the omnipresence of true crime grows, so to do the ethical dilemmas presented by this often controversial genre. This paper examines what readers perceive to be the common ethical problems with true crime and uses this information to create a preliminary ethical standard for true-crime literature.

A comparison of the ethical concerns raised in scholarly sources with …

A Major Motion Picture Or Just A Picture? An Analysis In Movie Tie-Ins Vs. Original Cover Art, Vivian Nguyen

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

It has been believed that the needs of consumers who are primarily readers versus moviegoers greatly differ; those who are readers are more likely to purchase a book that features the original cover art, while those who are mostly moviegoers gravitate toward movie tie-in covers. This paper examines the accuracy behind that belief by calculating the number of book sales from NPD BookScan, as well as collecting survey data from participants across all reading activity levels.

Analysis revealed that though there is a slight difference in amount of preference based on reading group, overall participants overwhelmingly preferred the original cover …

Pottermore, A Case Study: What Publishers Can Learn About Developing Interactive Transmedia In The Post-Web Age, Megan Crayne

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

15 years after the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling’s magical world would be transformed into an interactive, playable website called simply Pottermore. It included all the elements that dominate successful interactive transmedia: exclusive narrative content that brought readers into the storyworld, spaces for members to create and build virtual communities, interactive gameplay, and additional forms of transmedia available for purchase. Then in 2015, Pottermore Publishing launched a major redesign of Pottermore in the face of declining eBook and audiobook sales.

By comparing and contrasting the three versions of Pottermore (Old, New, and now Wizarding …

Beloved And The Water Dancer: A Longitudinal Study Of Book Reviews From 1987 And 2019, Tiffany Watson

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

There is a trail of profoundly pessimistic opinions on the state of book reviews and critics from Lorentzen to Hardwick to Marshall and McCarthy to Poe to Pope.

In earlier drafts, I tapped into that same despair. I considered calling this essay "The Death of the Book Reviewer". I must admit I was committed to the allusion more than to the truth of such a statement. Because, as I read each essay which laid out the faults of the then most-recent form of book reviewing, I came to the conclusion that if the book reviewer is to die, it is …

Identifying And Connecting With Diverse Sff Readers, Denise Morales Soto

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

Science fiction and fantasy is one of the most abundant genres today, projected to gross $590.2 million in the adult fiction market in the year 2020. However, despite its growing popularity and its large reader base, it still predominantly caters to white men; something that could be detrimental to the industry. This paper aimed to show how science fiction and fantasy (SFF) publishers can learn more about their non-white reader demographic and how they can potentially increase their interaction with their diverse audiences. I conducted a study of social media interaction by compiling Twitter posts over the course of four …

Lifecycles Of Digital Files And Staff Labor At Ooligan Press In Portland, Oregon, Kathi Inman Berens

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

This Sidebar is an overview of the human process of creating, sorting, storing and preserving digital files in the lifecycle of one book made by Portland State University's Ooligan Press. Ooligan is a teaching press staffed by students pursuing master's degrees in the Department of English.