An investigation into the practicality of using a digital camera\u27s raw data in print publishing applications

RAW file formats were introduced to the photography industry more than five years ago. However, not much information about their functionality, capabilities, or advantages in different situations has been made available. Some digital camera users are not aware of their existence and, if they were, they would not know what to do with them. RAW file formats functions are viewed as a concern of the professional photographer and not of the average user (Fraser, 2005). RAW file formats are unprocessed digital image data ? the type available from many current digital cameras. There is no standard RAW format. Each camera captures RAW data in a proprietary fashion. Thus, special camera-specific software is needed to access the RAW files. The widely used TIFF and JPEG file formats are processed within the camera right after shooting each image. TIFF files are uncompressed and therefore large. JPEG files are spatially compressed and smaller than TIFF files for images with the equivalent number of pixels. RAW file formats contain all the original data, uncompressed, with no adjustments to image sharpness, white balance, contrast, and saturation, but they are incomplete as images because they need to be processed using either proprietary software provided by the digital camera manufacturer or other software such as Adobe? Photoshop? CS. This study addresses the following research question: What is the real value, if any, of RAW file formats in magazine publishing? The author?s intention was to learn about RAW file formats and what is currently being claimed about their advantages and disadvantages. Photographing using RAW formats is like photographing with negative film, only in digital form. Using RAW formats is much like preserving the analog format workflow, where after all of the images are captured on film, the film is sent out for developing before we can see the image. Using RAW files is similar to this process, but it is done by the photographer using a computer and not a film-processing machine. To do this the photographer or processor needs software that can interpret the RAW format image. Research Method This research was exploratory in nature. Information was gathered from experts who have experimented with RAW file formats, who have had direct involvement with digital photography technology, and who have sought to discover its capabilities and its practicality in the real world. This thesis also discusses topics such as the various types of digital cameras suitable for publishing work. This study involved collecting data from interview sessions. Interviews were conducted with eight experts in the field of photography and publishing at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). (Interview questions are listed in Appendix I). Data analysis was based on information gathered during these interviews. From the collected information, a list was created of the potential advantages of Camera RAW workflows in magazine publishing applications. The conclusion addresses possible advantages, as well as the practicality of using Camera RAW data in magazine publishing applications. A set of guidelines for future Camera RAW workflow users is also provided. Conclusion Based on the findings from the interviews, it is concluded that RAW file format usage is currently impractical in the magazine publishing environment. The RAW workflow would not be practical for photojournalism, where speed is more important than the quality of the image. Time, cost, and demands from clients contribute to these changes. Because there is no standard RAW format and because the photographer must spend extra time to process the images, the RAW workflow does not address the needs of magazine publishing. It might be practical to use in the future, after the RAW format has been standardized, and the RAW workflow has been perfected. Endnotes for Abstract Fraser, B. (2005). Real World Camera Raw with Adobe? Photoshop? CS. California: Peachpit Press

What is the future of academic publishing?

The Chronicle of Higher Education is a weekly newspaper that gathers news and academic information throughout the United States, job opportunities for university majors, and a section devoted to art and ideas. It is published in Washington D.C. It has around 64,000 subscribers and over 315,000 readers. Its daily digital version adds to the paper issue, among other things, discussion forums and several tools directed to the academia. It has over 1,9 million monthly single visits. ‘What is the Future of Academic Publishing?’ is the title of a recent article in its digital version, part of a series –Digital Challenges to Academic Publishing– with a total of four interviews (to date) to different editors from the editorial world. It collects an interesting conversation with the publishing director of the MIT Press regarding the question. The interviewer begins querying about the fact that some personalities throughout the U.S. encourage researchers to publish their academic works in on-line media –such as blogs– without the need for a later publication on traditional media such as a book or a printed magazine

Re Magazine and the Politics of the Little Magazine

The little magazine played a widely significant role in the political and cultural history of Western civilization. Literary and ephemeral in nature, the little magazine gave birth to Modernism in the early 20th century by publishing the works of little known authors such as William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, and T.S. Eliot to name a few. Later, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America recognized the influential role of the little magazine and began funding magazines that spoke to the anti- communist left in Europe and in the Americas at the beginning of the Cold War. While the political weight of the little magazine has been largely recognized by scholars, the reasons for its unique ability to affect cultural and political movements have not been closely studied. The unique form of the printed magazine—its departmental structure, its binding, and its curation of diverse voices under a single theme or call to action—allowed editors and contributors to reframe the dialectics of the era. In the digital age, that form’s relevance has been questioned. Nonetheless, the printed magazine still plays a valuable role in modern culture and should not be abandoned simply because new forms arise. Re Magazine, a new publication that curates public domain content with striking relevance to current events, demonstrates the continued relevance of print in the digital age. A distillation of the elements that made little magazines influential in the 20th century, Re Magazine prompts readers to relive the past, and to reconsider the future

Brands in international and multi‐platform expansion strategies: economic and management issues

Powerful media branding has historically facilitated successful international expansion on the part of magazine and other content forms including film and TV formats. Multi-platform expansion is now increasingly central to the strategies of media companies and, as this chapter argues, effective use of branding in order to engage audiences effectively and to secure a prominent presence across digital platforms forms a core part of this. Drawing on original research into the experience of UK media companies, this chapter highlights some of the key economic, management and socio-cultural issues raised by the ever-increasing role of brands and branding in the strategies of international and multi-platform expansion that are increasingly common- place across media

Opportunities and Constraints for Independent Digital Magazine Publishing

Optimists have long hoped that digital communication would diversify media, but the realization of this dream is far from certain today. This study investigates the emerging opportunities available to independent magazine publishers through digital publishing methods, such as distributing their magazines through the Apple Newsstand. These publishing methods have the potential to diversify magazine publishing beyond the currently dominant offerings of major multinational magazine publishers. However, at the same time, a variety of limitations — software and design expertise, public awareness and interest, and technology companies’ constraints on publishers — may have already limited the ways these independent publishers can reach audiences. Through in-depth interviews with independent digital magazine publishers, this study illuminates the effects of these factors on these publishers’ efforts to offer varied new perspectives to the public within the digital magazine medium

City Magazine Editors and the Evolving Urban Information Environment

The urban information environment in which city magazines operate is changing dramatically, with the decline of local newspapers and the growth of user-generated local content. City magazine editors are re-envisioning their purpose as local information providers. This study provides a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with senior editors at 15 award-winning city magazines. The editors’ responses speak to the changing role of their publications today; the function of new technologies in informing local communities; and the public service that local journalism organizations offer in a constrained economic situation

Where Do Facts Matter? The Digital Paradox in Magazines\u27 Fact-Checking Practices

Print magazines are unique among nonfiction media in their dedication of staff and resources to in-depth, word-by-word verification of stories. Over time, this practice has established magazines’ reputation for reliability, helped them retain loyal readers amid a glut of information sources, and protected them from litigation. But during the past decade, websites, mobile platforms, and social media have expanded the types of stories and other content that magazines provide readers. Doing so has shortened the time between the creation and dissemination of content, challenging and in some cases squeezing out fact-checkers’ participation. This study examines the procedures applied to stories in magazines and their non-print platforms, seeking to discern what decisions were made in response to the speed of digital publication, what effects these decisions have had, what lessons have been learned and what changes have been made over time. The results suggest that fact-checking practices for print content remain solidly in place at most magazines, if executed with diminished resources; however, magazine media are also exploring new processes to ensure accuracy and protect their reputations in an accelerated media environment

Rethinking the participatory web: A history of HotWired’s “new publishing paradigm,” 1994–1997

This article critically interrogates key assumptions in popular web discourse by revisiting an early example of web ‘participation.’ Against the claim that Web 2.0 technologies ushered in a new paradigm of participatory media, I turn to the history of HotWired, Wired magazine’s ambitious web-only publication launched in 1994. The case shows how debates about the value of amateur participation vis-à-vis editorial control have long been fundamental to the imagination of the web’s difference from existing media. It also demonstrates how participation may be conceptualized and designed in ways that extend (rather than oppose) 'old media' values like branding and a distinctive editorial voice. In this way, HotWired's history challenges the technology-centric change narrative underlying Web 2.0 in two ways: first, by revealing historical continuity in place of rupture, and, second, showing that 'participation' is not a uniform effect of technology, but rather something constructed within specific social, cultural and economic contexts

Technological Change and Innovation in Consumer Magazine Publishing: a UK-Based Study

This paper presents the results of research undertaken between 2002 and 2004 into the impact of technological change on the UK consumer magazine industry. The findings highlight patterns of innovation, both in the range of products (most notably monthly magazine titles) and the structure of organisations and work practices, which have tended to elude much of the contemporary debate within the “cultural industries” approach adopted in the media studies discipline. Instead, our analysis makes use of insights from the innovation literature to highlight the impact of technological discontinuities on the capabilities of both incumbent firms and new entrants. It also highlights the important and growing role that is being played in innovation-led industries through the adoption of organisational practices that find their origins in the traditions of project-based firms

Open Content in Open Context

This article presents the challenges and rewards of sharing research content through a discussion of Open Context, a new open access data publication system for field sciences and museum collections. Open Context is the first data repository of its kind, allowing self-publication of research data, community commentary through tagging, and clear citation and stable hyperlinks, and Creative Commons licenses that make reusing content legal and easy.The Nov-Dec 2007 issue of Educational Technology magazine is an entire special issue dedicated to "Opening Educational Resources." A series of articles in this issue highlight open educational models, including OpenCourseWare, Connexions and this piece on Open Context, co-authored by Sarah Whitcher Kansa and Eric Kansa