In Response to: "Apple iBooks 2 with Textbooks may reduce back pain and improve student health"

In the recent ZDNet Blog Post, “Apple iBooks 2 with Textbooks may reduce back pain and student health”, the author, Matthew Miller discusses potential benefits of Apple’s new iBooks program. This is a program/ecosystem just released by Apple on Thursday (January 19, 2012), where it now offers to sell textbooks through its already existing eBook store, iBooks. Following in the footsteps of its historically popular iTunes ecosystem, Apple is attempting to break into the bold, new (and lucrative) world of eBooks. In the article, the author discusses some of the advantages he believes the iBooks ecosystem will bring: less pain from carrying heavy books in backpacks and saving students money. He cites how his daughters in public school are forced to carry books in backpacks ranging from 10 to 30 pounds. With iBooks, he states this would no longer be an issue. Miller also recalls how he would spend $400 on textbooks in university and states that Apple’s iBooks would help lower those costs.

Being posted on ZDNet Blog’s The Mobile Gadgeteer, Miller appeals to a tech-saavy audience. The organization of the site follows a general Web 2.0 design, which would be appealing to those who are interested in technology. The blog itself directly appeals to those who are into the newest consumer electronics. By implying that a new component of consumer electronics is beneficial for one’s health, it draws in those they probably use these electronics on a daily basis. However, on first read, I thought the title would link or refer to a study that actually shows the statement to be true. Instead, it did nothing of the sort, being just pure speculation. In addition, when stating that iBooks would be able to save students money, he cites no prices or even speculates prices. While the article does a good job drawing readers in with its catchy title, it does little to back up its over the top claims.

The article, on top of its poorly substantiated claims, made a number of questionable assumptions about iBooks. For example, the claim that it would be more affordable appears to be unrealistic considering Apple’s precedent with music. When selling music on iTunes, Apple’s prices are not much cheaper than those of CDs or other sources of music. It would be reasonable to assume that this would be the same case with books. He also assumes college students would prefer an eBook textbook over an actual physical textbook. I may be old fashioned but when working on problems in a textbook, flipping back between problems and examples, an eBook is more cumbersome. In addition, the author promotes an eBook textbook future under the reign of Apple. Would this be the best considering Apple’s prolific past history of DRM? Under this, instructors would no longer be able to hand out class handouts or copies of textbooks and instead force students to buy entire textbooks even if they only needed to use a small section of it.

The article also shows the typical issues of mass media blogs. ZDNet shows the issues of many of the tech sites owned by the “Big Six” media corporations. ZDNet, owned by CBS Corporation is one of the “Big Six”. These companies, with a priority on profits over traditional reporting, often churn out articles such as the one mentioned, that emphasize hits (number of users clicking on the article) over quality material. The more hits, the more money from advertisers. This blog post is an exemplar of this type of reporting, with a catchy, misleading, unsubstantiated title, and text that is pure speculation, turning something insignificant into a news topic. Should we even trust these articles from these news/blog sources? Is there a way we can curb practices where profits rule even on the web? These are clear problems of the Internet that have yet to be addressed.