In the past, the concept of publication was associated with print media.
The act and consequence of publishing is called publication : disseminating something or making it known through printing or another mechanism. The term is usually used to refer to printed text.
From paper to the Internet
Newspapers , magazines and books , in this framework, are publications. For example: "A publication specialized in economics stated that inflation will continue to grow over the next year" , "The German novelist already has four publications in this publishing house" , "As a journalist, I worked for several sports publications in my country" .
The idea of publication is usually used with reference to capturing content in some type of support , whether physical or virtual, allowing it to be available to a certain public or to society in general: «The publication of the photograph generated several problems for the director of the magazine" , "Many were surprised by the footballer's publication on his Instagram account" , "The editor decided to interrupt the publication of my weekly column" .
Nowadays, any work can be published in digital format, but this has its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, many artists from different fields find on the Internet the possibility of disseminating their creations without having to go through long selection processes. Before the digital age, publishing was a treasure reserved for a few, and this elitist nature was not fair to those who were left out.
However, the fact that we can all publish our works is not necessarily beneficial either, because in some way we position ourselves at the other extreme. There are no longer quality filters or spatial limitations, at least not with the characteristics of before: if we tried to locate all the books that are published each year in physical bookstores it would be impossible. Of course, no one forces us to buy any product, so we can simply ignore the ones that don't interest us, just as we did in the past.
Available to everyone
Currently we talk about publication to mention the material that someone uploads to a social network . A short text on Twitter , a photo on Instagram , and a video on Facebook , to name a few possibilities, are posts.
The Internet , in fact, turned all people into subjects with the capacity to make multiple types of publications. In the past, to publish, you had to have access to a printing press or mass media , which is difficult for most individuals. Today, however, it is enough to have a computer or a telephone with an Internet connection available to publish writings, images, etc.
Today, a slight movement of the thumb is enough to make a publication.
This phenomenon has given rise to a profound social transformation, with its inevitable positive and negative consequences. In the first group we can highlight people's approach to technology to enhance their skills: through learning new concepts and mastering tools that until then they were unaware of, many people realized that computing also had a place reserved for them, that he should not intimidate them. In this way, some were even able to improve their working lives, leaving behind traditional positions to embark on modern and more attractive projects .
But the negative side of the ease with which we can produce publications is the attack on privacy, the unfair exposure of a third party through their photos, videos and documents. Whether we upload material that may humiliate another person or violate their copyright , among other possibilities, the main difference between the past and the present is that other people's property has become extremely accessible (since a large percentage of she is digital) and there is no system that prevents us from using it for evil before it is too late.