| Summary: | 碩士 === 南華大學 === 出版學研究所 === 88 === Abstract
Various book reviews occurred throughout the 300 years of British and American book review history, such as excerpt reviews, encyclopedia reviews, expert reviews from authoritative professors and literacy reviews which try to comment on works in the salon culture. Though these reviews are totally different from styles and hermeneutic, they all symbolized the knowledgeable power of the experts who influence the public readers deeply from preference to review exposition.
Book reviews enveloped in the commercial culture by the power of experts who teach readers in a lofty stance. Hence, book reviews dominated by reviewers, editors and experts and, become knowledge possessor’s privileges and self-rescue process. However, book reviews are written for readers. Yet, we seldom hear the voices of readers who have been absented in the pedigreed review history. The appearance of the internet changed the myth of book review.
Online reader reviews have a great impact on the traditional reviews. This study examines the reader reviews on Amazon.com and discovers that those reader reviews are anonymous and straightforward which caused incisive critiques. Commercialization of knowledge, superficiality, and de-centralization has characterized the online reader reviews. Therefore, the different views of various culture, age, gender, education will all exist in the internet. The personal services and interaction that Amazon.com provides make Amazon.com not only a site, but also a learning community.
Roland Barthes declared the death of authors, whilst Amazon.com revealed the birth of readers. Readers retrieve the rights of reading and writing which equally provides to every human being. Gutenberg invented the printing and makes everyone become the reader while photostat machine and computers made everyone a publisher. Likewise, the internet made everyone an author or a reviewer.
Online reader reviews has changed the harmonious reviewing system and transformed the roles in the publishing industry whereas the internet has rewritten the definition for publishing. It is, the book is a discourse sphere; the author is the founder of the discourse sphere; the reader is the co-creator of the discourse sphere; and the editor is the guide of the discourse sphere.
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