When the Editor Disappears,Does Editing Disappear?

Abstract

With the shift to mass self-publishing on the internet, commentators have hailed — or sometimes mourned — the death of professional intermediaries such as the editor. The question remains, however: does editing disappear along with the editor? The short answer is ‘no’, when one understands editing generically, as an essential part of the process of creating meaning in a text. In reviewing examples on the internet, one sees that it does not disappear, but shifts from a third-party intermediary to the author and the reader, and from human to more automated types of intervention. However, despite the promise of the ‘semantic web’, these kinds of intervention are unlikely to reach high standards on a consistent basis. The absence of experienced human mediation in the writing process — as in other areas of life — can be harmful to public life, and ways should be found to show the added value that they make.