The Digital Reading Condition

This volume offers a critical overview of digital reading practices and scholarly efforts to analyze and understand reading in the mediatized landscape. Building on research about digital reading, born-digital literature, and digital audiobooks, The Digital Reading Condition explores reading as part of a broader cultural shift encompassing many forms of media and genres. Bringing together research from media and literary studies, digital humanities, scholarship on reading and learning, as well as sensory studies and research on multimodal and multisensory media reception, the authors address and challenge print-biased conceptions of reading that are still prevalent in research, whether the reading medium is print or digital. They argue that the act of reading itself is changing, and rather than rejecting digital media as unsuitable for sustained or focused reading practices, they argue that the complex media landscape challenges us to rethink how to define reading as a mediated practice. Presenting a truly interdisciplinary perspective on digital reading practices, this volume will appeal to scholars and graduate students in communication, media studies, new media and technology, literature, digital humanities, literacy studies, composition, and rhetoric. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Figures Contributors Introduction Theoretical and methodological framework Framing reading References Section I: Historical and Sociocultural Perspectives on Reading Introduction to Section I References 1. Reading and materiality: conditions of digital reading A day in a life Digital interfaces References 2. History of media cultures from the perspective of multisensory reading Conceptions of reading The canonized "oral-literate-electronic-digital" schema Ideas of sensory biases Ong and oralities Dissolving the sensory hierarchy of reading References 3. The condition of reading in a digital media culture Hypertextual Multimedial Collective Locative Layered materialities and the digital reading condition References 4. Reading toward multiliteracies: understanding reading comprehension and reading experience Text practices and the digital reading condition Digital reading Reading in educational contexts Multimodality and reading Literacy and multiliteracies Critical and curious approaches toward digital reading References Section II: Multisensory Reading Introduction to Section II 5. Reading and the senses: cultural and technological perspectives Senses, knowledge, and cultural hierarchies Technology, digital media, and the senses From the senses to the multisensory References 6. Reading a literary app for children Introduction Ambiguous app - Sofus and the Moonmachine Examples of research on materiality Intrinsic material qualities - the embodiment of the literary app for children The physicality of the app The mode of existence of the app - the cultural scope of materiality Conclusion Note References 7. Trends in immersive journalism Introduction Basic understandings of immersive journalism Just like being there - VR, AR, and 360° immersive journalistic narratives Audio news and sound as the immersive medium par excellence Reaching out to journalism References 8. Multisensory reading of digital audiobooks Introduction Background and specifics of audio reading Haptics of technology Mediated touch The intimate and social voice of audiobooks Voice as orality and vocality Audiobook reading as a multisensory experience References 9. How to read a network, or the Internet as unfinished demo Technical specs matter Layers, interfaces, and black boxes The Internet as an unfinished demo Acknowledgments References Section III: Reading Engagement: Aspects of Digital Reading Introduction to Section III References 10. Deep, focused, and critical reading between media Close reading or reading closely? Deep reading Fast, slow, reading compression Polyreading - understanding the multisensory References 11. Reading digital interfaces and audiobooks: media-specific and multisensory aspects of immersion Reading with the senses up front - multisensory reading Media-sensitive analysis Aspects of immersion Being absorbed or immersed Voice Atmosphere, moods, presence Multisensory reading in context Note References 12. Motivations for audiobook reading in modern everyday lives From wax to web: the technological development Multitasking and mood management Forgetting time and space The paradox of multitasking Notes References Section IV: Young Readers Between Media Introduction to Section IV 13. Digital reading in education: a situated disciplinary literacies perspective A situated literacies perspective A disciplinary literacies perspective Digital reading in a Nordic context Digital reading in L1 An archeology of digital reading in Danish L1 The Hans Christian Andersen case study on digital reading in L1 Digital reading in future education - a critical discussion Notes References 14. Different modes of reading - eighth-grade students' interaction with a digital narrative Introduction The framework for the study of students' interaction with NORD Understanding interaction with the digital story as a bodily and aesthetic exchange A phenomenological approach and concepts for analysis Case 1: The navigation challenges and motivates at the same time - determined and interpreting interaction Case 2: Navigational game competencies with an eye for detail - investigative interaction Case 3: Being present in the game room - experiencing and sensory interaction Case 4: Concentration and reflection pauses - experiencing and sensory interaction Different modes of reading a digital story References 15. Transmedial reading Introduction Case and method What were you expecting? Cognitive operations: anticipating and reflecting. Experiential threads: emotional, social What do you see? Cognitive operations: recounting and reflecting. Experiential threads: compositional, sensual How does this make sense? Cognitive operations: interpreting and connecting. Experiential threads: compositional, spatio-temporal What does it mean to you? Cognitive operations: reflecting and appropriating. Experiential threads: emotional, social Transmedial reading findings Note References 16. Readers between media: sixth-grade students tuning in to literature in different formats Introduction Reading experience in a school context - theoretical framework Data Attunement as Stimmung and presence Attunement as identification Attunement as interpretation and existential resonance From what literature states to what it does in a school context Note References Section V: Aesthetics and Digital Reading Introduction to Section V References 17. Situated reading Reading situations Reading on the phone I: ubiquitous reading Mobile places and digital reading practices Reading on the phone II: networked reading Everyday reading, time, and relationality References 18. Reading: atmosphere, ambience, and attunement Figure and ground in context First reading situation Second reading situation Third reading situation Attunement Atmosphere Ambience Figure/ground reconfigured References 19. Resonance and the digital conditions of reading The touch of reading Reading beyond the gatekeepers Digital resonance Notes References Conclusion: the digital reading condition Multisensory and situated reading Personal and social reading Out of many: polyaesthetics, multisensory, polymedia, transmedia, and plenitude Institutional perspectives References Index "This volume offers a critical overview of digital reading practices and scholarly efforts to analyze and understand reading in the mediatized landscape. Building on research about digital reading, born digital literature, and digital audiobooks, The Digital Reading Condition explores reading as part of a broader cultural shift encompassing many forms of media and genres. Bringing together research from media and literary studies, digital humanities, scholarship on reading and learning, as well as sensory studies and research on multimodal and multisensory media reception, the authors address and challenge print-biased conceptions of reading that are still prevalent in research, whether the reading medium is print or digital. They argue that the act of reading itself is changing, and rather than rejecting digital media as not suitable for sustained or focused reading practices, argue that the complex media landscape challenges us to rethink how to define reading as a mediated practice. Presenting a truly interdisciplinary perspective on digital reading practices, this volume will appeal to scholars and graduate students in communication, media studies, new media and technology, literature, digital humanities, literacy studies, composition, and rhetoric"