Reading as a Device Business: Implications for an eBook Age.

The current shift from the dominance of the medium of the book to the dominance of the medium of the screen is changing our literary landscape: new digital technologies offer us "a new kind of book and new ways to write and read" (Bolter, 1991). As reading migrates from print to digital, it increasi...

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Published in:International Journal of the Book Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 43 - 52
Main Author: Kositsky, Nina
Format: Article
Published: Common Ground Research Networks 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        au: Kositsky, Nina
        affil: University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts, USA
      su:
        Electronic books
        Reading
        Digital technology
        Discourse analysis
        Public opinion
        Creative writing
        Debate
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        subj:
          Electronic books
          Reading
          Digital technology
          Discourse analysis
          Public opinion
          Creative writing
          Debate
      keyword:
        Book
        Conventional Text
        Device
        Digital
        eBook
        eReader
        Imagination
        Interactive
        Multimodal
        Reader
        Reading Experience
        Reading Process
      ab: The current shift from the dominance of the medium of the book to the dominance of the medium of the screen is changing our literary landscape: new digital technologies offer us "a new kind of book and new ways to write and read" (Bolter, 1991). As reading migrates from print to digital, it increasingly becomes a device business. While technical considerations dominate the public discourse in regards to what reading hardware to choose (e.g., e-Ink versus color LCD, visual gimmicks like simulated page-flipping, etc.), concerns about the process of reading have been largely absent from the debate. The purpose of this paper is to highlight reading as an immersive and creative experience that fosters a particular kind of imagination, which depends on the reader's ability to "fill words with meaning" (Kress, 2003). The paper emphasizes that interaction with a static text is figurative because the entire responsibility of activity falls on the reader. Digital texts and the various symbol systems they entail, on the other hand, offer a reading experience that is literally interactive (Reinking, 2001). Electronic reading devices vary significantly in terms of the degree of immersion in a textual world they encourage, in terms of the work of imagination they require, and the type of interactivity they imply. The paper argues that these considerations can be used as criteria for selecting a medium that would offer a desirable reading experience.
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