HOBAR/DH_OU Seminar Series 2

It depends: everyday practices of print vs. digital reading

Speaker: Anezka Kuzmicova (University of Stockholm)

Ever since digitisation began, public voices tend to polarize with respect to the benefits or harms of using screens for reading. My talk will introduce some nuance in the traditional debate by way of emphasizing the highly situated nature of reading as everyday activity. On a day-to-day basis, how do readers choose among different modes of print and digital reading, and why? Focusing on the variables of genre, purpose, physical environment, and readers’ individual situation more generally, I will present quantitative, qualitative, and conceptual reading research conducted with colleagues within COST Action IS1404 E-READ (Evolution of Reading in the Age of Digitisation, 2014–18).