From paper to screen reading: implications for literacy and the book industry

Leiden University. The university to discover.

From paper to screen reading:

!

Implications for literacy and the book industry

Adriaan van der Weel



on Steve Jobs

- When asked what market research went into the iPad, Mr. Jobs replied: ‘None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.’

(NYTimes, 6 okt. 2011)


Slovenian survey

Numbers of books bought 1998 2014

>20 Books 3% 1%

11–20 Books 7% 4%

4–10 Books 19% 22%


Slovenian survey (cont’d)

Reasons for not buying books

1998 2014

Books are not interesting 2% 29%


Book sales in the Netherlands (in millions of units)



Resolving the paradox- People read differently in term of - Price: free (gratis) online content such as

- News, fan fiction, ‘long reads’, classics and public domain texts (and illegal e-books!)

- New text forms like texting, blogs, social media, email

- Different distribution channels - Outside the paid channels (book trade,

newspapers, magazines) - Through ‘marginal’ channels of newcomers

• Amazon • E-book ventures of all sorts


Essay competition organised by the Book trade association of the Netherlands in 1845: ‘Is the book trade declining?’






Similarities C19 and C21- Price, content and channels - For example:

- C21: Amazon - C19: A. Eichler, syndicator over most of

Europe, with Nick Carter, Buffalo Bill, and Raffles series

- Difficulty in identifying the needs of the new audience - Different mentalities of book trade and

customers



Differences C19 and C21- Nineteenth century more socially than

technologically driven - Extension chiefly at the bottom of the market - Role of education - Hierarchical society: desire for upward mobility - (As well as ‘secret’ interest in the ‘lower’ culture) - Rotary presses: cheaper, larger print runs

- Twentieth century more technologically than socially driven - Extension at the bottom of the market +

changes in the existing market - Primary driver: digitisation


Who are the ‘new readers’?- The ‘Online generation’

- [NB: additional!] - Online 24/7

• Communication • Media consumption • Products and services

- Instantaneousness - Democratic, two-way traffic

• Equality of producer and consumer


How are expectations different?- The ‘Online mentality’

- Instant gratification - Content is free (or virtually so) - Access to content is self-filtered:

• Setting preferences • Creating profiles • Listening to peers

- Access is more important than ownership - ‘If something doesn’t reach me, it’s probably

not important to me’ - ‘What can be done online, must be done

online’


Primary technological properties- The computer is

1. A ‘Universal machine’ 2. A digital–electronic device


Salient technological propertiesPaper Digital screenFixed / stable / permanent Fluid / unstable / impermanentOffline Online (hyperlinking)Material and tangible Immaterial and intangibleText=substrate Substrate takes any textProduct (economic scarcity) ‘Service’ (inexhaustible)

One-way (author > reader)Two-way networking (Web 2.0)

Duo-modal MultimodalMachine readable (searchable)

Technological and economic length limitations


Example mentality shift 1- News needs to be free

- Citizen journalism; User-Generated Content - Consumers settle for ‘good enough’

- Enabled by two-way networking in Web 2.0 form


Example mentality shift 2- Digital text has less value - Research by

• R. Ackerman and M. Goldsmith, ‘Metacognitive regulation of text learning’ (2011)

• Ziming Liu, ‘Reading behavior in the digital environment’ (2006)

• Jacob Nielsen, ‘F-shaped pattern for reading Web content’ (2006)

- Price perception: lesser preparedness to pay for texts than for games, films, music? - NB: Role of Open Access - Enabled by non-materiality and fluidity


Example mentality shift 3- Access is more important than ownership - Cf. ideological ‘movement’ towards not owning

cars, tools, clothes - The web is an access technology, it offers

services rather than products - Subscription models for e-books - Cf. ‘mass media’ and music - Importance of the device (paid; relatively

expensive) vs. content (cheap or even free) - Enabled by non-materiality and service

nature


Sociotechnical development

Technological properties and

affordances ⬇

Actions/uses ⬇

Social effects


NB- Intended vs unintended effects - Technology has no agency, but inherent

characteristics






Sociotechnical development

Technological properties and

affordances ⬇

Actions/uses ⬇

Social effects


Immateriality- Salient technological property

- Immateriality - Actions/uses (technological effects)

- E.g., favours access rather than ownership models

- Social effects - E.g., change in price perception


Two-way networking- Salient technological property

- Two-way networking - Actions/uses (technological effects)

- E.g., availability of information about customer behaviour

- Social effects - E.g., change in (attitude to) privacy



Sieghart Review Key ConclusionsThe interests of publishers and booksellers must be protected by building in frictions that set 21st-century versions of the limits to supply which are inherent in the physical loans market (and where possible, opportunities for purchase should be encouraged). These frictions include [1] lending of each digital copy to one reader at a time, that [2] digital books could be securely removed after lending and that [3] digital books would deteriorate after a number of loans. The exact nature of these frictions should evolve over time to accommodate changes in technology and the market.




Limited control over technology- No agency, but inherent characteristics - Cf. seeds tended by human gardener (genetic

modification)


Concentration of economic power !

Ideologies like ‘openness’, ‘sharing’ are being appropriated by the

commercial web !

The ‘long tail’ is a myth


‘[T]his book will look at the role of IT as a driver of [income] inequality’ (p. 3)

Education

From paper to screen reading: implications for literacy and the book industry