Exploring reading experiences of three media versions

Danish 8th grade students reading the story Nord

Abstract

The conditions for literary reading in schools are changing as young readers increasingly have the option of alternating between media, hereby encountering medium-specific expressions. Different media offer different sensory appeals and therefore provide distinct experiences. This article addresses these changes in reading conditions in a school context by investigating reading experience based on an empirical, phenomenological qualitative study of 8th grade students’ reading of a specific work of literature, Nord by Camilla Hübbe and Rasmus Meisler, in three media versions: as a digital audiobook, as a born-digital narrative, and as an illustrated printed book. It analyses the qualitative data focusing on students’ experiences of and reflections on the various literary media works and on how they, individually, integrate sensory appeals and vary in these appeals. The study shows how different material embodiments of literary works involve a distinct reading experience understood as a necessary interplay between cognitive and sensory activities, and how the type of media influences the reading experience. Based on our findings, we propose a model for understanding the reading experience that consists of the three dimensions: experience, materiality and comprehension. We argue that reading comprehension is necessary for a reading experience to even take place.