Reading by listening: conceptualising audiobook practices in the age of streaming subscription services
ISSN: 0022-0418
Article publication date: 15 December 2020
Issue publication date: 18 February 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to clarify issues related to the contemporary study of audiobook practices, in order to aid subsequent research on topics related to reading, digital audiobooks and streaming subscription services.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the concept of remediation, this paper covers four messy issues for audiobook researchers, primarily by developing the concept of reading by listening and then exploring the different remediations of the audiobook, clarifying the audiobook as a book and exploring the context of streaming subscription services.
Findings
Reading is here conceptualised according to the human sense used when making meaning from text, with reading by listening suggested for reading done with the help of the ears. Three different forms of remediation can be seen in subscription-based audiobooks, related to format, content and sense. Audiobooks simultaneously follow traditions of reading aloud, remediates the printed book and previous audiobook formats. It is suggested that the content is what makes an audiobook a book. The concepts library model and bookshop model are introduced to understand different audiobook subscription service models.
Originality/value
This is a research area on the rise with several messy issues and the concepts and clarifications in this paper may benefit future research.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Associate Professor Anna Lundh and Professor Jan Nolin for their very helpful comments on earlier versions of this article, Dr. Birgitta Wallin for her kind assistance with proofreading and the anonymous reviewers for their engaged comments.
Citation
Tattersall Wallin, E. (2021), "Reading by listening: conceptualising audiobook practices in the age of streaming subscription services", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 77 No. 2, pp. 432-448. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-06-2020-0098
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited