Print Reading Research Articles

The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century by Susan Zieger

Reviewed by: The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century by Susan Zieger Leah Grisham (bio) Susan Zieger, The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Fordham University Press, 2018), pp. 273, $30 paperback, $105 hardcover. At first glance, our culture's consumption of mass media—with our twenty-four-hour news cycle, social media, and love of iPhones—may not seem to have much in common with the nineteenth century. Susan Zieger's The Mediated Mind: Affect, Ephemera, and Consumerism in the Nineteenth Century, however, argues otherwise. By examining the close relationship between consumers and goods in nineteenth-century Britain, Zieger presents ephemeral items and the conversations they sparked as prefigurations of twenty-first century forms of mass media. At the center of this book are ephemera that have received little critical attention: objects like temperance pledge cards, inkblot games, cheap reprints of fine art, sheet music, and cigarette cards. Reading print as a media technology, she works to counter Theodore Adorno and Max Horkheimer's "image of the mindless mass cultural consumer" by exposing the affective, intellectual engagement between mass-produced print goods and consumers (12). "Affect," Zieger explains, "demarcates the friction—whether irritating, pleasurable, or compulsive—that results when a new mass medium repositions individuals in relation to the social" (208). In other words, ephemera produced discussion, debate, and unique types of knowledge that Zieger elucidates throughout the monograph. The first two chapters, which focus the most explicitly on mass-produced print objects, may be of special interest to Victorian Periodicals Review's readers. The innovative first chapter compellingly presents the temperance movement as a mass-media event by examining the effusion of print matter it produced, such as elaborate certificates for those who took sobriety pledges and cheap ballads promoting the cause. As she does in later chapters, Zieger links these ephemeral objects to community events, underscoring the active role ephemeral objects held in communal discourse; here she considers crowd-drawing spectacles like temperance speakers Father Mathew and John B. Gough. Though most of the book focuses on England, chapter one is more transatlantic in its approach (Gough was English-born but did most of his work in America, and Father Mathew was Irish). The wider lens of this chapter is both a strength and a weakness. While it offers interesting insights about ephemera and affect within Anglo-Irish and transatlantic contexts, it may leave readers wondering about the fissures or divergences among Irish, English, and American temperance ephemera. Chapter two (a version of which was published in Journal of Victorian Culture) considers how smoking became analogous with consuming print material, as shown in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's [End Page 210] short story "The Man with the Twisted Lip" (1891) and Robert H. Buss's watercolor Dickens's Dream (1875). The literary, artistic, and ephemeral manifestations of smoking emphasize cognition, and the reader's absorption in written material becomes synonymous with the smoker's absorption in his tobacco. Additionally, smoking came with its own ephemera, such as collectable cards found inside cigarette boxes and publications created especially for smokers. This ephemera aided the proliferation of print media as an exchange of information, with many of the cards imparting encyclopedia-style facts that created a "cultural fantasy" aligning smoking with knowledge (75). Chapter three extends the discussion of print culture and knowledge by reading Harriet Martineau's Eastern Life Present and Past (1848) and Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone (1868) with a special emphasis on the materiality of ink. Broadening what is typically considered print culture, Zieger presents ink—and the phenomenon of ink gazing—as a notable media phenomenon itself. Often written about in Victorian culture, ink gazing consisted of a brown or black Orientalized other making predictions based on images that appeared in the surface of a pool of ink. In public consciousness, ink became associated with knowledge, information, and in some cases genius. Notably, Collins's novel adjusts this association, instead creating an analogy between ink pools and "the unconscious as information storage," a connection Zieger argues is reflected in the period's popular inkblot games and later Rorschach tests (118). These activities, which are...

Judge Woolsey's <em>Ulysses</em> Opinion: Early Print History and Reader Response

Judge Woolsey's <em>Ulysses</em> Opinion: Early Print History and Reader Response

Print or Electronic, Reading Is Indispensable: Case of Ibeku High School Umuahia Abia State

The study examined reading of Print and Electronic information materials among senior secondary school students of Ibeku High School Umuahia Abia State Nigeria. Literature review focused on identification of reading materials in school library of Ibeku High school, the student’s reasons for reading, and challenges that affect student’s reading. The research design used in this study is descriptive survey. The population is 430 which is the entire senior secondary students (one 225 and two 205) respectively. Total sample size of 172 was drawn which is 40% of the total population. 172 copies of questionnaires were administered and 164 copies returned which represent 95.3% return rate. The result was analyzed using tables and simple percentage. The findings of the re-search revealed that school text books are the major library collection 108 (65.9%). Others are magazine 4 (2.4%), Newspapers 16 (9.8%), Electronic in-formation materials 4 (2.4%). Reasons for reading reveal the following: To de-velop communication skill 116 (70.7%). Personal research for self development had 104 (63.4%), to pass examination 85 (51.8%). Among challenges to reading major one the students indicated was lack of personal reading materials 103 (62.8%). From the findings it was obvious that reading culture for pleasure and self development cannot be achieved because the print and non print materials for such are not available. The study made the following recommendations as possibilities in equipping school library with print and electronic information materials: The government being owner of public schools should be committed in funding the school library as well as directly sending print and non print information materials to schools. Teaching and learning are not done in vacuum school principals and teachers should not be less concerned in equipping the school library. They should make the government realize the need for learning materials which include print electronic books and audio visual materials. School administrators should solicit for assistance from parents through the parent teacher forum; the school administrators should as well contact donors to assist; public libraries by their mandate caters for the information need of the entire citizen to which secondary school teachers and students are among. The school administrators should contact the public library to come to their aid because public libraries’ mandate covers provision of information materials to public schools.

Notes on Media Literacy and Illiteracy

As an uncritical theoretical presupposition, the notion of literacy has led to formalistic, bookish philosophy. The constipated philosophical discourse adjudged worthwhile by literati and digirati falls historically into a line of dogmatic argument and counterargument within academic tradition submerged in subjective-idealist solipsism, petit-bourgeois political apologetics, and economic escapism. Careerist generalization of literacy from the ability to read print to include metaphoric uses of the term “literacy” to all media, while comfortably foggy to irrationalists, adds little to our understanding of print or other media except by increasing the gloom that prevails among privileged, neo-liberal pettifoggers.

Japanese language and the influences of computer-mediated communication: how people feel about their language use

This study investigates how Japanese young people feel about their language use, for example, its accuracy and appropriateness. Extensive exposure to Japanese mobile phone email (Keitai-mail) as computer-mediated communication (CMC) may differ in terms of standard language use and grammar. Therefore, this study investigates how CMC affects language use in young people. The results show that Japanese native speakers feel that the advanced part of the Japanese language, such as the polite form (Keigo) and/or kanji (Chinese characters), is difficult. They are also concerned that the dictionary installed on their mobile device will affect their language abilities in both positive and negative ways. Some participants try to read print works in an effort to uphold their literacy standard.

Mining the Material Archive: Balancing Sensate Experience and Sense-Making in Digitized Print Collections

Large-scale digitization appears to put literary collections at one’s fingertips, but, as some critics warn, the books themselves are increasingly out of reach as university libraries continue to shift from being ‘physical repositories’ to becoming ‘access portals’ to digitized materials (Stauffer, 2012). People who are drawn to print books often find that digital surrogates ‘lack feeling’ (Piper, 2012). Digitized texts preserve linguistic content of print works but not their many meaningful physical features that fundamentally shape interpretation (McGann, 1991) and contain valuable historical traces of print technologies, markets, and readerly interactions (Stauffer, 2012). Changing how we physically interact with texts also changes how we sense and make sense of them. How can we harness the potential of digital media to better represent and analyze print collections? How can we accentuate their unique historic, aesthetic, and material qualities while also allowing rich linking supported by computer-assisted content analyses? How can design critically engage with the sensory differences between reading print materials and on-screen reading in order to promote different modes of meaningful textual engagement? Addressing these questions, we introduce synesthetic visualization as a speculative approach to creating digital on-screen and tangible representations of print collections that translate — not replicate — sensory experiences of interacting with print collections by coupling visual representations with cues for other sensory modalities (e.g, sonic, tactile) that are routinely engaged by print texts. Drawing insights from aesthetic theory, book history, reception studies, literary studies, information visualization, human computer interaction (HCI), and digital arts, we propose possible ways to experiment with digital on-screen and tangible representations of print collections that explicitly aim to translate — not replicate — sensory and sense-making experiences inherent in interacting with print collections. We illustrate this through our own ongoing work with the Bob Gibson Anthologies of Speculative Fiction, unique hand-crafted booklets composed of science-fictional items culled from popular periodicals published between 1844 and 1992.

The effects of a parent–child environmental print program on emergent literacy

Young children are surrounded by ubiquitous environmental print (e.g. signs, product labels) on a daily basis in their homes and communities. Parent–child interactions with environmental print has the potential to foster emergent literacy. A randomised controlled pre–posttest study was conducted to examine the effects of a parent–child environmental print programme on emergent literacy skills (letter knowledge, letter and name writing, print concepts, environmental print reading, numeral name knowledge). Parent–child dyads ( N = 32, M child age = 3.63 years) participated in an 8-week (30 minutes per week) programme that used multisensory strategies to identify, trace and write letters and words embedded in environmental print. At post-test, the environmental print group showed improvements across all measures, making significant gains in letter knowledge and environmental print reading. These findings highlight potential benefits of coaching parents to use environmental print to support aspects of young children’s growth of emergent literacy skills.

Designing multimodal texts in a girls’ afterschool journalism club in rural Kenya

Characteristic of the twenty-first century are new literacy practices that require users and producers to be fluent with the affordances of multiple modes across print and digital media. In under-resourced contexts such as East Africa, these complex new multimodal practices have not been well documented. In this paper, we explore the context of an afterschool journalism club in rural Kenya as an informal learning space for 32 adolescent girls to realize multimodal text design following our donation of a laptop, digital camera and voice recorder. Using ethnographic methods that positioned the girls as researchers of their own practices, we collaboratively documented the girls’ changing social practices as they produced and designed videos in the context of their community and journalism club. As we proceeded through our analysis, we drew inspiration from Luke and Freebody’s Four Resources Model for reading print texts and Serafini’s reconceptualization of the Four Resources required for reading visual and multimodal texts, taking up their call to critique and reformulate the model within the rapidly changing context of twenty-first century literacy practices. Our study identifies the emergent and dynamic nested social practices of: (1) explorer, (2) participant-user, (3) performer, and (4) activist as integral to the design of videos.

Are Newspapers Heading Toward Post-Print Obscurity?

With print circulations in decline and the print advertising market shrinking, newspapers in many countries are under pressure. Some—like Finland’s Taloussanomat and Canada’s La Presse—have decided to stop printing and go online-only. Others, like the Sydney Morning Herald, are debating whether to follow. Those newspapers that have made the switch often paint a rosy picture of a sustainable and profitable digital future. This study examines the reality behind the spin via a case study of The Independent, a general-interest UK national newspaper that went digital-only in March 2016. We estimate that, although its net British readership did not decline in the year after it stopped printing, the total time spent with The Independent by its British audiences fell 81%, a disparity caused by huge differences in the habits of online and print readers. This suggests that when newspapers go online-only they may move back into the black, but they also forfeit much of the attention they formerly enjoyed. Furthermore, although The Independent is serving at least 50% more overseas browsers since going online-only, the relative influence on that growth of internal organizational change and external factors—such as the “Trump Bump” in news consumption—is difficult to determine.

“I'd Still Prefer to Read the Hard Copy”: Adolescents’ Print and Digital Reading Habits

AbstractDoes print still matter in this digital age? What is the role of technology in reading? Do adolescents who enjoy reading view the reading of print and digital material differently from those who do not enjoy reading? Drawing on survey data from 6,005 students and focus group data with 96 students across six secondary schools, the authors conducted a mixed‐methods study to examine adolescents’ print and digital reading habits in Singapore. Findings show that adolescents prefer print but move toward more online reading as they get older. Adolescents’ online reading habits are reflective of their print preferences and behavior with physical books. The authors explain how both print and technology matter to motivate adolescent reading.

Readers’ Preferences for Print and Online Newspapers in Northwestern Nigeria

Print newspaper circulation declines as the online versions are available for free. This study determines the extent of readership preferences for both print and online newspapers in northwestern Nigeria. Daily Trust, being the largest circulating newspaper in the study area was selected for case study. The study employed quantitative approach, in which descriptive survey method was used to gather and analyze data from print and newspaper readers in the study area. Structured questionnaire was used as data-gathering instrument. The questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 330 newspaper readers using simple random sampling. The findings revealed a moderate (Mean=3.38) readers’ preference for the online version of the newspaper to its print counterpart. Further analysis of the findings revealed that majority of the readers (Mean=3.49) find themselves reading less print copy of the newspaper because they have access to the free online versions. Majority of the readers (mean=3.37) will continue to read the print version despite the availability of its free online counterpart. Also, majority of the readers (Mean=3.08) spend less time reading the print copy of the newspaper due to the availability of its online versions. Meanwhile, majority of the readers (Mean=3.51) are confident that the newspaper will continue to survive despite the availability of its free online versions.

Improving oral sentence production in children with cochlear implants: effects of equivalence-based instruction and matrix training

ᅟChildren who use cochlear implants (CI) and who are readers usually produce more accurate speech in response to text than to pictures. Equivalence-based instruction (EBI) can be a route to establish functional interdependence between these verbal operants. The present study investigated whether children with CI who read would improve speech accuracy when tacting pictures of scenes after EBI that included dictated sentences, pictures of scenes, and printed sentences. This study evaluated whether teaching verbal relations to diagonal sentences from a matrix with subject-verb-object combinations promoted recombinative generalization to untrained sentences. Participants were three children with CI with a more accurate speech when reading print than when tacting pictures of scenes. They were taught to select pictures of scenes in response to dictated sentences (AB) by matching-to-sample (MTS) and to construct printed sentences in response to dictated sentences (AE) by constructed-response-matching-to-sample (CRMTS). Speech production in response to print (CD) and in response to pictures of scenes (BD) were probed for both trained and untrained sentences, using a multiple baseline design across participants. All participants learned the trained relations, showed emergence of derived relations, and improved speech accuracy when tacting pictures of scenes. They were able to recombine sentence components and tact novel pictures using untrained sentences from the matrix. These results indicate that speech accuracy and generative sentence production can be improved in children with CI from interventions that incorporate EBI and matrix training.Trial registrationCAAE#01454412.0.0000.5441 registered 01/29/2013.

THE ‘IMPARTIALITY’ OF NARCISSUS LUTTRELL'S READING PRACTICES AND HISTORICAL WRITING, 1679–1710

AbstractThis article explores the influence of ‘impartiality’ on reading practices, print culture, and historical writing in later Stuart Britain. It sheds new light on the most prolific collector of ‘cheap print’ during this period, Narcissus Luttrell (1657–1732), by assessing his reading practices in relation to the ideal of impartiality. Luttrell is analysed using his hitherto unstudied commonplace books and historical manuscript collection made in reaction to the Exclusion Crisis (1679–81) and the Glorious Revolution (1688). Their analysis demonstrates the way Luttrell used impartiality rhetorically to justify and express his whiggish judgement and interpretation of modern history. The article also highlights key continuities and differences between the early and later Stuart publics by connecting Luttrell to humanist rhetoric, earlier manuscript culture, and shifts in reading practices.

Profiling reading in print and digital mediums

Real-time processing behaviors and processing time for 57 undergraduates reading information texts in print and digitally were used to identify distinct performance profiles. Students underlined the printed text as they read and followed along with their cursor when reading digitally. Immediately after reading, students answered three comprehension questions for each text about the main idea, key points, and other information and judged their performance on the comprehension test. Four profiles were identified using deeper and more surface-level processing behaviors and reading time for both mediums (i.e. Regulators, Plodders, Gliders, and Samplers) and comprehension and calibration (i.e., self-assessment accuracy) data were analyzed by medium and profile. An overall medium effect for comprehension, along with various profile differences were identified. No overall calibration difference by medium was found, although various effects by profile were identified. Implications of outcomes for future research on reading in print and digitally are forwarded.

Assessment in an era of accessibility: Evaluating rules for scripting audio representation of test items

AbstractStandardized, large‐scale assessment of educational outcomes has become a global phenomenon over the past three decades (Smith, ). A key challenge facing assessment designers is that standard formats may be inaccessible or may create barriers to student performance. Schwanke, Smith, and Edyburn's () A3 model describes how advocates have reacted to structural barriers by providing accommodations and, ultimately, accessibility. This paper synthesizes and evaluates three studies that attempted to improve accessibility in assessments for students who struggle with print reading through audio presentation of assessment items. Cross‐study implications for policy and practice are considered.

Readers’ Preferences for Print and Online Newspapers in Northwestern Nigeria

Print newspaper circulation declines as the online versions are available for free. This study determines the extent of readership preferences for both print and online newspapers in northwestern Nigeria. Daily Trust, being the largest circulating newspaper in the study area was selected for case study. The study employed quantitative approach, in which descriptive survey method was used to gather and analyze data from print and newspaper readers in the study area. Structured questionnaire was used as data-gathering instrument. The questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 330 newspaper readers using simple random sampling. The findings revealed a moderate (Mean=3.38) readers’ preference for the online version of the newspaper to its print counterpart. Further analysis of the findings revealed that majority of the readers (Mean=3.49) find themselves reading less print copy of the newspaper because they have access to the free online versions. Majority of the readers (mean=3.37) will continue to read the print version despite the availability of its free online counterpart. Also, majority of the readers (Mean=3.08) spend less time reading the print copy of the newspaper due to the availability of its online versions. Meanwhile, majority of the readers (Mean=3.51) are confident that the newspaper will continue to survive despite the availability of its free online versions.

The Impact of Print vs. Digital Resources on Moroccan University Students’ Reading Habits, Uses, and Preferences

The widespread use of digital resources, the Internet and the development of technology have brought several significant changes in reading practices, preferences and use among information consumers. Readers of the 21st century have many options for reading thanks to the rapid growth of electronic-based reading materials, instead of printed ones, such as online newspapers, electronic books, digital encyclopedias, and online academic journals, as well as the expansion of e-book readers. All of these have contributed to changing readers’ reading strategies, reading preferences, and attitudes toward the act of reading. In the field of academia, for instance, there has been a tremendous shift from paper-based reading to screen-based reading. Given the fact that digital devices have become pervasive, and that reading has recently become a digital activity, this article proposes the need to investigate the impact of print vs. digital reading materials on Moroccan undergraduate students’ reading behaviors, preferences and use.

Effects of Processing Time on Comprehension and Calibration in Print and Digital Mediums

ABSTRACTThis study explored the effects of processing texts in print or digitally on readers' comprehension, processing time, and calibration. Eighty-six undergraduates read print and digital versions of book excerpts about childhood ailments presented in counterbalanced order. Comprehension was tested at three levels (i.e., main idea, key points, and other relevant information). Direct comparisons between print and digital reading demonstrated a significant advantage for reading in print on students' recall of key points and other relevant information but not the main idea. When processing time was added as a mediator variable, it significantly affected the relation between medium and comprehension for all question levels. In terms of calibration, students read more quickly and judged their performance higher when engaged digitally, although their actual performance was much better when reading in print. Implications of these findings for subsequent research are considered.

The development of adolescents' comprehension-based Internet reading activities

Internet-based reading involves integration and evaluation of information from different sources and different formats, but also requires fluent navigation skills for adequate comprehension. The effects of linguistic (word decoding and comprehension-based print reading) and non-cognitive factors (reading frequency and self-efficacy) have extensively been studied for print reading; we know very little about their role in Internet reading, which is our focus in this study. 558 students from grades 7 to 10 performed a set of comprehension-based Internet reading tasks on a computer, while their navigation and comprehension scores were recorded. They were also assessed on print reading literacy, word decoding, Internet reading frequency and self-efficacy. Multiple regression analyses suggest that navigation skills increase proportionally with grade level and that print reading literacy and comprehension-based Internet reading share common processes. Moreover, the positive effect of navigation efficiency on Internet comprehension increases in higher grade levels. Finally, reading frequency of the Internet for informational purposes predicts Internet comprehension scores, and self-efficacy predicts more persistent and quicker navigation.

Development of the Visual Word Form Area Requires Visual Experience: Evidence from Blind Braille Readers.

Learning to read causes the development of a letter- and word-selective region known as the visual word form area (VWFA) within the human ventral visual object stream. Why does a reading-selective region develop at this anatomical location? According to one hypothesis, the VWFA develops at the nexus of visual inputs from retinotopic cortices and linguistic input from the frontotemporal language network because reading involves extracting linguistic information from visual symbols. Surprisingly, the anatomical location of the VWFA is also active when blind individuals read Braille by touch, suggesting that vision is not required for the development of the VWFA. In this study, we tested the alternative prediction that VWFA development is in fact influenced by visual experience. We predicted that in the absence of vision, the "VWFA" is incorporated into the frontotemporal language network and participates in high-level language processing. Congenitally blind (n = 10, 9 female, 1 male) and sighted control (n = 15, 9 female, 6 male), male and female participants each took part in two functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments: (1) word reading (Braille for blind and print for sighted participants), and (2) listening to spoken sentences of different grammatical complexity (both groups). We find that in blind, but not sighted participants, the anatomical location of the VWFA responds both to written words and to the grammatical complexity of spoken sentences. This suggests that in blindness, this region takes on high-level linguistic functions, becoming less selective for reading. More generally, the current findings suggest that experience during development has a major effect on functional specialization in the human cortex.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The visual word form area (VWFA) is a region in the human cortex that becomes specialized for the recognition of written letters and words. Why does this particular brain region become specialized for reading? We tested the hypothesis that the VWFA develops within the ventral visual stream because reading involves extracting linguistic information from visual symbols. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that in congenitally blind Braille readers, but not sighted readers of print, the VWFA region is active during grammatical processing of spoken sentences. These results suggest that visual experience contributes to VWFA specialization, and that different neural implementations of reading are possible.