Week 11 Prompt Response

The shift to eBooks and audiobooks impacts appeal factors in many ways. Physical books offer a tangible reading experience that is often lacking in digital mediums. With eBooks, the inability to physically hold a book and flip the pages alters the sensory experience. However, eBook readers can adjust font size, line spacing, and text color to meet their needs, which is not an option with physical books. The ability to make these changes might enhance the reading experience for some and help them become more immersed in the story. 

These changes come with downsides, though. Dunneback (2011) notes that pacing is affected when page numbers are not visible on screens, stating, "The reader will need to rely entirely on narrative drive to feel the pace of the story" (p. 328). Dunneback (2011) also notes, "the larger the test, the less there is to indicate how quickly the story is moving" (p. 328). Some readers (myself included) may not feel compelled to continue reading an eBook if there are few indications of how fast or slow the story is moving. It may also be more difficult to determine the tone of certain scenes when there are large blocks of text that are carried over across several pages. 

With audiobooks, track length, speed, narrator choice, and background music can affect appeal factors. Track length and speed definitely impact the pacing of a story. I've only recently started listening to audiobooks, but my brain can only handle it if I am listening at 1.5-2X speed and also following along in the physical book. I'm usually not too focused on the track length when I'm reading like this, but I would have a much harder time if I were only listening to an audiobook and had to keep looking at my phone to see how far into the chapter or book I had gotten. There are few visual cues to show you where you are in the story, which makes me feel like I'm just lost and wandering. Listening to an audiobook at a faster speed also means readers could miss out entirely on pacing, tone, and the narrator's emphasis on certain words or phrases. 

Cahill and Moore (2017) note that "a narrator's decisions about tone, voice, and emphasis can be the determining factor in a listener becoming engrossed in or disengaged from the listening experience" (p. 24). If the narrator's decisions don't match what the listener is expecting, they're likely to become disengaged and may even stop listening altogether. Additionally, Cahill and Moore (2017) note that background music can affect pacing and tone and "amplify the mood or level of intensity" (p. 25). I haven't heard much background music in the audiobooks I've listened to, but just like movies and television shows, background music is used to almost guide the listener toward the feelings the author/narrator/producer wants them to experience. 

References:

Cahill, M., & Moore, J. (2017). A sound history: Audiobooks are music to children's ears. Children and Libraries.

Dunneback, K. (2011). E-books and readers' advisory. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 50(4), 325-329.