{"title":"Audiobook apps: exploring reading practices and technical affordances in the player features","authors":"Elisa Tattersall Wallin","doi":"10.47989/irpaper943","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Audiobooks are increasing in popularity and are now widely used through apps from subscription services. While these apps are part of audiobook practices, there is scant research on this topic. This article contributes to an understanding of the audiobook player function and the features therein. The article builds on an interview study with ten young Swedish users and a study of the apps from subscription services Storytel, BookBeat and Nextory. The player function in the apps were explored using a feature analysis and the interview material was analysed using qualitative content analysis. The focus was on affordances of the different app features, and how these related to audiobook reading practices. There were ten to twelve features each in the different players, outlined in the article. Four common user practices emerged in the interview material: adjusting the speed, selecting a track, setting a sleep timer and rewinding the audiobook. The apps play a significant part of audiobook reading practices. However, while the apps afford certain practices, some features create hindrances to other reading practices.","PeriodicalId":47431,"journal":{"name":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Information Research-An International Electronic Journal","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.47989/irpaper943","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Audiobooks are increasing in popularity and are now widely used through apps from subscription services. While these apps are part of audiobook practices, there is scant research on this topic. This article contributes to an understanding of the audiobook player function and the features therein. The article builds on an interview study with ten young Swedish users and a study of the apps from subscription services Storytel, BookBeat and Nextory. The player function in the apps were explored using a feature analysis and the interview material was analysed using qualitative content analysis. The focus was on affordances of the different app features, and how these related to audiobook reading practices. There were ten to twelve features each in the different players, outlined in the article. Four common user practices emerged in the interview material: adjusting the speed, selecting a track, setting a sleep timer and rewinding the audiobook. The apps play a significant part of audiobook reading practices. However, while the apps afford certain practices, some features create hindrances to other reading practices.
期刊介绍:
Information Research, is an open access, international, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, dedicated to making accessible the results of research across a wide range of information-related disciplines. It is published by the University of Borås, Sweden, with the financial support of an NOP-HS Scientific Journal Grant. It is edited by Professor T.D. Wilson, and is hosted, and given technical support, by Lund University Libraries, Sweden.