Reading with Children: How Digital Technology Affects the Reading Practice; Example of the Russian market

Sammanfattning: Reading has been a part of our lives for several centuries, and it has gone through several developmental shifts during its existence. And it might be facing another chain of changes in our times of digital technology. While many researchers and experts are already predicting a soon-to-happen crash of the traditional publishing industry, very few have actually questioned what consumers think about reading digital vs. paper and in what way their reading behavior has been affected. This is especially interesting in the case of reading with children, since youngsters are the future consumers of books and gadgets.In this thesis I am going to investigate how a choice of the object (paper book or digital reading device) affects the course of a reading practice, involving adults and kids. In particular, the focus will be on the division of roles between the participants and emotional and practical reasons for choosing one object over another.