Preferences and attitudes of audiobook users in Sweden : Surveying Swedish audiobook groups on Facebook

Sammanfattning: The main objective with this Master's thesis is to better understand the preferences and attitudes of audiobook users in Sweden who are also members of Swedish Facebook audiobook groups. In recent years audiobooks have risen to prominence, although their previously inferior status is still evident in the lack of available research. Development of digital technology together with our busy modern lives have facilitated this rapid growth. The data gathering method used was a self-completion questionnaire distributed via Swedish audiobook Facebook groups. I endeavored to answer the following research questions: Why, how and to what extent do members of Swedish Facebook audiobook groups consume audiobooks? What attitudes do these users exhibit towards audiobooks’ affordances? Uses and gratifications theory and McLuhan's laws of media were used as a theoretical framework. The study both supports and challenges previous findings. Users primarily audio read because they can do other things at the same time; thriller/suspense/mystery are the most popular genres; many listen to podcasts and read print books, but a substantial number also exclusively listen. The study also found that most audio read quite a lot and prefer to do it at home, while the car is not such a common location. The narrator is overall important, but not when one chooses an audiobook. Though most subscribe to a streaming service, a substantial number of users borrow from a local library.