The concept of deep reading is defined as the application of higher-order thinking skills to the process of reading. It includes analogical skills, critical analysis, reflection, and insight. Deep reading is also often associated with particular media, primarily printed books, preferably certain kinds of literature. This chapter discusses some of the prevalent ideas surrounding notions of focused, critical and valued reading modes and how these are connected to media technologies, implicitly or explicitly. Some scholars, such as Nicholas Carr, have suggested that digital media in general and the kinds of distracted, quick, or hypertextual reading that the Internet provides in particular are detrimental to our ability to focus and engage deeply. Within media studies, however, research has pointed to other equally important aspects of engagement that must be redefined so as not to be inextricably linked to a particular medium or genre.

The conditions of reading are shaped by materialities of that which is read. In the wake of digital publishing, reading activities have been impacted by the affordances of digital technologies, and the chapter “Reading and materiality: conditions of digital reading” charts some of the influential ideas on the material nature of digital reading, and arguing that print-centric notions of what constitutes “good” reading have at times overshadowed an in-depth reckoning of the role that digital technologies play today. The perceived dichotomy between so-called digitally born and digitized materials does not delineate a border between “digital” and “print” reading, even though many of the assumptions about the latter still permeate perceptions of what is more valuable to read. The digital reading condition that the chapter introduces does not exclude any forms. Rather, the current media moment includes print, audiobooks, printed books in all forms, as well as a multitude of digital forms in a complex, interlocking media economy.

The concept of deep reading is defined as the application of higher-order thinking skills to the process of reading. It includes analogical skills, critical analysis, reflection, and insight. Deep reading is also often associated with particular media, primarily printed books, preferably certain kinds of literature. This chapter discusses some of the prevalent ideas surrounding notions of focused, critical and valued reading modes and how these are connected to media technologies, implicitly or explicitly. Some scholars, such as Nicholas Carr, have suggested that digital media in general and the kinds of distracted, quick, or hypertextual reading that the Internet provides in particular are detrimental to our ability to focus and engage deeply. Within media studies, however, research has pointed to other equally important aspects of engagement that must be redefined so as not to be inextricably linked to a particular medium or genre.

Media materiality matters for how reading happens, through digital technologies, print, audio, and so on. However, equally important for our understanding of what happens in each individual reader's experience is the place and situation in which the reading occurs. The surroundings, what the reader is doing while reading, what occurs around them are part of what we discuss in this chapter as situated reading. Our interests go beyond the reading mediation itself to address how the reader's sensing body experiences each reading instance. We seek to decouple the naturalized link between our understanding of what constitutes reading, the medium, and the situations in which reading occurs.

This volume offers a critical overview of digital reading practices and scholarly efforts to analyze and understand reading in the mediatized landscape. Building on research about digital reading, born-digital literature, and digital audiobooks, The Digital Reading Condition explores reading as part of a broader cultural shift encompassing many forms of media and genres.

Bringing together research from media and literary studies, digital humanities, scholarship on reading and learning, as well as sensory studies and research on multimodal and multisensory media reception, the authors address and challenge print-biased conceptions of reading that are still prevalent in research, whether the reading medium is print or digital. They argue that the act of reading itself is changing, and rather than rejecting digital media as unsuitable for sustained or focused reading practices, they argue that the complex media landscape challenges us to rethink how to define reading as a mediated practice.

Presenting a truly interdisciplinary perspective on digital reading practices, this volume will appeal to scholars and graduate students in communication, media studies, new media and technology, literature, digital humanities, literacy studies, composition, and rhetoric.

This chapter discusses the digital reading condition and multisensory reading from the perspective of journalism, which implies other implications and dimensions than educational or literary reading. Global as well as local news organizations around the world are experimenting with new digital opportunities for presence and engagement of users beyond the written word, and the chapter gives some examples. Framed by the term “immersive journalism,” the chapter presents examples of the use of immersive technologies like 3D models, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and 360° photography and videography. It also suggests to include digital audio formats as examples of journalistic products that are able to create different kinds of sensory and social experiences of presence.