Naomi S. Baron delivered a lecture on ‘When Reading Goes Digital: Questions of Medium and Mindset’. It was chaired by Baidik Bhattacharya.
Research on print versus digital reading–and on reading more generally–reveals several clear patterns. First, in many parts of the world, the amount of reading people are doing has been declining. Second, inherent affordances of print and electronic media are substantially responsible for divergent usage and learning patterns. Third, medium tells only half the story. The other key component is mindset: assumptions (conscious or otherwise) that users make about reading in each medium. This lecture explores both how medium and mindset interconnect, and the extent to which digital technologies are reshaping our notion of what it means to read.
Naomi S. Baron is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at American University in Washington, DC. Presently she is exploring how artificial intelligence is reshaping what it means to write. Her books include Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World (2008), Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World (2015) and How We Read Now: Strategic Choices for Print, Screen, and Audio (2021).
Baidik Bhattacharya is Associate Professor at Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi.
Friday, 11 March 2022, 7.30 pm, Zoom https://bit.ly/3HBQLia
