Our Blog
View every post and publication of interest from the ‘Teen Reading in the Digital Era’ group
School survey now live!
The Teen Reading project is working with secondary schools in WA, NSW, QLD and VIC to survey Australian teenagers about their reading behaviour. This research aims to better understand how teenagers choose, read and discuss books, to ensure that they are better able...
Summer Focus Groups
‘It’s like watching a movie in my head’ During the January school holidays we ran a short range of focus groups with teenagers in South Australia and regional and urban Victoria. We asked participants about sources of book recommendations, where they access books and...
Interview with Mel Cranenburgh on Triple R’s Backstory
I had a pleasurable conversation about reading, empathy, and our new project (at least a bit) on Melbourne RRR on Wednesday 13th November. You can catch it as a podcast. Also speaking was Jane Sullivan about memories of the books of childhood - well worth a listen....
New funding!
Australian Research Council Grant Discovering a ‘good read’: Pathways to reading for Australian teens Breaking news (July 2019) – the next phase of our research has received funding through the ARC's Linkage Projects scheme. The scheme is designed to support research...
‘It’s official’ ArtsHub
ArtsHub have covered our research this month.
Where do teens discuss books online?
Who pays for eBooks and how are they shared?
How are teens accessing books?
Use of alternative formats
Barriers to reading more on digital devices
The Barriers to Reading
Platform Preference
How many books do teens read?
Findings on Recreational Reading by Gender
Reading frequency
Australia Council & Macquarie Survey results
The survey results from the Australia Council and Macquarie University three-year study of Australians' reading habits are now available on the Australia Council website. It found that word of mouth was the most frequent physical source of information about reading...
Nick Earls on the fluctuating sales of ebooks
The Books and Arts program on Radio National recently explored reports that ebook sales are declining. Michael Cathcart interviewed Australian novelist Nick Earls, who says we shouldn't discount ebooks yet. Earls has also written an article for The Conversation this...
Growing up in Ireland study
The longitudinal study Growing Up in Ireland found that cultural participation - which includes reading for pleasure - increases both academic performance and socio-emotional well-being for participating young people.
Unpacking the Statistics
I recently came across Nick Earls' article on The Conversation, 'Has the print book trumped digital? Beware of glib conclusions.' This article raises some important points about the data behind the statistics on ebook and paper book sales. Traditional sources of these...
Leisure reading on an e-book
Interesting article from ChanLin Lih-Juan who compared university students' use of e-book features for both academic and leisure reading, and found that e-book features were most valued for academic reading. See Lih-Juan, ChanLin (2013) "Reading strategy and the need...