The History of Reading, Volume 3 pp 49-65 | Cite as
Between the Book and the Reader: The Uses of Reading for the Gratification of Personal Psychosocial Needs
Abstract
The main question addressed in this chapter concerns the function of book reading in fulfilling personal psychosocial needs, such as knowledge acquisition, aesthetic pleasure, entertainment and escapism in the multi-channel media environment. We will first describe the two main approaches to date exploring communication research — the functionalist and the technological approaches — and then our proposed approach for interchangeable functionality that combines the two. We will then present our empirical findings using this combined approach to study the functions of book reading for Israeli readers and media consumers.
Keywords
Focus Group Television Viewing Focus Group Participant Aesthetic Experience Book ReadingPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes and references
- 1.See for example the following stuies: The Uses of Mass Communications, ed. by Jay Blumler and Elihu Katz ( London: Sage, 1974 );Google Scholar
- 1.Elihu Katz and Hanna Adoni, ‘Functions of the book for society and self’, Diogenes, 81 (1973), 106–18;CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 1.Elihu Katz, Hadassah Hass, Shoshana Weitz, Hanna Adoni, Michael Gurevitz and Miriam Schiff, Tarbut Ha’pnay Be’Israel: Tmurot Be’dfusay Ha’peilut Ha’tarbutit 1970–1990 [Leisure in Israel: Changes in Patterns of Cultural Activities 1970–1990] (Tel Aviv: Open University, 2000, Hebrew);Google Scholar
- 1.Dennis McQuail and S. Windhal, Communication Models (London: Longman, 1993, 2nd edn.);Google Scholar
- 1.Eric K. Rosengren, P. Palmgreen and L. Wenner (eds), Media Gratification Research: Current Perspectives, ed. Eric K. Rosengren, P. Palmgreen and L. Wenner ( Beverly Hills: Sage, 1985 ).Google Scholar
- 2.See for example, Hanna Adoni, ‘Media interchangeability and co-existence: trends and changes in production distribution and consumption patterns of the print media in the television era’, Libri, 3 (1985), 202–17Google Scholar
- 2.Susan B. Neuman, ‘Television, reading and the home environment’, Reading Research and Instruction, 25 (1986), 173–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 3.Hilde T. Himmelweit and B. Swift, ‘Continuities and discontinuities in media usage and taste: a longitudinal study’, Journal of Social Issues, 32 (1976), 133–56;CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 3.Elihu Katz, Michael Gurevitch and Hadassah Haas, ‘On the use of the mass media for important things’, American Sociological Review, 36 (1973), 164–81;CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 3.Eric K. Rosengren and S. Windahl, ‘Mass media consumption as a functional alternative’, in Sociology of Mass Communications, ed. Dennis McQuail (Harmondworth: Penguin, 1972 ), pp. 166–94.Google Scholar
- 4.Neuman, ‘Television, reading and the home environment’, pp. 173–83 and Susan B. Neuman, Literacy in the Television Age: The Myth of TV Effect ( Nor wood, NJ: Ablex, 1991 ).Google Scholar
- 5.Dennis McQuail, ‘With more hindsight: conceptual problems and some ways forward for media use research’, paper presented at the 2nd International EJCR Colloquium, University of Nijmegen, The Neth erlands, 18–20 October, 2001.Google Scholar
- 6.K. Renckstorf and Dennis McQuail, ‘Social action perspectives in mass communication research: an introduction’, in Media Use as Social Action, ed. K. Renckstorf, Dennis McQuail and N. Jankowski ( London: John Libbey, 1996 ), pp. 1–17;Google Scholar
- 6.K. Renckstorf and F. Webster, ‘An action theoretical frame of reference for the study of television news use’, in Television News Research: Recent European Approaches and Findings, ed. K. Renckstorf, Dennis McQuail and N. Jankowski ( Berlin: Quintessenz Books, 2001 ), pp. 91–109.Google Scholar
- 7.Harold Innis, The Bias of Communication ( Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1951 );Google Scholar
- 7.Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy ( Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962 ).Google Scholar
- 8.Paul Levinson, Digital McLuhan ( New York: Routledge, 1999 ).Google Scholar
- 9.Hanna Adoni and Hillel Nossek, ‘The new media consumers: media convergence and the displacement effect’, Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, 26 (2001), 59–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 10.Steven Tepper, Working paper #4 (Princeton: Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Princeton University, 1998 ).Google Scholar
- 11.John Robinson, ‘The polls—a review: survey organization differences in estimating public participation in the arts’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 53 (1989), 397–414, and ‘Arts participation in America: 1982–1992’ [Research Division Report #27] ( Washington DC: National Endowment for the Arts, 1993 ).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- 12.See for example, Elihu Katz and Michael Gurevitch, The Secularization of Leisure ( London: Faber and Faber, 1976 ), pp. 230–35.Google Scholar