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    The rise of social ereading : interactive ebook platforms and the development of online reading communities : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2016) Pawley, Jessica Leigh
    Ebooks have caused a revolution in how people read fiction. Ereading devices and apps now integrate interactive features which have led to the development of digital reading communities populated by millions of readers from around the world, with a resurgence of social reading practices in new forms. Two of the biggest social reading communities in existence today are hosted by Amazon’s Kindle and Wattpad. This thesis offers an analysis of how these platforms’ readers are using the interactive technology within the pages of their ebooks to participate in these online reading communities. Original research into popular texts on Wattpad reveals that while only a small percentage of users are actively engaging with the ebooks and other readers during the process of reading, all active and passive interactions have a significant influence on the reading experience. Thus, the infrastructure of such communities ‘rewards’ serialised books which encourage higher levels of reader interactivity with greater recognition within the community, but this reward is short-lived. The application of Genette’s paratextual theory to the interactive features of these ereading platforms reveals new processes of authorisation and readers-as-writers. New paths for the evolution of digital paratextual theory see paratexts developing from ‘thresholds’ into ‘vectors’. The statistical notations of reader interactions are now informational paratexts attached to each ebook, and these online reading communities may be considered paratexts themselves, operating through the new paratextual phenomenon of digital marginalia. Furthermore, the existence of these reading communities on free platforms such as Wattpad is supported by commercial paratexts found within the ebook pages. These new paratexts are having a significant impact on social ereading and reading communities - such as how they operate and judge the 'value’ of ebooks - but historical precedents suggest these paratexts will be readily accepted by most readers, leading to an increase in the incidence and influence of such digital paratexts. These new interactive technologies and paratexts will potentially lead to significant changes in how fiction is read. Exactly how these technologies may develop, and how public, industrial, and academic stakeholders might take advantage of these opportunities, requires further research.
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    Ludic reading in adolescence : prevalence, practices and preferences : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1992) Bardsley, Dianne
    This thesis is a study of adolescent readers who read spontaneously and voraciously to satisfy a variety of felt needs. An initial comparative study is made of the differential reading attitudes, interests, preferences and practices of ludic, moderate and reluctant readers among more than 2,200 New Zealand fourth and sixth formers. More specifically recorded are the preferences and practices of sixteen ludic readers, examined over a twelve month period. To the adolescent ludic reader, the important element of a book is its trance potential, which accounts for the pre-ordinance of fiction over non-fiction. Vivid imagery is found to be a characteristic of ludic reading among adolescents. The genre most favoured are horror, romance, adventure and fantasy. Genre preferences were found to remain stable over a twelve-month period, particularly among male ludic readers. Factors most strongly related to ludic reading are gender, ethnicity, family occupational status and home reading background. Less strongly related are birth order and family size. A strong relationship exists between school academic success and ludic reading. Higher than average occupational aspirations are also related to ludic levels of reading. Habitual ludic reading is found to decrease only slightly with age in adolescence with increasing work and study commitments, accompanied by increasing economic and social independence. Adolescent ludic readers are found to have a variety of leisure pursuits, including television-viewing. Personality and environmental influences determine quite individual differences in motivation, satisfactions, practices and preferences of ludic readers. The case study readers perceived literary quality to be inversely related to reading pleasure. Ludic readers experience a variety of emotions while reading a book and happy endings are not found to be relevant or a necessary requisite for enjoyment. Re-reading particular books is a feature of the reading habits of this group of adolescent readers. The popular perception of the ludic reader as an introverted, passive and solitary individual is not supported in this study.
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    Multi-media literacy practices of year 5-6 children at home : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Psychology at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2015) Cummings, Susan
    A child’s literacy development is significantly affected by factors that exist outside of educational settings. In recent decades, children’s life experiences have been transformed through the increased use of technology in their everyday environment. This research project uses a social practice view of literacy to explore the literacy activities of children in everyday settings, with particular attention to how they navigate and follow their interests across different formats, from traditional media such as print to multi-media. Data was collected using a mixed methods design to answer three research questions: 1) the ways children engage in literacy activities across different formats, 2) the types of literacy activities children found engaging, and 3) the reasons children engage in literacy practices in their everyday lives. Results indicate that children engaged in a variety of literacy activities across multiple formats. Findings also indicated watching videos is a popular multi-media format and this format may be influencing the types of literacy skills children value. Children engaged in literacy related activities for a number of different reasons, including: stimulation, family practices, functional reasons, social relatedness, mastery and competence, and social participation. It was concluded that children’s everyday literacy practices are influenced by a number of sociocultural and developmental factors, and that any efforts to support them will require an understanding of their complex nature and embeddedness in educational and social contexts.
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    Mang : loss of eye : thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the degree of Master of Design, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (The Author, 2014) Yu, Zhiqing
    According to World Health Organization 2013 statistics, there are approximately 285 million visually impaired people in the world, 39 million of whom are blind. In China, the country that I come from, it is estimated that there are around 12 million children are visually impaired. This design research project focuses on the reading needs of this audience by exploring book design for children and blind people’s ability to perceive despite their ‘loss of eye’. In it I apply haptic theory, cultural criticism, and secondary research into blind people’s sensory experience to re-purposing the visual language, format and construction of the book. Through this rethinking, and return to my cultural motifs, legends and forms, I aim to probe how tactile design can assist unsighted people read and understand text.
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    Children's responses to a picturebook during a small group, co-constructed read-aloud : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2012) Braid, Christine L
    This study investigated the responses that 21 nine and ten year old children gave to a picturebook read-aloud in small groups within their classroom. The group sessions involved a co-constructed approach based on the children's interactions with the book and each other. The research questions focused on the ways the children responded to the narrative as well as on how they built on each other's ideas to co-construct meaning. The study looked at these questions in the context of the small group and co-constructed nature of the event. The picturebook Luke’s Way of Looking by Nadia Wheatley and Matt Ottley (1999) was read aloud to each group and the responses and discussion from these sessions were recorded. The sessions produced rich data, both in quantity and quality. A framework of analysis based on and adapted from the extensive work of Lawrence Sipe (2008) allowed the data to be categorised, analysed, and discussed. The framework was adapted by considering aspects of the SOLO taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1982) as well as the picturebook elements that the children used for their response. The results are presented in relation to this framework. The findings revealed that the children engaged with the picturebook in ways that enhanced their literary understandings and their thinking about a book. Using the framework of analysis showed that the children's responses fitted into all the categories that Sipe (2008) established for literary understanding and in a spread that was similar to the responses from his study. The children interpreted the messages from the picturebook by using both the words and the pictures and they achieved complex levels of thought by interacting with each other and with the book. The picturebook enabled them to make inferences and draw conclusions based on how the illustrator used different elements to convey a message. In particular, the children used colour, light, and symbol to explore ideas about possible meanings in the illustrations. The small group setting enabled them to engage with the book and with each other with ease. The co-constructed approach meant children shared their ideas as they formed them and they built on each other's ideas to a complex level of thinking. The findings provide evidence that carefully selected picturebooks are an appropriate resource for nine and ten year old children. The findings also show that the small group and the co-constructed approach are important considerations for developing discussions that value the child's voice in the classroom context. These results have implications for school wide literacy policy and classroom practice.
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    Enchanting books, redeeming fetishism : theory and practice in relation to the life of books : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2003) Barnard, Henry George
    This thesis is a study of books which seeks to understand them and their place in our life world not in terms of their role as a medium of communication but as enchanted and sacred objects which are active agents in that life world. I show how they work as totemic operators or caste marks (by the way they act to distinguish groups of people), enshrined objects (by the ways in which they are literally handled) and ritual instruments (by the way they act as the focus of the new ritual practices of book reading groups). The thesis seeks, simultaneously, to advance a theory of culture which allows us to take a more generous approach to animism and fetishism and it also advances new methodologies for doing ethnographic research in our own life world. To achieve this it draws on and extends the work of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, the work of the anthropologist Tim Ingold and the philosopher Susan Oyama. The thesis argues that anthropology, in relation to the "Western" (in New Zealand "Pakeha") life world, should practice forms of re-enchanting synthesis rather than the reductive, disenchanting forms of analysis characteristic of some anthropological work. The study is based on data collected in a large community survey, on interviews with members of book reading groups, and on ethnographic materials "given" by the world we live in. The location of the field research is a provincial city in New Zealand but materials from further afield in the "Western" world are drawn on as well.