Page 111 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

Promoting reading at a crossroads between the print and digital worlds in competition with the “netflixisation” of culture
The world of reading is currently at a crossroads characterised by a rather unstable balance between the values of the analogue and digital worlds. Another key factor of the present situation is the different environments in which people read – one traditional and another newly built and still in the process of being shaped. This crossroads calls for setting new goals for promoting reading that view it as a whole, with all its modes and channels. To train competent readers aware of both the print and digital media we need to adapt programmes and revise reading promotion strategies in educational and cultural environments in order to meet citizens’ needs in the current context.
We should not forget the situation of reading in Spain, which is greatly conditioning the progress of digital reading: low rates of reading and lack of regular, constant reading habits. Nevertheless, a comparison of reports drawn up by various institutions from 2007 to 201514 indicates a 4.5-point increase in Spaniards’ reading habits over this period.
This progression is confirmed by the report
Hábitos de lectura y compra de libros en España 201715 (Reading habits and purchase of books in Spain 2017) submitted by the Spanish publishers’ federation, Federación de Gremios de Editores de España, at the beginning of 2018. It reflects an increase in the percentage of readers, which stands at 65.8% of Spaniards aged over 14, 59.7% of whom read in their free time as well as when required by their work or studies.
This recent survey also confirms the upward trend in digital reading, which has increased by 18 percentage points in five years, from the 58% who stated they read some sort of digital con- tent in 2012 to the 76.3% who did so in 2017.
As for profiles, more women are digital readers, while readers on paper tend to be younger and better educated people who have more books at home, seek more information about their reading materials and also spend more money on books; this contrasts with the low figures for purchases of eBooks. Digital readers are also more frequent readers who get through a higher annual average of 16.7 books per year compared to 11.6 for readers who read only in print. In contrast, they visit libraries less often than readers on paper.
As for what people read, the new forms of reading recorded the highest levels: 56.9% of those polled said they read content related to social media; 49.5% websites, blogs and forums; 41.5% newspapers; and 27.2% books. As for the devices they read on, most choose the computer (49.6%), though this figure is falling, and reading on other devices is growing: tablets (32.8 %), smartphones (20.2%) and, albeit more slowly, eReaders too (9.7%).
These figures are in keeping with those of
an earlier report by the CIS (September 2016 Barometer),16 though they are slightly more encouraging. The CIS survey reported that 36.1% of Spaniards claimed never or hardly ever to read books, whereas the figure is a few decimal points lower according to the latest FGEE survey of 2017, which puts the number of non-readers at 34.2% of the population. As for why people
do not read, apart from not finding it enjoyable or interesting, a common reason is lack of time, which is one of the main factors why people are ceasing to read.
That 22.3% of the people interviewed by the
CIS blame shortage of time is no trifling matter in a world where reading has to vie with many attractive options for a portion of citizens’ prized leisure time. Indeed, the alternative forms of entertainment competing for people’s limited daily leisure time are many, varied and tempting. And many of them are related to the digital environment, which continues to gain followers as reflected by the latest report on the informa-
AC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2018
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Readers in the digital age