What do you use your screen for?
It is highly unlikely that you will be reading a printed copy of these words. We live in a world of blended media today and that brings with it a few new features. The chances are that you have several screens and devices to choose from every day.
I have just come back from a Connected TV conference organised by my employers (MediaTel) which was all about the implications, and current state, of the technology. A lot of time was spent discussing advertising (indeed the event was sponsored by Rovi) and the whys and wherefores of the new advertising models being created. Fascinating stuff but what I’ll be discussing here is the nature of the technology we are now using every day and how we can use it.
Technology. Books. Television. What’s the link?
Actually it is wider and deeper than you might first think. Let’s get a few bullet points down…
- printing. Since the Gutenberg press with its solid type we have seen printing develop to the point where we can print a book in a few minutes on a laser printer. But this is old hat now..
- consumption. You can now read the book or listen to it being read by Stephen Fry, for example. If you want a difficult time you can get the text-to-speech program to do it for you instead of listening to Mr Fry’s mellifluous tones
- more consumption.. this is where I give up on bullet points
One of the technology points that kept recurring at MediaTel’s Connected TV Experience was that there is an increasing emphasis on multiple or companion screen usage whilst watching TV. For example; say you are watching a movie and need to know more it is very simple to pick up your smart device (Android, Apple etc) and check the details on IMDB for starters.
So the companion screen is clearly going to be of major importance, the next 3 to 5 years will bring some maturity as well as new developments; I’d suggest that gesture based controls will be come more prevalent, this much is clear from the advent of the XBox Kinect device.
Back to books. One of my recent obsessions has been to think about and look at the different ways we now consume our literature. The list is here:
- Paper
- Computer screen at work or home
- Ebook (kindle, sony, vook..
- Tablet
- Smartphone
But hang on.. it isn’t even that simple. This is the blended bit.
I love the feeling of holding a book, turning the pages, all those sensual associations we develop with objects. However it isn’t always possible to lug around that massive copy of Lord of the Rings – which is where Blended Reading comes in.
Blended Reading is my name for the act of moving across different media to continue our reading experience: this implies continuity of reading the text or enhancing the reading experience by discovering additional information and content for ourselves; this in turn may include Social Media conversations and recommendations which lead to more reading matter or video/images/advertising.
Lord of the Rings is an interesting example because Peter Jackson very deliberately tried to retain the storytelling style and the events of the original book when making his films. When reading the book, or watching the film, it is easy to blend the two because of the effort put in to remain faithful to the book. You won’t necessarily learn a great deal from this particular blend but it serves as a starting point.
Implications and Analysis
Of course Blended Reading is much more than switching media. Book in hand I look up the extended bio of the author on my smartphone, I check out their other books. I download the next in series to my smartphone and read it anywhere I can.
This is exactly what I did recently when reading Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. I have the thick volume which is impossible to carry, reassuringly dense on one’s lap but impossible on the tube. Motivated by the need to keep reading I got the eBook on my Android phone and carried on from where I left off. When time allowed in the evening I continued with the paper tome.
There was more to discover so I used my smartphone to find out for myself if there was any more of Pullman’s work related to this series. And this way I deepened my appreciation of his work and the characters he has created for us.
Similar scenarios happen when watching the television or a movie. We want to know more. The ad-breaks provide a chance for us to pursue questions raised whilst watching the main programme. Waiting for the kettle to boil or the toast to pop is another quiet moment to pursue the quest for information.
The implication of this style of interaction, for me, is that I get the satisfaction of enriching my experience. For the author, it means that I can discover more of their work or home in on a specific aspect of it. For the publisher, it means an opportunity to sell more books.
For Publishers, rather like Broadcasters, there are a number of issues to consider around how they can get the most benefits from multiple devices and indeed the social relationships that go hand in hand with them. Selling multiple copies of a book, say, is it right to sell an individual bot electronic and paper copies of a work? I’m sure that many publishers would say ‘Yes!’. This doesn’t encourage the Blended Reading I’m talking about though and creates a disjoint between what is available and what is possible.
Conclusion
Whether you are reading this article on the computer at home or work, on your Kindle or smartphone it is now clear that reading has changed. This isn’t news anymore, just bald fact.
The technology we carry around with us provides so many opportunities for us to experience more outside the main focus of our attention that making use of the facility becomes compelling, habit forming possibly. Does this improve our experience of what we read or watch?
I think that it does. What do you think?
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