For my Special Topic Paper, I choose to do it on audiobooks and explain how it is not "cheater reading". For myself, I enjoy listening to audiobooks and it is actually my preferred medium (second to Graphic Novels). In this paper, I provide three different articles to explain how audiobooks are not cheating but just another way for people to take in the story or information.
BookRiot's Dana Lee explains that audiobooks are able to elicit more of an emotional response from the reader. They have the able to do that because the listener is able to hear the narrator's change in pace, tone, and other nuances that come with speech. Because of this, listening to audiobooks can be considered a more social experience than just reading the book in print.
Cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham, uses the simple model to describe how reading books and listening to books are fundamentally the same. The simple model was developed in 1986 and dealt with the key main functions that take place when an individual is reading---decoding and language processing. In this aspect, reading and listening to a story are the same but Willingham explains that it is easier for a person to take in the information from an audiobook if the text is written similar to oral speech. A person who is trying to study or take in research from an audiobook may have a more difficult time because these types of books typically are written in a more formal matter.
The goal of any story is to be heard and understood by the reader. Everyone is different which means that everyone has a different way that they best take in information. It should not matter how something is understood as long that it is. That is why books are offered as audiobooks in the first place, in order to reach and be understood by as many people as possible.
I love this topic. This has come up at my book club on occasion because about half of our members usually listen on audiobook while I'm a devotee of the physical book. A couple of our members have long commutes and that's how they have the time to read and join us. There have been times when I think that the people who listened to the book liked the book more than those of us who read it and I absolutely think that the emotional response to the narrator can be part of that. And I am definitely a convert from thinking that audiobooks are "cheating" to one who thinks they count just as much. Seems like you make some good points here!
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting. I've never thought of audiobooks as "cheating," but I'm not successful at listening to them. I'm a visual learner and my mind wanders too much. My dad "reads" The Bible through several times a year by listening to it in his car daily. I really like that you were able to reference a psychologist for this topic.
ReplyDeletecomments noted - the paper's grade can be found on canvas
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