Biases against and for audiobooks

Like a few other people in the class, I have completely changed the topic for my research proposal; more specifically, I want to focus on library members' perceptions about the value of audiobooks compared to the researched and speculated value of audiobooks. However, this focus does not really seem focused at all the more that I think about it. I'm having trouble narrowing in on what the most interesting aspects of audiobooks are probably because I personally think that there are some many interesting aspects of them. Thus, for now, my daisy is truly bedraggled and in need of some tidying.

Nevertheless, I will try to articulate what the facets of my frame are, and how these facets relate to my broad area of interest, which is trying to understand what different peoples' perceptions of the value of audiobooks are.

• libraries
• A couple of perspectives that I would like to look at are library members and employees, which are of particular interest to me because of the very limited research done with the subject audiobooks by librarians (Moyer, 2012)
• audiobooks
• learning styles
• Auditory learners seem like people who many benefit from audiobooks (Rubery, 2008)
• literacy
• the effects of audiobooks on literacy (Winn, et al., 2006)
• voice acting
• how people feel about actors v. lay people recording audiobooks (Rubery, 2008)
• group reading
• book clubs as places where people could really benefit from audiobooks e.g. can pause for discussion during a session
• Victorian reading
• hearth reading, the phonograph, and Victorian narrative: how the audiobook stems from and exceeds the expectations of Victorian ideas about listening to books (Rubery, 2008)
• poetry
• some poetry is meant to be heard rather than read (Rubery, 2008)
• disabilities
• rich history of audiobooks being used by people with disabilities (Rubery, 2008)
• reading methods
• active v. passive reading: is it possible to actively listen to an audiobook in the way that people actively read (Moyer, 2012)

Although I have yet to narrow down my research interest into a research question, I am leaning toward a descriptive or narrative question because I want to articulate what different peoples' opinions about audiobooks are and I want to speculate as to why those opinions are what they are. More specifically, I want to know why many people seem to have a negative bias toward audiobooks--a speculation that I have made based on some statistics and anecdotal evidence--and how librarians can change that bias because there seems to be so many positive aspects of audiobooks--e.g. they support non-traditional learning styles and allow for multitasking. Any help to try and narrow my focus and find my "hook" would be really appreciated! 

Thank you : )

 

References

Moyer, J. E. (2012, Summer; 2013/9). Audiobooks and e-books: A literature review.51, 340+. 

Rubery, M. (2008). Play it again, sam weller: New digital audiobooks and old ways of reading. Journal of Victorian Culture, 13(1), 58-79. doi: 10.3366/E1355550208000088 

Winn, B. D., Skinner, C. H., Oliver, R., Hale, A. D., & Ziegler, M. (2006). The effects of listening while reading and repeated reading on the reading fluency of adult learners. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(3), 196-205.