Computer-assisted tools have introduced new ways to conduct research in the social sciences and the humanities. Digital methods, as an umbrella term for this line of methodology, have presented new vocabularies that affect research communities from different disciplines. The aim of this chapter is to discuss how digital methods can be understood and scrutinized as procedures of collecting, analyzing, visualizing, and interpreting born-digital and digitized material. We aim to problematize how the embracing of digital methods in the research process paves the way for certain knowledge claims. By adopting a teleoptical metaphor in order to scrutinize three case studies, our aim is to discuss the limitations and the possibilities for digital methods as a way of conducting science and research. The contribution addresses how and to what extent digital methods direct the researcher’s gaze toward particular focal points.

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“An Entirely Different Experience”: The Audiobook’s Bond to its Readers Audiobooks have in recent years become widely popular. The format accordingly impacts how many contemporary readers use and experience literature. The article examines this tendency, departing from Rita Felski’s theoretical conceptualizations of uses of literature (Felski 2008). Felski represents a new attention within literary studies toward the ways in which so-called lay readers use, experience and form attachments (Felski 2020) to literature and art. Drawing on Felski’s work in combination with Lutz Koepnick’s concept of resonant reading (2019), we study how the medial affordances of the audiobook impact uses of literature among empirical Swedish readers. In this way, we combine the theoretical perspective introduced by Felski with an approach informed by literary sociology (Svedjedal, Murray), in order to draw attention to the importance of considering the significance of media and formats in broader discussions about uses of literature. The article is based on a survey of 1400 Swedish audiobook users, which was published during the fall of 2021, in the Facebook-group Snacka om ljudböcker. We focus on a qualitative analysis of answers to the free-text question “Why do you choose to listen to audiobooks?” Our findings demonstrate that the medial affordances of the audiobook, its mobility and the mediation of literature through sound, impact both why and how readers listen to audiobooks: Respondents report among other things that audiobooks make it possible to integrate literature into everyday life, and that, consequently, it adds value to everyday activities, while the format’s mediation though sound, and especially the voice of the performer “adds a dimension” and “deepens” the reading experience. Thus, while the existing debate often associates audiobooks with distracted or passive reading and, in Felski’s terms, with detachment from the surroundings, and from the text, our findings suggest that the format also helps readers form attachments to and through literature.

Reading has historically been framed both as a social and as an individual activity. During the last decade, the development of digital technologies has shed a new light on reading as a social practice, where readers can meet and share their reading experiences with others online. This article aims to chart the social traces that digital audiobook readers leave behind by analyzing reviews posted in the streaming service Storytel’s app and discussions between readers published in the Swedish Facebook-group “Talk about Audiobooks”. Drawing on theoretical insights from i.a. Elizabeth Long and Rita Felski, the article characterizes audiobook-users’ modes of reading and using literature.

Litteratur genom örat-ett pilotprojekt om ljudbokens potential och begräsningar. 1. Inledning Den kommersiella ljudbokens snabba etablering på den svenska bokmarknaden väcker känslor. Under våren 2018 diskuterades den så kallade "ljudbooksboomen" frekvent på Dagens Nyheter. I debatten framhöll journalister, författare och förläggare, från olika perspektiv hur ljudbokens form och format påverkar litteraturen och läsaren. (Pennlert, submitted, 2018). Diskussionen visar också hur förlagen på olika sätt tvingas förhålla sig till ett digitalt mediesamhälle där läsaren anammat digitala läsvanor. Att läsarna har hittat till ljudboken är även ett samband som de senaste åren rapporter och bransch-statistik på olika sätt betonar. I exempelvis Bokförsäljningsstatstiken-första halvåret 2018 konstaterar rapportförfattaren Erik Wikberg att "digitala abonnemangstjänster står ut från övriga kanaler och visar en ökad försäljning med 36.9%" samt att "försäljningen av digitala ljudböcker" ökat med 37.2 % (Wikberg 2018). I samma rapport poängterar även Wikberg följande: Det är i sammanhanget intressant att noterat att försäljningen av digitala böcker, både e-böcker och digitala ljudböcker minskar kraftigt i internetbokhandlen, som säljer dessa produkter styckvis. Detta tyder på att försäljningen av digitala böcker alltmer koncentreras till digitala abonnemangstjänster. (s.5) Wikbergs iakttagelser visar alltså flera parallella rörelser som kan sägas rita tidigare vedertagna modeller för textens väg till en läsare men visar också på signifikanta förändringar i läsarens beteende och benägenhet att välja och konsumera ljudböcker via något av de förlag som bygger på en prenumerationsbaserad affärsmodell. I en annan rapport, Boken 2018