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This is the final published version of an editorial that has been published in its final definitive form by Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, University of Wales , 2019.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Interviewing has become a major method in studies of reading, as in audience and reception studies more broadly, but it is rarely reflected upon beyond brief methodological discussions in individual articles and books. This Themed Section brings together a sample ofrecent and current projects which use interviews to investigate reading–includingthe reading of books, newspapers, and comics, in social and individual situations. It brings together different approaches to collecting and analysing readers’talk about reading, through a series of studies which foreground readers’narratives. To frame the articles historically and to draw out connections between them, this Introduction traces a history of investigating and interviewing ‘ordinary readers’–and audiences more broadly –and considers some disciplinary contexts and methodological implications of this practice. It is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to the methodology of interviewing but rather a means of beginning to reflect on where we have been and are now with interviewing readers, and on the limitations and possibilities of talking about reading. We also argue that interviews have come to challenge disciplinary assumptions about reading and readers. Our overall aim is to encourage the examination of a single meeting point in the entangled interdisciplinarity of research into reading.
Author(s): Trower S, Smith G, Murphy A
Publication type: Editorial
Publication status: Published
Journal: Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies
Year: 2019
Volume: 16
Issue: 1
Pages: 510-529; 554-581
Print publication date: 16/05/2019
Online publication date: 16/05/2019
Acceptance date: 07/04/2019
ISSN (electronic): 1749-8716
Publisher: Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, University of Wales
URL: https://www.participations.org/Volume%2016/Issue%201/contents.htm
