Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-219). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

This thesis investigates young readers' reading practices in relation to social media, in an attempt to bridge the gap between students' own experiences and school librarians' reading promotion efforts. This has been done through an online questionnaire with school librarians concerning if, and how, they currently work with digital reading communities, combined with an interview study with seven high school students who identify themselves as readers and current, or former, users of BookTok.  The results from the survey show that school librarians mainly work with digital reading communities by displaying trending books and informing their book purchases. The results from the interview study show that young Swedish readers place high aesthetic value on the book as an object; they prefer to read in English, and they do not enjoy compulsory reading in school when they have no agency in what books to read.  The conclusions drawn are that the young readers have a strong sense of identity connected to their reading practices and that this "reading identity" is at least partly shaped by digital reading communities such as BookTok. Furthermore, there are potential areas for school librarians to develop their work with digital reading communities in order to meet their students' needs. Firstly, through involving the students in not only selecting and purchasing books, but also in norm critical discussions of themes that are present in trending literature. Secondly, through collaboration with teachers in their literature teachings. The implications of the study are particularly directed toward high school librarians, due to the demographic of the participants, but can be applied to other ages and other professionals who work with reading promotion.  This is a two-year master's thesis in Library and Information Science.

Solicitud de embargo por publicación en revista indexada. / Para el espectador los finales de las películas, libros o series, suelen en algunas ocasiones, quedar con tramas inconclusas, desarrollo de personajes incompletos, etc. Por ello, algunos fans, a la expectativa de querer saber las futuras situaciones en las que podrían encontrarse sus personajes en un próximo libro o al verse con la historia ya terminada por el autor, deciden crear sus propias versiones. A esta práctica, popular en los jóvenes de hoy en día, se le conoce como fanfiction. Existen plataformas web tales como: fanfiction.net, Archive of our own, etc, las cuales albergan cientos de historias creadas por los fans. En este contexto, inicialmente con un fin lúdico, los escritores se han apropiado y/o reinterpretado dichos elementos (personajes, características, universos) para crear fanfiction; de modo que, sin ellos darse cuenta, han comenzado a mejorar sus capacidades de lectura y escritura. Este trabajo de investigación aborda la problemática con respecto a si las comunidades fanfiction pueden ser de utilidad en un ámbito formal, como por ejemplo el educativo. En especial, el estudio analiza si la práctica del fanfiction fomenta la lectura y escritura en los jóvenes. Para ello se ha realizado una investigación cualitativa a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas a autores de la plataforma Wattpad. Se ha podido observar que la interacción social es uno de los principales ejes que motivan a los escritores jóvenes a seguir creciendo en la plataforma y seguir nutriéndose de conocimientos para mejorar sus historias. / For the viewer, the endings of movies, books or series tend; in some occasions, to be left with unfinished plots, incomplete character development, etc. For this reason, some fans, in the expectation of wanting to know the future situations in which their characters could find themselves in an upcoming book or when seeing the story already finished by the author, decide to create their own versions. This practice, very popular in today´s youth, is known as fanfiction. There are web platforms such as: fanfiction.net, Archive of our own, etc. which house hundreds of stories created by fans. In this context, initially with a playful purpose, the writers have appropriated and/or reinterpreted these elements (characters, characteristics, universes) to create fanfiction. So, without them realizing it, they have begun to improve their reading and writing skills. This research work addresses the problem regarding whether fanfiction communities can be useful in a formal setting, such as education. In particular, the study examines whether the practice of fanfiction encourages reading and writing in young people. For this, a qualitative research has been carried out through semi-structured interviews with authors of the Wattpad platform. It has been observed that social interaction is one of the main axes that motivate young writers to continue growing on the platform and continue to nourish themselves with knowledge to improve their stories. / Tesis