The project is concerned with researching reading and reception strategies in the realm of the new media. It draws on studies on reading in the "Electronic book" project and subsequently and (inter alia) comparative media evaluation of books and hypertexts.
Due to computerisation, texts change their nature and can be extensively modified and programmed, telecommunications make them accessible world-wide, but only the necessary software platforms give rise to new structures for texts (hypertext) and accordingly new formats for publication, citation and - above all - reading. Hypertext theory attributes to readers and their reading process in particular great freedom, new ways and qualities of reading which initial empirical studies can hardly confirm. Extreme variants are being experimented with, in the literary and artistic area even more than in technical reading. The aim of the project is to determine by theoretical and empirical analysis how far these forms extend, and at what point a qualitative transformation in reading occurs.
