When Writing Goes Public: Digital Audiences as Networked Publics in Story-Sharing Apps

• In Event: The Critical Role of Audience in Digital Writing

Abstract

What happens when the line between writers and audiences erodes and both become part of a larger networked literate public? Technology-mediated spaces, from social media to online forums to writing apps, provide opportunities for people to engage in simultaneous reading, writing, critiquing, and communication practices without distinctions between "readers" and "writers." This paper examines several newly popular storysharing apps (e.g., Wattpad, Figment, and Storybird) as a novel genre of literacy engagement and a new driver of literacy for connected youth (Schreyer, 2012). With more than ten million users worldwide in total, these apps come packaged with avenues to be part of a networked writing public: both a delimited space and a connected community of writers (Marwick & boyd, 2011).

Author

• Ksenia A Korobkova, University of California - Irvine