The Affordances of the Medium: A Comparative Mixed-Method Study of an On-Site and Online Shared Reading Group for People with Cancer

Online video conference platforms, such as Zoom, are flexible, inexpensive, and efficient means to connect people over large distances and have been used for various communal reading events during the lockdown following COVID-19. One type of literary event that migrated online was the facilitator-led reading group practice, Shared Reading (SR). The affordances of the online platform may impact the interpersonal communication and socio-emotional dynamics of an event such as SR in ways that are still largely unexplored. This paper sets out to map the differences and similarities between online and on-site SR by triangulating a quantitative conversation analysis of 17 session transcripts with qualitative observations and reported experiences from both participants and facilitators. Overall, we found that the dialogue and readings in the online group tended to unfold in a more structured and guided manner, with the Reader Leader (RL) playing a more prominent role in creating engagement and a safe space. Affordances of the digital medium, such as a mediated dialogue and presence, likely contributed to such differences. These results may be relevant for practitioners and researchers working in online settings where people discuss meaningful and emotional topics, for example, in the context of bibliotherapy. The findings related to the RL’s role in online SR inform online RL practices and might have implications for supplementary RL training. This study aims to shed light on the possibilities and limitations of online SR to help increase its accessibility worldwide, especially for people who find themselves in a situation where their mobility is compromised.