Listening, Digital Multimedia, and Interests

Sharon Murphy     September, 2026

"You're not listening!" is the lament of many today, and the digital multimedia world is sometimes implicated in such accusations. Indeed, although still and moving images are portrayed as click bait, the role of audio has received less attention. Enter the National Literacy Trust (Arif, Clark, & Picton, July 2026) in England who recently surveyed 110,114 children aged 5 to 18 to find out about their audio listening habits. Among other things, the researchers looked at enjoyment, listening and reading, and patterns across age groups. About half of those surveyed listen to either podcasts, or audiobooks or both.

Younger children listen to audiobooks while older children listen to podcasts. Audiobooks were reported as being "more often linked to storytelling, imagination, emotional engagement and reading-related experiences, while podcasts were more often associated with information, personal interests and understanding other people’s views" (Arif et al., 2026, p. 2). Because nearly 60% of those surveyed reported enjoying listening to audio, enjoyment of audio could become a pathway for cultivating enjoyment of literacy practices such as reading and writing where reported enjoyment levels are much lower.

The match between the content of the audio and children's interests is a key factor in listening, so much so that, even though children enjoy podcasts less than audiobooks, they use podcasts more widely because of their relevance. Such actions underscore the comments of the psychoanalyst, Adam Phillips (2022), who says that "when we are interested, we pay attention; sometimes at considerable cost." Indeed, interest can be a gift that we give to others in the form of time and relationship building. Even though we can't control the attention of others, Adams (2022) says that “people’s attention can be exploited and manipulated and directed.”

Educators can draw upon individual and situational factors to cultivate interest. To use individual factors, we have to know the children in our classes enough to understand their individual interests--interests which draw on their culture, social status, gender, emotional attachments, goals or knowledge (Bergin, 1999; Hidi & Anderson, 1992). If we don't, we end up teaching the students of our imaginations rather than the students in front of us (Matusov & Smith, 2007). Situational factors are factors that educators can design into engagements---factors such as novelty, activity, fantasy, comedy, social interactions, and puzzles (Bergin, 1999; Hidi & Anderson, 1992)--and factors which have been shown to cultivate attention and interest. Indeed, if cultivating student interest is our guide, the possibilities for listening and other literacy engagements are endless.

References

Arif, A., Clark, C., & Picton, I. (2026, July). Children and young people’s audio listening in 2026. National Literacy Trust.

Bergin, D.A. (1999). Influences on classroom interests. Educational Psychologist, 34(2), 87-98.

Hidi, S. & Anderson, V. (1992). Situational interest and its impact on reading and expository writing. In K.A. Renninger, S. Hidi, A. Krapp, & A. Renninger (Eds.), The role of interest in learning and development (pp. 215-238). Psychology Press.

Matusov, E., & Smith, M.P. (2007). Teaching imaginary children: University students’ narratives about their Latino practicum children. Teaching and Teacher Education, 23, 705-729. DOI:10.1016/j.tate.2005.09.012

Phillips, A. (2022). Attention seeking.  New York: Picador  (e-book)

Note: This blog is supported in part by the Senior Scholars Research Fund at York University, Toronto.