Audiobooks, at their most simple, are the audio narration of the written word. Whether done for works of fiction or non-fiction, the narration of texts remains a popular medium for disseminating information and stories to people beyond your own social circle. Be it for educational purposes or as entertainment (or both), the outcomes are the same - a widening and deepening of one’s relationship with the world.
Then there are the myriad of benefits offered by audiobooks - for one, they can match the beneficial effects of reading, as both mediums stimulate the same cognitive and emotional areas of the brain.
Secondly, despite the fears that audiobooks stop people from reading, the evidence shows that the inverse is true: they not only improve literacy (through comprehension and decoding), but actually encourage reading (if they didn’t, why would we read to children when teaching them to read?).
Among the many, many other benefits presented by audiobooks, the most important is that of access - without wide dissemination, the benefits only reach a limited range of would-be readers and listeners. It is heartening, then, to realise how accessible audiobooks have become thanks to smartphones.
But beyond physical access, there is a problem of cultural access: audiobooks available in one’s mother tongue or in any language you need, are as important as reading stories written in the language you are comfortable with. Any and all attempts to spread audiobooks to readers - young and old - in other languages should be lauded and supported. If we do not champion and celebrate this cause, we cannot be surprised when we continue to be enveloped by prejudice and distorted views of the world around us.
* Chase Rhys, head of content at the Fundza Literacy Trust.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media
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