Practices of Ukrainian high school students in reading fiction in the society of electronic mass media

Abstract

The article reveals the peculiarities of reading practices of Ukrainian high school students in comparison with the practices of using visual electronic media, and also finds out whether there is a correspondence between the genre preferences of high school students and the actual genre content of the school curriculum in Ukrainian and foreign literature. It is noted that, in Western sociology, considerable attention is paid to the study of the process of formation of reading skills in pre-school and school-age children, which significantly affects their overall academic performance. The empirical part of the article is based on the results of a study conducted in September-October 2023 using the method of in-depth semi-structured interviews with ten Ukrainian high school students. It is emphasized that the participants of the study ranked social media or movies in the first place in the rating of genres, while literature was ranked second or third, and video games were more often ranked fourth. It is noted that the attitude of high school students towards literature changes in adolescence; they begin to value reading practices that are not controlled from the outside, but chosen independently for self-improvement. It is emphasized that the favorite literary genres of Ukrainian high school students are science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, detective stories, and romance novels. The results of the content analysis of school textbooks of Ukrainian and foreign literature for 10th and 11th grades revealed the absence of literary works of the genres preferred by high school students. It is concluded that it is necessary to reform school programs of Ukrainian and foreign literature in order to make them more consistent with the literary genre preferences of Ukrainian high school students. The genre attractiveness of the school literature curriculum can become a powerful “pull” factor for students compared to the “push” influence of social networks and electronic media.