Reading differently: The new forms of reading online. Hybrid codes, participatory social practices, transmedia and a new relation between authors and the public

The appearance in the media ecosystem of mobile and connected devices has made the reading experience more complex to decode, especially if we look at the younger generations. Compared to the past, they read in a more fragmented way and experience types of reading that often go off the statistics radar. Through platforms such as Wattpad and Webtoon they face an immersive and social type of reading that is unprecedented and holds the social experience of sharing as important as the narratives themselves. On the web, in chats, on social networks they use hybrid forms of communication, in which verbal and iconic language blend and complement each other. The habit of decoding these iconotexts, which require new reading skills, is probably one of the reasons why comics and graphic novels are enjoying growing popularity with the public of children and young adults alike. In this scenario, the relationship between authors and the public also changes, becoming direct and without mediators and impacting on production, consumption and business models. In this cross-media system, the stories flow smoothly from one medium to another, in articulated and complex narrative worlds, with the aid of artificial intelligences and data on reader preferences analysis