Ebooks – o livro na era digital e o consumidor santa-mariense

Abstract

This study consists of a qualitative research, which the main objective is to analyze the consumption of digital books in the city of Santa Maria – RS. That, to indentify the consumer of digital books in the city and define the possible trends of the local consumer’s behavior. In order to do that, a bibliographical research and an empirical research with qualitative character were made. This study was divided in two parts: the first part was conducted through an online questionnaire and the second part consists of in-depth interviews to investigate the habits, motivations and understand how the local consumption of digital books works. The main concepts studied about the digital and printed book, as well as the different approaches about the consumption served as a basis to analyze these interviews. From the perception of those interviewed, it was concluded that the portability, the easy access to them and the free downloads are the main reasons for the consumption of digital media. It was observed that the consumption practices tend to be similar between the people interviewed, and they all have a great appreciation for printed books, even though they already tried to use different platforms of digital book reading. Therefore, digital books are still being introduced into their life, and they are becoming more familiar reading electronic media.