The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to gain insight into young adults’ reading practices with regard to the genres fantasy and science fiction as well as the motivations for these practices in a multimodal world where traditional and digital media and platforms exist side by side. Young adults’ attitudes to traditional and digital media and platforms are also investigated. The methods used in this study were semistructured interviews and qualitative content analysis. Eight young adults who all have an interest in at least one of the genres were interviewed. In the analysis, motivational theory is used where we distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors.

Our results show that the informants in this study are mostly positive to both traditional and digital media and platforms. They appreciate the different attributes of various media and platforms and find that they contribute to the overall understanding and perception of the story. The informants tend to use several formats. Some of our informants describe their reading practices in terms of a circle where one media or platform might inspire the use of another. Our study also shows that it is usually intrinsic motivation that fuels the informants’ interest in the genres, although extrinsic factors sometimes initiate an interest. Extrinsic factors may also contribute to the continued development of interest inreading.