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I've Got All My Readers With Me: A Model of Reading as a Social Activity

Published:14 March 2021Publication History

ABSTRACT

Reading is not simply a solitary activity. It occurs in a social context, which influences both a reader's choices about what to read, and their understanding about what they read. Digitally, direct personal communication and online discussions are two examples of social reading activity. However, our understanding of social reading is still young: we know some elements of the activity, but we lack a comprehensive picture of its behavioural elements and how they interact. This study aims to bridge that existing gap.

We undertook a diary study, supplemented with interviews to capture readers' social reading behaviours. Based on a qualitative analysis of that data, we propose a social reading journey model, that includes four activities: Inspiration and Motivation, Reading, Understanding and Enrich, and Social Interaction. We identify the flow of information interaction behaviour across the social reading journey, and the sources of online information that influence readers' reading choices and inform their understanding of what they read. Our findings provide a first model of social reading behaviour, that is a foundation for future research.

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      CHIIR '21: Proceedings of the 2021 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval
      March 2021
      384 pages
      ISBN:9781450380553
      DOI:10.1145/3406522

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      • Published: 14 March 2021

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