1. Real-time Reading: A Twitter-
based Diary Study of College
Students
Cristina Pattuelli
Libby Kaufer
Gina Shelton
Storey Sitwala
School of Information and
Library Science
Pratt Institute, NY
2013 ALA CARROLL PRESTON BABER RESEARCH GRANT
QQML 2014 | Istanbul | May 28, 2014

2. http://ilmanifesto.it/sulle-tracce-di-starbuck/

3. FLUID READING
Our digital existence
is concerned with the
“sea change in the
way we read and
think.”
—Nicholas Carr, Is Google
Making Us Stupid? 2008.
Vincenzo Agnetti, “Libro Dimenticato a Memoria”,1970 | source

4. BACKGROUND
■ Great deal of research on e-books and e-readers.
■ Primary focus on adoption and use, emphasis on
the context of teaching and learning.
■ Cognitive aspects of digital reading and its
implications on attention and content retention.

5. EVERYDAY LIFE READING

6. PROBLEM STATEMENT
■ CONTEXT:
What everyday life circumstances shape reading
experiences?
■ PRACTICE:
How is the nature of reading changing in the digital
age?
■ PREFERENCES:
How do readers make decisions about reading
format?

7. Focus groups
Real-time diary
Semi-structured interviews
MULTI-METHOD
APPROACH
METHODOLOGY

8. PARTICIPANTS
PARTICIPANTS
■ Undergraduate and Graduate Students
■ 11 participants
■ 7 completed all three phases of the study
BARNARD COLLEGE: 5 PARTICIPANTS
Majors: Biology (1), Architecture (1), undecided (3)
Age: 18-24
PRATT INSTITUTE: 6 PARTICIPANTS
School of Information and Library Science
3 full-time and 3 part-time
Age: 18-24 (2), 35-44 (2), 45-54 (1), and 55-64 (1).

9. FOCUS GROUPS
TOPICS OF DISCUSSION:
■ Positive and negative reading experiences; ideal
reading experience.
■ How participants engage with reading material.
■ Likes/dislikes about particular formats.
■ What activities encompass "reading.”

10. FOCUS GROUPS
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS:
■ Participants employ many reading strategies
depending upon the purpose of their reading (e.g.
academic versus leisure).
■ Participants had strong preferences for reading
formats depending on their purpose for reading.
■ Participants tended to favor print for academic and
digital for leisure reading.

11. TWITTER DIARY-STUDY
ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACH
Diary method is used to collect person-level, spontaneous
data in a naturalistic setting.
TWITTER
To capture a snapshot of reality as the reading experience
unfolds. In line with typology of participants.
NOVELTY
Twitter not leveraged as a on-the-fly diary method yet.
Pilot.

12. TWITTER DIARY-STUDY
STUDY PROCEDURE
■ Week-long
■ Start the day after focus group
■ Event-contingent protocol (anytime they read
minus incidental reading—e.g., ads on the
subway)
■ What to include in an entry (what they read,
format, device, location, length of time,
interaction, free format comments)

13. TWITTER DIARY-STUDY
STUDY PROCEDURE
■ At least one photo of a reading environment per
day
■ Participants used unique accounts. Privacy
settings. Sent reminder tweets twice a day.

14. TWITTER DATA FREQUENCY

15. RESULTS:
Format by material type

16. RESULTS:
Academic vs. Leisure

17. TWITTER AS A DIARY METHOD
PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT
■ 140-character entries: PROS
—immediacy and real time context
—multimedia capability (e.g., instant photos)
—recorded archive for later analysis
■ 140-character entries: CONS
—limited expression capability
—superficial self-reflection

18. FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEWS
One-to-one, semi-structure interviews conducted within
two weeks of conclusion of Twitter diaries to facilitate
participants’ recollection of reading experiences and
enforce data accuracy.
7 participants (6 in-person, 1 Skype)
CAVEAT: preliminary analysis within one week from twitter
diary phase to inform interview guide. Need great
coordination on the part of the researchers.

19. ■ Preferred reading environment (e.g., role of
commute)
■ Preferences as for medium and format
■ Changing habits
■ Close vs. fast reading
■ Perception of online reading
■ Feedback on the Twitter as a diary method
Full transcription is complete and coding is ongoing.
FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEWS

20. RE/DEFINING READING
In my mind...I count sitting down with a book, a
physical book, or reading a book on Kindle, or on
my computer--that’s reading. But when
I’m ...reading an article on the Internet, I don’t
necessarily count that as reading. I had to keep
pulling myself up and going, ‘Hang on, you are,
and you actually have been reading for half an
hour.’ ...It was interesting to see that I have that
delineation.
—Participant 11 (Follow-up interview)

21. ENVIRONMENT
INTERACTION
READING STRATEGIES

22. Readers tend to value
comfort (e.g., bed) and
social spaces (e.g., coffee
shops).
Majority of reading
experiences that
mentioned environment
took place at home.
ENVIRONMENT
Twitter diary photo

23. Readers tend to create
personal reading
environments.
Typical hybrid ecosystem
that includes analog &
digital objects (including
devices for “on-the-go”
reading).
ENVIRONMENT
Twitter diary photo

24. ■ Annotations
■ Modifying texts
■ Sharing
INTERACTION
Twitter diary photos

25. READING STRATEGIES

26. BUILDING A MODEL: work in progress

27. ■ Sample size and participant typology
■ Access to e-books
■ Time constraints between different study phases
STUDY LIMITATIONS

28. ■ Deep analysis of data based on grounded theory.
■ Refinement and application of a theoretical
model of human behavior and interaction to
frame reading strategies.
FUTURE WORK

29. Cristina Pattuelli: mpattuel@pratt.edu
Libby Kaufer: ekaufer@pratt.edu
Gina Shelton: gshelton@pratt.edu
Storey Sitwala: sradziun@pratt.edu
THANK YOU
QUESTIONS?
source: Flickr