Real-time Reading: A Twitter-based Diary Study of College Students
•
1 like•807 views
This document summarizes a multi-method study examining how college students' reading habits and preferences are changing in the digital age. The study used focus groups, a week-long Twitter diary study, and follow-up interviews with 11 participants. Preliminary results from the Twitter diaries found that students prefer print for academic reading and digital formats for leisure reading. Follow-up interviews explored topics like preferred reading environments, format preferences, and perceptions of online reading. The study aims to develop a theoretical model of how readers' environments, interactions, and strategies are shaping reading behavior in the digital era.
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to Real-time Reading: A Twitter-based Diary Study of College Students
Similar to Real-time Reading: A Twitter-based Diary Study of College Students (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Real-time Reading: A Twitter-based Diary Study of College Students
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 15. RESULTS: Format by material type
- 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)
- 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
- 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