Page 146 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

The motivation of adolescents’ social reading：A case

study of middle school students’ reading via WeChat
in Shanghai 1①

Wu LI 2 ∗

School of Media & Design, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

Abstract
Drawing on the traditional Reading Motivation Scale and new findings about digital reading motivation,
the study explores the motivation dimensions of adolescents’ social reading from the case study of the
middle school students’ reading via WeChat in Shanghai. Based on the questionnaire survey, this study
found the following: 1) the social reading motivation is a multidimensional construct of six dimensions
and three categories, which are Intrinsic Motivation, Socializing Motivation and Goals for Achievement;
2) of the three categories, Socializing Motivation accounts the most variance, and the Social Interaction
dimension, as an independent dimension in this study, refers to students’ socialization both in the
offline world and the virtual community; 3) different groups of students have distinctively different
motivational profiles; grade and living area significantly influence students’ social reading motivations.

Keywords
Social reading, Reading motivation, Reading via WeChat, Adolescent study

0 Introduction

Reading is a practical activity and cognitive process of decoding symbols like written language in
order to construct or derive meaning (Y. G. Wang & Y. Xu, 1999). As we all know, reading has two
attributes: on one hand, reading can be an intensely personal and private experience; on the other
hand, it can be a tool that enables us to connect with others, share ideas, and form social bonds
(Hartnett, 2013). Looking back to the history of reading, it is obvious that the reading activity has
been mostly undertaken by individual persons, though group reading organizations such as book
clubs existed (Manguel, 1997). With the development of digital texts and social media, social
reading featuring interactivity and sharing is becoming a popular reading type among readers in
recent years (iResearch, 2013; Romero, 2012). According to BookGlutton (2011), a social reading
website, “social reading, as a concept, is actually quite simple: people want to share what they
have read with others and receive feedback about their thoughts and ideas. Technology is the great

① This article is an outcome of the project “Research on the adolescents’ social reading in the age of social media” (No.
13CTQ015) supported by National Social Science Foundation of China and “Research on the adolescents’ digital reading in
Shanghai area” (No. 2012ETQ001) supported by Social Science Foundation of Shanghai, China.
* Correspondence should be addressed to Wu LI, Email: lowie@sina.com, ORCID: 0000-0002-1633-2363