Page 149 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

148 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol. 7, 2015

mobile reading motivation and satisfaction of college students in Shanghai; Luo and Cong (2013)
did a similar questionnaire survey based on the samples from the Wuhan University. Among the
studies which focus on exploring adolescents’ digital reading motivation, Lai’s study is a typical
one (Lai, 2010). Based on the samples of junior middle school students in Taoyuan, Taiwan, Lai
developed a questionnaire measuring adolescents’ online reading motivation that was composed of
ten sub-scales. Additionally, some surveys on adolescents’ digital reading behaviors also contained
one or two questions asking users’ reading motivation or purposes (Q. M. Lin, 2011; Scholastic,
2014).
To sum up, researchers have done quite a lot of studies and made great progress in exploring
children’s traditional paper-based reading motivation. Most studies suggested that measures
of reading motivation accounted for unique variance in students’ reading behaviors and the
development of reading skills beyond that attributable to conventional cognitive assessments
(Retelsdorf, Koller, & Moller, 2011; Taboada, Tonks, Wigfield, & Guthrie, 2009; Unrau &
Schlackman, 2006; J. H. Wang & Guthrie, 2004). By far, researchers have agreed that reading
motivation is multidimensional in nature, although they have not agreed on the number of
factors (Schiefele, Schaffner, Moller, & Wigfield, 2012). However, the well-established reading
motivation scales with a high reliability like MRQ originated from the traditional paper-based
reading practice. In fact, some researches began to explore the issue of digital reading motivation
and found some new characteristics about digital reading in recent years, but these studies lack
reliable measurement scales, and they did not take the particular features of social reading into
consideration either. Therefore, drawing upon extant findings on both traditional and digital
reading motivation, the present study attempts to identify adolescents’ social reading motivations
based on its particularity.

2 Research methodology

2.1 Case selection

Reading via WeChat was selected as the study case. “Reading via WeChat” here refers to users
reading the contents forwarded by official accounts or private friends within WeChat Friend Group.
There are two reasons why the present study chose Reading via WeChat. On one hand, Reading
via WeChat is a typical application of social reading. Firstly, the contents forwarded by official
accounts or private friends within WeChat Circle of Friends are usually quite lengthy, thus reading
these contents could be called “reading activity” in a strict sense. Secondly, when users read the
content via WeChat, especially those forwarded by private friends, their reading activity originates
from the social interaction with others. Thirdly, it is much more possible for users to communicate
with others and share ideas within WeChat Circle of Friends because of its relative privacy. On
the other hand, WeChat is popular with young people today. According to the data provided by