Page 77 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

076 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.11, 2019

Transition: Adolescents’ hybrid reading in the omni-

media era〇a
〇 ①

1〇b *
LI Guihua〇 & LIU Jing 2
1 School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China
2 School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China

Abstract
The omnimedia era has witnessed media convergence that integrates various scenarios. With the
overlapping of time and space, reading carrier, reading channels and reading circumstances have all
been extended sufficiently in the hybrid dimension. Hybrid reading is a social behavior in which the
individual obtains complex values including knowledge, aesthetics, moral concepts, etc. from written
language and other written symbols through selection, reading, and evaluation and sharing in the
context of the omnimedia era. The fundamental features of hybrid reading are media mix, behavioral
compounding and value compounding. This study conducts questionnaire survey among 3,953 young
adults aged from 11 to 25 years old, focusing on the reading behaviors in the three phases of pre-
reading, reading, and post-reading. Statistical analysis finds that hybrid reading has become the
mainstream reading behavior of young adults, indicating the shift from traditional reading to hybrid
reading. By means of cluster analysis, young adults are divided into four groups according to different
levels of hybrid reading: traditional readers, passive hybrid readers, standard hybrid readers and high-
engaged hybrid readers, who share different reading patterns. Correlation analysis on young adults
population and reading attitudes indicates that, young adults who adopt the hybrid model considerably
has a more positive attitude in reading compared with those who prefer the traditional reading model.
This study suggests that reading researchers and practitioners should face the new deep reading method
of hybrid reading to build a fusion reading environment based on composite dimensions for readers.

Keywords
Reading promotion, Hybrid reading, Reading behavior, Young adults, The omnimedia era

0 Introduction

The Internet is creating an unprecedented social scenario which has a fundamental impact on
role positioning, action scripting, communicative rules and social atmosphere (Hu, 2015; Yu &
Ma, 2016). This kind of scenario is the coupling of space and situation, virtual and reality, which
includes the real space, the virtual scene and the overlapping scene produced by the fusion of the
two (Peng, 2015). This social scenario not only has the space-time dimension and the situation

① This article is an outcome of the key project “Research on Hybrid Reading Behavior and Reading Promotion Strategy under the
Omnimedia Era” (No.16ATQ005) supported by National Social Science Fundation of China.
* Correspondence should be addressed to LI Guihua, Email: 1147471336@qq.com, ORCID: 0000-0001-8356-620X