Page 78 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

LI Guihua & LIU Jing / Transition: Adolescents’ hybrid reading in the omnimedia era 077

dimension, but also the compound dimensions, especially in the context of Internet. Research on
this new scenario’s influence on social roles and behaviors is a key issue in current social science
research (Yu & Ma, 2016). Therefore, hybrid learning, hybrid consumption and other related
phenomena have been closely concerned by relevant academic and practical fields (Garrison &
Kanuka, 2004; Heinrichs, Schreiber, & Schoning, 2011).
In fact, the changes brought by the Internet technology in the media environment is
transforming people’s reading behavior. The omnimedia is “a cross-media product of media
convergence” (G.N. Liu, 2010). In the omnimedia era, all kinds of scenarios have been connected,
which leads to space-time overlap. Reading carrier, reading channels and even people’s reading
situation are fully extended in the compound dimensions, thus the hybrid reading behavior
flourished. The reading behavior under this compound dimensions is referred as hybrid reading in
this study.
The concept of “hybrid reading” was put forward by Yuan Yuming (2014) as the philosophy
of new library science, and he advocated from the theory of intersubjectivity that libraries
should meet the needs of people’s all-round development through the social communication and
comprehensive reading of aesthetic and moral evaluation, in addition to the dissemination of
knowledge. Considering that library’s status as a knowledge dissemination institution is being
greatly challenged, this view has its reality. Compared with the “hybrid reading” of macro-concept
category, this paper focuses on the “composite” characteristics of current readers’ reading behavior
in terms of both online and offline, knowledge value and other values, so that the hybrid reading
behavior is defined as: “a social behavior that individuals obtain the compound value of knowledge
aesthetics, moral concept, etc. from written language and other written symbols through choosing,
reading, evaluation, sharing and other activities”. This definition emphasizes the three “composite”
features of hybrid reading behavior. The first one is media composite, which means that the reader
will choose a variety of channels offline and online for reading activities, while taking into account
both paper and electronic reading carrier forms. The second one is behavior composite, that is, the
reader’s reading behavior with “reading” as the focus changes into a hybrid process that includes
choice, decision-making, acquisition, reading and sharing, and each stage may develop into a
complex process of behavior focus. And the third one is the value composite, which indicates that
through the experience of a variety of media and reading behavior the readers will deeply feel that,
in addition to knowledge value and functional value, reading also demonstrates distinctively the
exchange value and entertainment value. In this way, the readers will also regard these values as
their own pursuit in reading.
The rise of various virtual reading communities and reading tools suggests that the reading
behavior of the composite dimension is shaping, and a transition from traditional reading to hybrid
reading is under way, however, this hint still requires data confirmation. Contemporary young
adults born in the omnimedia environment or experienced the transition period of the omnimedia
environment, who are the “indigenous people” of the new environment (Ulla & Annelis, 2006).