We Determine What We Read

In case of any confusion, here are brief introductions to several Chinese applications/websites that will be mentioned in the article:

· Weibo, so-called “Chinese Twitter.” Similar as Twitter, users can generate micro-blogs on it, forward or comment on content shared by others, add it to “favorites” and so on.

· WeChat, a chatting app like Whatsapp, but it has an additional function named Moments, where friends can share photos and thoughts.

· Zhihu, an app/website where experts in different industries answer questions from outsiders. It covers areas such as IT, manufacturing, food, arts, psychology, etc.

Tony Haile states that consumers don’t really read what they’ve seen. For this reason, I deleted many records of my media consumption diary, to the extent that I myself find it hard to believe that the result is accurate.

However, it means something: Why would I choose to read something at one time instead of another? Why would I act like I did? I always believed that we as consumers only choose what we read from what the media gives us. But analysis of my personal media consumption habits makes me wonder if it’s possible that we might be unconsciously determining what we will read at this moment.

I’m a student, so I’d have time to watch an episode of Masters of Sex at night on my computer, or read a thoughtful long piece on Zhihu before I went to bed. But I wouldn’t spend a lot of time reading during the daytime, not even on topics of interest shown on a platform I frequently use — I just want to browse Instagram for fun, or check WeChat for new messages on my phone when I have a short break.

Our interests, attitudes, personality, our friends, even our jobs, income and bedtime together determine what content in what format we will consume at what time using which devices. In other words, who we are determines what we consume.

This happens because technology advance enable consumers to take the dominant place of media in the flow of information. At early stage of social media development, with fewer platforms and a slower pace of information, we simply consumed what the media gave us. But now media is becoming increasingly fragmented, and the information explosion never stops. If we as consumers do not make choices, we will be overwhelmed by endless content. Perhaps in the past, if we saw a 10-minute video of interest on Weibo during work hours, we would mark it as a favorite and watch it later. But now, with so many more “substitutes,” we might just let it go.

Content providers know it as well, and thus they will make adjustments to their content, format, and updating time, in order to cater to audiences. If a platform kept generating content that no one read, sooner or later it would be gone. This is why Tony Haile believes it is very important to study human behavior, and to know who one’s audience is and by how they spend their time.

Now, if we go back to what we were talking about at the beginning, we will realize that what’s interesting is not whether we’re reading, but how we’re consuming and digesting content, how our habits are affecting the media, and eventually what we read. Dana Chinn emphasized again and again in class that for content providers, “the most important is who the consumers are.” This is so true because nowadays, it is us who are shaping the media — we determine what we read.

Special thanks to Christina Whittaker, who helped me edit this assignment and made it so much better than the first draft.