As comunidades literárias virtuais e a experiência de leitura percecionada

: uma perspetiva multistakeholder

Abstract

Over the centuries, the book has proven to be not only a vehicle of knowledge, but also a mirror of societal transformations in its various domains. The establishment of social networks in individual's routines allowed their users to create communities around common interests. Literature has followed this trend and platforms like TikTok and Goodreads play a fundamental role in its development, redefining how books are discussed, and new readers are created. This study aims to analyze the perceived influence of participation in virtual literary communities on the reading experience of the reading population in the Goodreads and BookTok communities, supported by the symbolic interactionism theory (Mead,1934 & Blumer, 1969). Using a qualitative approach, 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 members of the two communities and various stakeholders related to reading. The results show that despite varying perceptions of the influence of these communities among stakeholders, they are places where relationships are fostered, opinions and literary recommendations are shared in which new mediators and informal critics play a central role. On BookTok, Booktokers feel significantly influenced by the quantity and variety of books they read as they commit to producing frequent content. On the other hand, writers and Goodreads influencers present in the community perceive less influence, mentioning the ease of discovering new books and authors. Readers and other members report that joining the platform has increased the quantity and variety of books read, influenced by booktokers and other influencers outside of BookTok. Goodreads is essentially used as a reading monitoring tool. In this community, the main influences on the interviewees are close people, such as friends or family. The interviewed readers and influencers, especially members of the BookTok community, revealed a tendency towards fast reading, not delving into the various layers of a text. However, writers highlighted a counter-trend among some booktokers, proposing slower and more in-depth reading of books. It is, therefore, possible to conclude that virtual literary communities play a decisive role in transforming the reading experience of many readers.

Date of Award	4 Oct 2024
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Patrícia Tavares (Supervisor)