A Qualitative Study on College Students’ Short Video Consumption Experience—A Grounded Analysis Based on In-depth Interviews

Abstract

With the rapid development of mobile internet technology and the full popularization of smart phones, short videos have become an indispensable way for college students to obtain information and seek entertainment in daily life. Adopting qualitative research methods, this study conducted in-depth interviews with 15 college students to collect first-hand interview data, and carried out systematic analysis by using the three-level coding method of grounded theory, including open coding, axial coding and selective coding. This research aims to reveal the main contents, core characteristics and influencing factors of college students’ short video consumption experience. The findings show that college students’ short video consumption experience presents a multi-dimensional and multi-level structural feature, which mainly includes five core dimensions: sensory pleasure experience, emotional resonance experience, cognitive enlightenment experience, social interaction experience and immersion and loss-of-control experience. Further analysis indicates that individual factors (usage motivation, media literacy), content factors (content quality, type matching), platform factors (algorithm recommendation, interactive design) and environmental factors (social atmosphere, life rhythm) jointly affect the process of college students’ short video consumption experience. This study not only enriches the theoretical connotation in the field of short video user research, but also provides practical references for college students to use short videos rationally, for universities to carry out media literacy education, and for the optimized development of short video platforms.