A Study on the Effectiveness of Book Trailers as an Element of Reading Motivation for Teenagers

It has been shown that in the modern society, teenagers do not read a lot of books. As basic research in order to attract teenagers to reading activities, the effectiveness of booktrailers in affecting reading motivation of teenagers has been studied. As such, 121 middle school and high school students were surveyed with respect to their (1) basic awareness of reading and booktrailers, (2) awareness thereof after watching booktrailers, and (3) reader behaviour reaction applied to AIDMA & AISAS sub-elements. Results show booktrailers to be much more effective in reading motivation than printed media such as book reviews. The preferred booktrailer type is the storyline type. The preferred elements of booktrailers are the storyline, background music, video effects, with their preference in descending order. Also, in terms of the reader behaviour reaction of the teenagers, very positive responses appear across all areas including attention and interest in the book, memories of the book, desire to read the book, search for information, and production of booktrailers. These results indicate that booktrailers can be utilized very effectively in providing reading motivation and in reading expression activities.