3.2.6. Content forwarding
Respondents were asked to estimate how frequently they forward information in a typical week. When being forwarded, electronic content can be either directly attached to electronic communication channels like emails/instant messaging or be stored at specific URLs, which are shown in the body of electronic communications. Respondents chose one of the six frequency brackets: 1) never, 2) 1–2 times, 3) 3–5 times, 4) 6–10 times, 5) 11–20 times, 6) more than 20 times. The midpoints of individual frequency brackets are used in the analysis. The mean is 2.62 times and the standard deviation is 4.44 times.
3.2.7. Content consumption
Respondents were asked to report about how much time they spend on various specific online activities in a typical week. We then summated the time on two specific online activities: 1) reading web articles or watching videos in mainstream media like Yahoo news, and 2) reading web articles or watching videos in other sites like YouTube and Bloggers. The mean is 6.63 hours and the standard deviation is 8.28 h.