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Curation as a communicative act: conceptualizing personal curation within curated flows on social media

Biying Wu-Ouyang

Communication Theory2026https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtag002article
ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

Individuals increasingly express thoughts by clicking “likes,” following groups, and leaving comments. These communicative acts not only express individual preferences but also convey signals to important curators such as algorithms, advertisers, friends, and journalists, which jointly shape social media feeds. In a word, people consume what they curate. Despite its significance, current theories lack clarity on the concept explication of personal curation. This paper addresses this gap by examining the types, motivations, and impacts of personal curation on users’ information intake. Importantly, as individuals engage in curation not from a single reason or convey a single message, this study theorizes personal curation into five dimensions based on platform features (expansiveness), content (heterogeneity), subjects (news attentiveness), sources (belongingness), and the number of platforms involved (multiplatform connectedness). This theorization provides a conceptual framework for understanding how seemingly mundane social media behaviors convey communicative meaning and exert significant influence in daily life.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtag002

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@article{biying2026,
  title        = {{Curation as a communicative act: conceptualizing personal curation within curated flows on social media}},
  author       = {Biying Wu-Ouyang},
  journal      = {Communication Theory},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtag002},
}

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Curation as a communicative act: conceptualizing personal curation within curated flows on social media

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.