ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to advance theoretical thinking about meaning construction with multiple online information sources. It focuses on the construct of synthesis used in work on the new literacies of online research and comprehension. Foundational research on the strategies that online readers use to construct meaning from multiple Internet texts has shown that, like readers of printed texts, online readers flexibly engage diverse strategies to construct meaning. In addition to strategy use, readers' pre-existing understandings of epistemology and their perceived power in relation to texts also shape meaning construction from multiple texts. The concept of purpose and its relationship to the construction of meaning have been considered by scholars for nearly a century. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube permit people and communities to create, share, and participate in new literacies social practices that shape knowledge construction.
