Civic Life in the “Mobilized” US
Scott Campbell
Assistant Professor
Pohs Fellow of Telecommunications
University of Michigan Department
of Communication Studies

McLuhan
The medium is the …
 message
 massage
 mass age

From “Mass Age” to “Personal
Communication Society”
“Predominant” new medium of an era
• 1930s/40s – radio (mass age)
• 1950/60s – TV (mass age)
• 1990s – PC/Internet (network society)
• Today – mobile (personalization)

Personalization of mobile
media
 Extension of self
 Personalized content
 Personalization of public space
 Strengthens personal ties

But does personalization
foster social privatism?
 Telecocooning
 Virtual walled communities
 Monadic clusters
Detachment
Small,
Mobile
likeminded
communication Dialogic
enclaves
disruption

Social capital: Old and new
media
 Putnam – privatization of leisure time (TV)
 Early Internet studies
• Isolation, alienation, less FtF social engagement
• Community building, informal socializing (social
capital)
 Depends on the context of use
• Information exchange
• Sociability
• Recreation

Survey of adults in US
 Criterion variables
• Civic engagement (community, social cause, neighborhood)
• Political participation (attending events, petitioning, contacting
political official)
 Predictor variables
• Mobile phone use (factor analysis): sociability, information,
recreation
 Moderating variable (interaction terms): comfort with
mobile telephony
 Control variables: age, gender, education, income,
political interest

Findings
 Use for information exchange fosters
civic & political engagement
 Sociability not significant
 Recreational use also positively linked

Effect of competence

Effect of competence

Follow-up study: Monadic
clusters?
Detachment
Small,
Mobile
likeminded
communication Dialogic
enclaves
disruption

Measures
 Criterion variables
– Political participation (attending events, petitioning,
contacting political official)
– Political openness (interest in listening to alternative
viewpoints, enjoy talking politics with others who may not
disagree, enjoy talking politics with others don’t know)
 Predictor variables
– Mobile phone use: social & informational (informational will
be focus here)
 Moderating variables: social network size &
homogeneity
 Control variables: age, gender, education, income,
political interest

Findings
 Monadic clusters
 Size matters: larger networks better for
political life
 Network diversity
• Bad for involvement
• Interpersonal level - conflict avoidance
• Intrapersonal level - ambivalence
• But good attitudinally
 Bottom line: social context!

Findings

Considerations for design
 “Content is not king”
 Increasing role & importance of
information exchange
 Comfort with the technology
significantly affects social capital