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SOCY20241 New Media
- 1. Mobile Phone Use as Media By Lily Graham & Jay Motwani http://firsttoknow.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/cell-phone-history.jpg
- 3. Background • Mobile media took off with 3G mobile phones in the 2000s • Faster, greater data capacity • Digital photos, MP3s, MMS • Ex: iPhone in 2007: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdCrQpCG-3s#t=1m30s • 4G in 2010: wireless networks, even faster, video streaming, limited coverage • Mobile hotspots, tethering, music streaming services • Autonomy, personalized time & space, horizontal networks (Castells, 2007, cited in Siapera, 2011) • Monetization, consumer culture, question of control
- 4. Background (cont.) • First mobile phone used commercially in 1947 in the USA (Lachoee et al., 2003). Now the world subscription rate lies at 60% (Ortiz, 2008) • Highlights the fast-speed rate of globalisation and the mobile phone. • Extension of the human voice? • Response to the demands of interconnectivity by globalisation? What about newer, updated models? Products of a new, 21st century consumer culture?
- 5. Frances Cairncross - ‘death of distance’ (1997) • Mobile phones can be seen as removing existing boundaries of space and time and re-imagining them into new categories • E.g. long distance relationships: development of Skype, social media, international phone calls (which can all be done on a mobile phone) has meant physical boundaries are less relevant • Faster, efficient means of communication - increasing interconnectedness
- 7. Evolving Mobile Media: Uses and Conceptualizations of the Mobile Internet • Humphreys et al. (2013) investigated how people interpret and use the Internet while on their mobile devices • Participants: 11 Americans, 10 Germans • Semi-structured interviews about “mobile Internet”, immersive vs. extractive use, cross-cultural differences
- 8. Study Conclusions (Humpreys et al., 2013) • “Mobile Internet” - 6 (5 German) used the term • People just say “Internet” while some specify the medium too • Characteristics: flexible, on the go, browser-based • Extractive use most common - checking for specific information • E-mails, directions, weather, prices • Immersive use on laptops, social media caveat • Cross-cultural differences - all are digital natives • Americans get addicted or distracted, Germans dislike cost and coverage • Limited sample, no details of time/frequency of use
- 9. “The mobile phone as media” (May & Hearn 2005) • Investigated the changing focus of dystopian vs. utopian perspectives on the rise of technology • Digital consumption on the rise due to ‘personalisation’ of devices. For example, avatars, “Weemees”, ringtones, pictures etc. • Perhaps links to Castells idea of the rise of new media linking to a development of individualisation and the autonomy of the individual? • “Synchronisation of everyday life”? (media, entertainment, business, social, information, online banking, online shopping) • Increasingly seen as form of ICT (Information, Communication, Technology) due a convergence of the delivery of information (e.g. News apps, search engines) and faster, efficient communication • Convergence of experience economy & digital world?
- 10. Utopian Perspectives • Near limitless umbilical cord - constant awareness of whereabouts and safety of loved ones etc. • SMS - can communicate regardless of hearing impairments etc. • Removal of boundaries e.g. long distance relationships • Flexible employment - no longer bound to a fixed state (e.g. desk/table) • ‘Second life’ - away from experiences of inequality, loneliness, oppression etc. in real life • Records and stores life memories - e.g. development of “Life blogs”
- 11. Dystopian Perspectives • Removal of the need for physicality? E.g. physical boundaries and face-to- face communication (Greenfield 2003) • ‘Digital Panopticon’ - constant surveillance and monitoring (Kopomaa 2000) e.g. mobile phone hacking scandal • Experience Economy - experience rich but emotionally deprived? e.g. Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, 1984 • “smart mobs” - new levels and access to crime • Dependence on technology - cannot live life without it? Has a life of it’s own? • Consumer ideologies - e.g. developments of newer, updated, more expensive models of phones.
- 12. Interaction with Society and Politics • Citizen witness recorded altercation between NYPD and Eric Garner • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfXqYwyzQpM • No attempt to resuscitate, death ruled a homicide, choke-hold is illegal = no indictment • Widespread video leads to citizen activism: “die-ins” • Independent Dept. of Justice investigation results in $5.9m settlement http://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1413155/eric-garner-i-cant-breathe-protests.jpg https://goinsidethelockerroom.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/nb a-players-wearing-i-cant-breathe-shirts.jpg?w=1200
- 13. References • Cairncross, F., 1997, The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change our Lives, Harvard, Harvard Business School Press • Greenfield, S. (2003) Tomorrow’s People: How 21st Century Technology Is Changing the Way We Think and Feel. London: Allen Lane • Humphreys, L. & Von Pape, T. (2013) Evolving Mobile Media: Uses and Conceptualizations of the Mobile Internet. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication,18 (4), 491-507. • Kopomaa, T. (2004) ‘Speaking Mobile: Intensified Everyday Life, Condensed City’, in S. Graham (ed.) The Cybercities Reader, pp. 267–272. London: Routledge.
- 14. References (cont.) • Lachoee, H., Wakeford, N., & Pearson, I., 2003, A Social History of the Mobile Telephone With a View of its Future, BT Technology Journal, Vol.21(3), London, Springer-Verlag • May, H. & Hearn, G. (2005). The mobile phone as media. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 8(2), 195-211. • Ortiz, C.E., 2008, Worldwide and the US mobile subscriber penetration, available at: http://weblog.cenriqueortiz.com/mobility/2008/12/29/worldwide- and-us-mobile-subscriber-penetration-dec-2008/ • Siapera, E. (2011). Understanding New Media. London: SAGE, pp.164-167.