“To Retweet Each and Every Rumor”

Author(s):  
Jun Liu

This chapter discusses the practice of rumor diffusion via mobile communication, or what I call “mobile rumoring,” against the hegemonic discourse of the authorities. What drives easy diffusion and proliferation of rumor via mobile phones and other ICTs, even in the face of intensified rumor control, surveillance, and punishment from the regime? As the answer unfolds, the Chinese state’s strategies to suppress communication in the guise of so-called rumor unwittingly establishes the socio-cultural foundation for rumor proliferation, while the official denunciation of rumor becomes a political opportunity that triggers the collective practice of rumor diffusion against the authorities. The call for rumor dissemination thus becomes both an action—a type of tactic, or covert resistance—and a frame to contest communication control and political manipulation by the authorities. Both contested identity and dissenting emotion join as counter-authority initiatives that represent the dynamic behind mobile rumoring in China today.

Author(s):  
Laura Stark

This chapter surveys and analyzes recent literature on mobile communication to examine its relationship to gender and development, more specifically how women in developing countries use and are impacted by mobile phones. Focusing on issues of power, agency, and social status, the chapter reviews how mobile telephony has been found to be implicated in patriarchal bargaining in different societies, how privacy and control are enabled through it, what benefits have been shown to accrue to women using mobile phones, and what barriers, limitations, and disadvantages of mobile use exist for women and why. The conclusion urges more gender-disaggregated analysis of mobile phone impact and use and offers policy and design recommendations based on the overview and discussion.


Author(s):  
Thilo von Pape

This chapter discusses how autonomous vehicles (AVs) may interact with our evolving mobility system and what they mean for mobile communication research. It juxtaposes a conceptualization of AVs as manifestations of automation and artificial intelligence with an analysis of our mobility system as a historically grown hybrid of communication and transportation technologies. Since the emergence of railroad and telegraph, this system has evolved on two layers: an underlying infrastructure to power and coordinate the movements of objects, people, and ideas in industrially scaled speeds, volumes, and complexity and an interface to seamlessly access this infrastructure and control it. AVs are poised to further enhance the seamlessness which mobile phones and cars already lent to mobility. But in assuming increasingly sophisticated control tasks, AVs also disrupt an established shift toward individual control, demanding new interfaces to enable higher levels of individual and collective control over the mobility infrastructure.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Wyche ◽  
Nightingale Simiyu ◽  
Martha E. Othieno

Increases in mobile phone ownership and Internet access throughout Africa continue to motivate initiatives to use information and communication technologies (ICTs)—in particular, mobile phones—to address long-standing socioeconomic problems in the “developing world.” While it is generally recognized that mobile phones may help to address these problems by providing pertinent information, less widely known is exactly how (and if) a handset’s human–computer interface—that is, its software and hardware design—supports this form of communication. The concept of “affordances” has long been used to answer such questions. In this paper, we use Hartson’s definition of affordances to qualitatively investigate rural Kenyan women’s interactions with their mobile phones. Our detailed analysis provides empirically grounded answers to questions about the cognitive, physical, and sensory affordances of handsets used in our field sites and how they support and/or constrain mobile communication. We then discuss the implications of our findings: in particular, how this affordance-based approach draws attention to mobile phones’ design features and to the context in which they and their users are embedded—a focus which suggests new design and research opportunities in mobile communication.


Author(s):  
Alan César Belo Angeluci

In studies on mobile communication, a topic that has been of particular interest is the impact of increased adoption and use of mobile devices in everyday activities and in the context of interpersonal relationships. However, the ease of accessing digital content and connecting to people physically distant through the recent mobile communication technologies has shown barriers and opportunities in human interaction. Based on the theoretical approaches on identity and relational artifacts grounded in mobility and absent presence concepts, this paper describes some aspects among young people in Brazil in relation to the “phubbing” phenomenon. The term was coined to describe the act of ignoring someone due to the use of a smartphone. The results indicated effects on the level of attention and interaction, regarding not only the content of smartphone, but also the social protocol and the face-to-face communication.


Author(s):  
Giovanna Mascheroni ◽  
Leslie Haddon

This article examines young people's use of smartphones, with a particular focus on opportunities and risks related to the mobile internet. Drawing on a review of mobile phones literature and internet studies, the article examines the emergence of a new research agenda in the study of children and mobile communication and outlines relevant empirical evidence of changes associated with smartphones.


2008 ◽  
pp. 99-125
Author(s):  
Letizia Caronia

This chapter illustrates the role of the mobile phone in the rise of new cultural models of parenting. According to a phenomenological theoretical approach to culture and everyday life, the author argues that the relationship between technologies, culture, and society should be conceived as a mutual construction. As cultural artefacts, mobile communication technologies both are domesticated by people into their cultural ways of living and create new ones. How are mobile phones domesticated by already existing cultural models of parenting? How does the introduction of the mobile phone affect family life and intergenerational relationships? How does mobile contact contribute in the construction of new cultural models of “being a parent” and “being a child”? Analysing new social phenomena such as “hyperparenting” and the “dialogic use” of mobile phones, the author argues upon the role of mobile communication technologies in articulating the paradoxical nature of the contemporary cultural model of family education.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 268-292
Author(s):  
Dennis Reichow ◽  
Thomas N. Friemel

Mobile phones have become a ubiquitous phenomenon on public transport. However, little attention has been given to the effect of mobile communication on perceived security on public transport. This paper develops a model of social presence and perceived security in order to understand the widespread use of mobile phones on public transport as well as its effects. The first part of the model suggests a mediating role of social presence to understand how perceived security motivates mobile communication. The respective hypotheses are tested with a representative survey ( N = 2,267), and the results support the mediating role of social presence. The second part of the model assumes that social presence is not only a motive to use mobile communication but also helps to improve perceived security. Based on a 2-week mobile experience sampling with 86 participants and 1,264 measurement points, the effect of mobile communication and social presence obtained, as well as individual and situational factors on perceived security were tested. The respective hypotheses were partially supported but also suggest that other coping strategies might be of relevance to fully understand the relationship between mobile communication and situational perceived security. Besides the academic insights, these results suggest that public transport operators should consider expanding mobile phone coverage in their vehicles and stations to improve perceived security and make their services more attractive.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 14-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Liu

AbstractRecent studies have shown what indispensable role mobile phones play as means of mobilization in contentious politics around the world. Nevertheless, there has been no clear elaboration of how mobile phone uses translate into mobilization in contentious politics. To fill this gap, the current study employs Passy’s (2003) framework of the threefold function of social ties as channels of mobilization to examine how mobile communication, embedding the dynamics of social ties, influences protest mobilization. It investigates two cases in rural and urban China in which Chinese people employed their mobile phones to mobilize participants for protests, and conducts 24 in-depth interviews with participants in these protests. Findings suggest that using mobile phones for mobilization registers the relational dynamics of social ties, which shapes participants’ perceptions of given protest issues, ensures the safety of protest recruitment and mobilization in a repressive context, and generates pressure on participation, all of which contributes to the mechanism of mobilization. This study concludes with the concept of ‘relational mobilization’, which addresses the embedment and relevance of social ties in the process of mobile-phone-mediated mobilization and its implication for Asian countries.


Author(s):  
Julie Willems

In the face of disasters and emergencies, Internet-enabled mobile phones (or ‘Smartphones'), coupled with Web 2.0 social networks are swiftly becoming not only a means to personally chronicle the events being experienced, but are also being used to disseminate information, educate and inform civilians. The aim of the i-Survive project was to investigate the use of mobile social media during recent Australian disaster and emergency situations. Participants in the pilot study were representatives of key community stakeholders in the crisis event. The quantitative and qualitative findings of from the study's survey questionnaire will be discussed in this paper. Participants' extended qualitative responses to the follow up interviews and the digital artefacts contributed will be detailed in two separate papers.


Author(s):  
Priti Y. Umratkar ◽  
Harshali Chalfe ◽  
S. K. Totade

The continuously use of mobile phone can be attributed to it can use in any places and thus have become one of the most widely used devices in mobile communication which makes it so important in our lives. The convenience and portability of cellphones has made it possible to be carried everywhere. e.g Churches, lecture halls, medical centers etc. Its benefit can create disturbance in some places when there is continuous beeping or ringtones of cell phones which becomes annoying when such noise is disturbance in areas where silence is required or the use or of mobile phone is restricted or prohibited like Libraries and Study rooms A mobile phone jammer is an instrument used to prevent cellular phones from receiving signals from base station. It is a device that transmit signal on the same frequency at which the GSM system operates, the jamming success when the mobile phones in the area where the jammer is located are disabled. The mobile phone jammer unit is intended for blocking all mobile phone types within designated indoor areas. The mobile Phone Jammer is a 'plug and play' unit, its installation is quick and its operation is easy. Once the mobile Phone Jammer is operating, all mobile phones present within the jamming coverage area are blocked, and cellular activity in the immediate surroundings (including incoming and outgoing calls, SMS, pictures sending, etc.) is jammer. This paper focuses on the design of a cell phone jammer to prevent the usage of mobile communication in restricted areas without interfering with the communication channels outside its range.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document