"This volume captures the domestication of mobile communication technologies by families in Asia, and its implications for family interactions and relationships. It showcases research on families across a spectrum of socio-economic profiles, from both rural and urban areas, offering insights on chil
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dren, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. While mobile communication diffuses through Asia at a blistering pace, families in the region are also experiencing significant changes in light of unprecedented economic growth, globalisation, urbanisation and demographic shifts. Asia is therefore at the crossroads of technological transformation and social change. This book analyses the interactions of these two contemporaneous trends from the perspective of the family, covering a range of family types including nuclear, multi-generational, transnational, and multi-local, spanning the continuum from the media-rich to the media have-less." (Publisher description)
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"This project is conducted in response to Global Disaster Preparedness Center’s (GDPC) initiative of developing flood hazard preparedness mobile apps in the four target countries (Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam)." (Executive summary)
"Drawn from multisited fieldwork conducted among Cameroonians in Germany and Cameroon, the article reveals that the liveness of mobile phone communication influences expectations and narratives of remittances in Cameroonian transnational social relationships. These expectations are meaningful within
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a cultural context where economic resources are expected to flow from migrants to nonmigrants. As this case demonstrates, the general belief in nonmigrants' entitlement to the achievements of those who migrate regardless of their status abroad, also means migrant students are involved in remittances practices. The students are expected to remit and at the same time, they are conscious of their obligation to support people who stay back in the home country. As such, the mobile phone ideally provides an infrastructure through which monetary resources could be coordinated and channeled to Cameroon. While exploring this possibility of remittances transfer, I argue that instant communication contradictorily generates and fuels conflicts mainly as a result of unmet expectations of deploying the phone to directly request money from abroad." (Abstract)
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"Entre hybridation et réinvention, les pratiques communicationnelles liées à la téléphonie mobile offrent des perspectives de recherche stimulantes. Pour les opérateurs de téléphonie, il s’ouvre un réel champ, où d’observation en expérimentation, se créent de nouvelles offres. Au-del
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à des chiffres inespérés, on voit se dessiner des pratiques inattendues : Happy Snapping, crowd-funding, m-commerce, mobile learning. On peut aussi évoquer les usages de la téléphonie mobile dans les pratiques religieuses – avec des « maraboutages » à distance –, dans la lutte contre les fraudes électorales, et dans la mobilisation sociale, notamment lors des manifestations à caractère politique. Les articles rassemblés dans cet ouvrage interrogent la contribution réelle de la téléphonie mobile au développement économique et social des popu-lations, ses modes d’appropriation, les formes de socialisation qu’elle induit et les innovations qui la caractérisent ou qu’elle suscite. La technologie n’étant pas neutre, il s’agit de penser les modalités de son intégration et ses conséquences sur le système social." (Dos de couverture)
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"Mobile ownership in all of the four surveys [in Ghana, Nothern Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania] was around 90%, making the mobile phone the most widely owned device media device, both used as a media carrier (radio) and a media in its own right (Internet, SMS) [...] Radio remains the dominant medium
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for obtaining news and information and only in Ghana (where electricity access is wider) does TV come close to the percentage of those listening to radio. In each of the countries examined, the media has been liberalized and the radio and TV audiences are fragmented so that only a relatively small number of players reach over 25% of the audience [...] As the continent’s most owned device, the mobile phone is used most regularly for: voice calls; radio; SMS; Internet and Social Media. Between a fifth and a third of all those surveyed used the Internet on a daily basis [...] Between 14-27% of all those surveyed used social media and the dominant platform is Facebook [...] Radio and TV channels scored most highly in terms of those surveyed trusting the health information they heard on saw on them. The level of trust in these channels in Senegal was significantly lower than in the other countries." (Summary, page 5-9)
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"Feature phone users are significantly more likely to use the Internet almost as much radio and TV for news and information. This is not an either/or set of choices but the Internet is part of the range of media they use. Internet is in second position in Nigeria, third position in Ethiopia and Keny
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a; fourth position in Ghana and fifth position in South Africa. This is behind TV, radio and sometimes friends and family. Social media was used by around two-thirds of respondents or slightly less in all countries except Ethiopia. A quarter to a third of all respondents obtained information using the Internet from NGOs." (Summary, page 6)
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"TV is the main information platform by far, but the importance of individual channels varies by region and modes of access. Population is divided between those with access to non-State TV and those without. While most express generic satisfaction with media, actual opinions about specific channels
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vary. At the national level, the impact of digital media remains modest, and electronic data sharing is still a niche phenomenon. There is a huge gender disparity regarding access to Internet and mobile." (Conclusions, page 43)
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"As 75 percent of the world’s mobile subscriptions are in developing countries, studies of use patterns are essential to broader understanding. However, scholars should engage with existing theory and literature in order to operate within a framework and expand readership. Rigorous and ethical res
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earch from a variety of methodological perspectives is encouraged." (Abstract)
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"Media use and talking with others have been found to have positive effects on citizens' civic participation according to Wyatt, Katz, and Kim (2000). Recent research links informational uses of the mobile phone to increased involvement in civic and political life. Building on this line of research,
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this study explores the effect of smartphone use on civil discourse engagement in China, with its nearly 900 million mobile phone user. Results reveal the smartphone's role as an outlet of public information, which fosters political talk with others, but also suggest use of government-controlled traditional media stifles open civic discourse. Hierarchical regression analyses show that talking politics in private, extensive use of the smartphone, and mobile tweeting were positive predictors of engagement in online civic discourse." (Abstract)
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"Cambodia is a country on the cusp of rapid media change. TV and radio remain the top media and main sources of news. Apolitical newcomer Hang Meas is top source with tabloid news, entertainment. But new media is gaining, fueled by widespread mobile use: almost all households have a mobile phone; yo
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ung, educated and urban drive new media use. Internet numbers remain in low double digits, but growth is exponential: outside infrastructure investment increasing broadband mobile rapidly; those who use the Internet use it for broadband activities¡Xvideo, audio¡Xeven in the countryside. Facebook dominates social media and is the top online news source." (Key takeaways, slide 37)
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"Die 'Grüne Bewegung', die Protestbewegung infolge der iranischen Präsidentschaftswahlen, machte im Sommer 2009 international Schlagzeilen. Das Mobiltelefon wurde dabei zum Symbol und zur Waffe des Volkes: Mit Handyfotos und -videos wurde das brutale Vorgehen der iranischen Machthaber gegen die Be
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völkerung in die Welt getragen. Inmitten des Kampfes um eine verheißungsvolle Neuordnung der iranischen Machtverhältnisse stand das Handyvideo vom Tod der jungen Iranerin Neda Agha-Soltan. Mareike Meis untersucht, wie sich die feminisierende und solidarisierende Wirkung dieses Todesvideos erklären lässt, wie das Mobiltelefon Symbolcharakter erlangte und wie der Deutungskampf um die iranische Protestbewegung in der deutschen Berichterstattung dargestellt wurde." (Klappentext)
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"This article uses interdisciplinary insights and a critical review of relevant literature to identify research opportunities that stand to advance mobile political communication theory. Contributions and limitations of studies focused on ICTs and political participation are reviewed and discussed.
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Analysis of studies focused on the political participation outcomes of mobile media use is synthesized with theory from user-focused mobile communication literature to highlight the unique qualities that distinguish mobile media and the implications of those distinguishing features for studying political participation. Recommendations are made for research directions that would further investigate the association of mobile media's distinctive features with online and offline forms of political participation. This analysis indicates opportunities for scholars to unpack mobile media's unique features in ways that potentially redefine political participation, and, accordingly, further the development of research questions and theories that investigate the relationship of mobile media and political participation. It is concluded that research is needed that explains mobile media use in finer detail, accounts for shifting conceptualizations of political participation, and contributes to the development of cross-cultural comparative frameworks." (Abstract)
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"Through the methodological framework of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), the report measures the extent to which 144 economies, from both the developed and developing worlds, take advantage of ICTs and other new technologies to increase their growth and well-being. The NRI identifies the most r
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elevant factors driving ICT readiness and impacts, providing policymakers, business leaders, and civil society at large with a useful tool for designing national strategies for increased networked readiness and for benchmarking their country’s performance against other relevant comparators. The Global Information Technology Report 2013 features the latest computation and rankings of the NRI, and in referring to this year’s theme, dives deeper into the connection between ICTs and economic growth and job creation. As in previous years, it also showcases a number of ICT development stories of particular interest. In addition, the report includes detailed profiles for the 144 economies covered this year together with data tables for each of the 54 indicators used in the computation of the NRI." (Back cover)
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"Over just a decade in India, the mobile phone was transformed from a rare, unwieldy instrument to a palm-sized staple that even poor fisherman can afford. Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey investigate the social revolution ignited by what may be the most significant communications device in history and
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explore the whole ecosystem of cheap mobile phones." (Publisher description)
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"This book is about the workings of networks of the mobile in Africa, a continent usually associated with the ‘global shadows’ of the world. How do changes in the possibilities for communication, with the recent hype of mobile technology, influence the social and economic dynamics in Africa’s
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mobile margins? To what extent is the freedom associated with new Information and Communication Technologies reality or disillusion for people dwelling in the margins? Are ordinary Africans increasingly Side@Ways? How social are these emergent Side@Ways? Contributions to answering these and related questions are harvested from ethnographic insights by team members of the WOTRO funded ‘Mobile Africa revisited’ research programme hosted by the African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands." (Publisher description)
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