"The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media seeks to be the definitive publication for scholars and students interested in comprehending all the various aspects of mobile media. This collection, which gathers together original articles by a global roster of contributors from a variety of disciplines, s
...
ets out to contextualize the increasingly convergent areas surrounding social, geosocial, and mobile media discourses. Features include: comprehensive and interdisciplinary models and approaches for analyzing mobile media; wide-ranging case studies that draw from this truly global field, including China, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, as well as Europe, the UK, and the US; a consideration of mobile media as part of broader media ecologies and histories; chapters setting out the economic and policy underpinnings of mobile media; explorations of the artistic and creative dimensions of mobile media; studies of emerging issues such as ecological sustainability; up-to-date overviews on social and locative media by pioneers in the field." (Back cover)
more
"The Handbook presents a comprehensive, integrative, and global view of what has been called the digital divide. Collecting an international collaboration of experts, this Handbook of Research offers policy makers, academicians, managers, and researchers a complete reference source to the interactio
...
ns, evolutions, and policies developing within the field. The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to: broadband access; digital divide framing and mapping; digital divide related to education; digital divide related to ethnicity; digital divide related to gender; digital literacy; e-government and the digital divide; evolution of the digital divide; inequalities of digital skills; regional differences in digital divide." (Publisher description)
more
"Training programs of NGOs can help low-income youth effectively adopt ICTs. There is no doubt that acquiring ICT skills in demand in the current market can help these young people find jobs. They face obstacles such as a poor education, lack of ICT skills and the necessary social capital to identif
...
y the most attractive ICT positions for their professional development. They also lack support networks for finding jobs or starting businesses. Training in ICT offers socially and economically excluded groups the chance to enter the knowledge-based economy. We wanted to explore whether individuals enrolled in the selected NGO training programs had taken advantage of these opportunities. To this end, we conducted a comparative study among countries to determine whether youth (primarily) ICT training courses had an effect on beneficiaries’ labor participation, in terms of job searches, employment obtained, establishment of a business or improvements to an existing business. For this study, training beneficiaries and NGO staff members were interviewed and surveyed to learn about their perceptions regarding the usefulness of ICT training for employability. We also analyzed how the organizational tools of the NGOs have supported beneficiaries in finding jobs, setting up businesses, or increasing employment opportunities." (Introduction, page 9)
more
"This book offers a view of the cultural, family, and interpersonal consequences of mobile communication across the globe. Scholars analyze the effect of mobile communication on all parts of life, from the relationship between literacy and the textual features of mobile phones to the use of ringtone
...
s as a form of social exchange, from the “aspirational consumption” of middle-class families in India to the belief in parts of Africa and Asia that mobile phones can communicate with the dead. The contributors explore the ways mobile communication profoundly affects the tempo, structure, and process of daily life around the world. The book discusses the impact of mobile communication on social networks, other communication strategies, traditional forms of social organization, and political activities. It considers how quickly miraculous technologies come to seem ordinary and even necessary; and how ordinary technology comes to seem mysterious and even miraculous. The chapters cut across social issues and geographical regions; they highlight use by the elite and the masses, utilitarian and expressive functions, and political and operational consequences. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate how mobile communication has affected the quality of life in both exotic and humdrum settings, and how it increasingly occupies center stage in people’s lives around the world." (Publisher description)
more