Journal Description
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Mobile Media & Communication is a peer-reviewed forum for international, interdisciplinary academic research on the dynamic field of mobile media and communication. Mobile Media & Communication draws on a wide and continually renewed range of disciplines, engaging broadly in the concept of mobility itself.
The journal embraces both quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study of mobility in communication, but above all aims toward state-of-the-art methodology. While the center of gravity lies in social sciences and humanities, the journal is open to research with technical, economic, and design aspects, provided they help to enlighten the social dimensions of mobile communication.
Mobile Media & Communication examines the phenomenon of mobility in communication – that is, what is understood as mobile media and communication, but also emerging phenomena such as mobile and ubiquitous computing. Contributions may include, but are certainly not limited to, explorations of the following topics:
- Mobile communication as an innovation, including the emergence of new usage forms, the negotiation of norms, and symbolic representation by producers and users
- The interrelationship of this nearly ubiquitous technology and the users’ everyday lives
- The embeddedness of mobile communication within social networks, and the mutual shaping of technology and social structure
- Local cultures and forms of use of mobile communication
- Mobile communication in developing countries
- Cultural differences in mobile communication
- Mobile communication and gender
- Specific methodologies that address the mobile character of the phenomenon: ethnography, observation, network analysis, experience sampling, and other still emerging methods
- Mobile learning and education.
- Persuasion through mobile media in various domains
- History of mobile media
- Journalism and mobile media
- Specific methodologies that address the mobile character of the phenomenon: ethnography, observation, network analysis, experience sampling, and other still emerging methods
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Journal Feed
- by Kat FullerMobile Media & Communication, Volume 12, Issue 3, Page 709-710, September 2024.
- by Nele JanssensMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. The characteristics of mobile technology devices have enabled new ways of integrating technology in familial interactions. This study aimed to investigate (1) differences in perspectives of technoference and family-oriented mobile technology use between parents and children, (2) the relation between parent–child interactions that take place via mobile technology and the quality of the parent–child relationship, and (3) its association with the well-being of parents and preadolescents separately. Structural equation modelling was performed on cross-sectional data from 390 parent–child dyads. The findings revealed discrepancies in child technoference perceptions and varying associations of the different […]
- Mobile Media & Communication, Volume 12, Issue 3, Page 711-711, September 2024.
- by Ludwig FichteMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. In this article, we use a top tasks survey (n = 466) and unmoderated interviews (n = 101) to explore how smartphone users access the internet: through browsers or standalone applications. We found a surprising number of users surveyed rely on mobile browsers to conduct internet-based tasks ordinarily associated with standalone apps, such as reading emails (34%), watching videos (24%), and listening to music (16%). Interviews revealed several practical and socioeconomic explanations for “browser-centric” smartphone use, including memory conservation on inexpensive mobile handsets and privacy management. We discuss the implications for information systems and technology adoption theories […]
- by Ching-Hua ChuanMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. This study developed and evaluated a theory-driven mobile app to facilitate pro-environmental behavior change and habit formation to address the prevalent attitude-behavior gap in environmental activism. The app first informs users of interconnected environmental problems and offers various pro-environmental behaviors for users to practice daily. The app further nudges users toward achieving their behavioral goals through personalized daily reminders, progress-tracking, empowering messages that celebrate their achievements, and reaffirmation of the beneficial impacts of their actions to facilitate eco-habit formation. To evaluate the app's effectiveness, a sequential mixed-design method combining a pre-and-post-design experiment and […]
- by Sebastian RanderathMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. Tracking by mobile media has become key to coordination and surveillance of delivery gig work. Through their daily app-based media operations, delivery gig workers contribute to the capitalisation and establishment of platform companies’ spatiotemporal regimes. But this app-based tracking has been a source of tension and conflict, particularly in the face of growing organised and unionised resistance by delivery gig workers in Germany. App-based tracking is evolving into an arena for negotiating resistance, conducting counter-surveillance and (temporarily) disrupting platform-based supply chains. These forms of labour resistance and counter-surveillance by individual riders, works councils […]
- by Hailey SchererMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. The affordances of different media technologies can affect how users develop parasocial relationships with the media figures they encounter on those devices. This study examined the relationship between mobility and parasocial relationships with podcast hosts. Participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk (n = 165) responded to a survey on a memorable podcast listening experience. The results revealed a conditional indirect effect of mobility on parasocial relationship strength through narrative transportation. Media multitasking moderated this effect. Specifically, there was a positive effect of mobility on transportation that increased incrementally at moderate and high levels of multitasking.
- by Anneleen MeeusMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. Smartphones are increasingly present during the exchanges we have with others in real life. Such co-present smartphone use has mainly been examined from a negative perspective, and research has insufficiently recognized the positive role these behaviors may play in social relationships. The main goal of the current study was therefore to offer insight into the processes by which smartphone co-use may be related to positive social dynamics during in-person interactions. Data were collected through two cross-sectional studies among 1) in Austria (N = 257, Mage = 32.84, SDage = 13.97, 55.9% female) and 2) in Belgium (N = 180, Mage = 10.79, SDage = 0.66, […]
- by Kieran HegartyMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. This article shows how dominant actors inscribe certain ideas, visions, and predictions of infrastructural futures for international mobile telecommunications through standardization. It argues that standard setting is a key avenue that brings different (and sometimes divergent) interests, groups, concerns, and activities into alignment around a certain vision of social and technological progress. To demonstrate this, two key stages in the 5G standardization process were examined. First, we explored the path to the release of IMT-2020—the standard for 5G networks, devices, and services released by the Radiocommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union. Through […]
- by Kevin C. MudavadiMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. The abundance of misinformation spreading online has precipitated a need to investigate experiences with misinformation in more closed spaces like those found on WhatsApp. Based on interviews with Kenyan adults, this study examines participants’ perceptions of misinformation circulated on WhatsApp and its potential consequences, interactions with misinformation, and decision-making. Findings indicate that participants perceive sharing misinformation on WhatsApp as a means of telling others about what is happening around them. Participants acknowledged the dangers of misinformation spread on WhatsApp but were wary of correcting it because of family and friend dynamics; they were […]
- by Nandhini PriyaMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. Hedonistic smartphone usage refers to smartphone activities for instant gratification and pleasure; increased hedonistic use is associated with perceived stress, problematic smartphone usage, and smartphone addiction among adolescents. Parents naturally intervene in adolescents’ screen media use through various mediation strategies, including active mediation of safety, restrictive mediation, monitoring mediation, and technical mediation, to reduce potential negative impacts and online risks. This study aims to identify the relationship between parental mediation strategies and adolescents’ hedonistic smartphone use using the data from 447 adolescents and 432 parents. This study also explores the consideration of a […]
- by Justin GrandinettiMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. Mobile applications are often positioned as a technologically driven answer to navigating the world with disability; nevertheless, apps created for specialized communities designed to facilitate mobility can quickly meet friction that stymies movement through place. Accordingly, the effectiveness of mobile apps is determined by a complex sociotechnical puzzle that includes cultures, industry regulations, public knowledge and legislation, the unique histories of urban spaces, and infrastructural access. Drawing from short-term autoethnographic approaches designed to evaluate the utility of mobile applications, this article provides a critical assessment of using location-aware gluten-free apps to navigate traveling […]
- by Annelise PeschMobile Media & Communication, Volume 12, Issue 3, Page 536-563, September 2024. Research demonstrates that phubbing—the act of snubbing someone in a social setting by looking at one's mobile phone—interferes with the quality and satisfaction of social interactions. This article examined how observations of an adult's phone use during a social interaction impact different social judgments. Adult participants (n = 331) watched a 3-min video showing four speakers having a discussion around a table. One speaker looked at their phone intermittently during the meeting (five times for 2–3 s each) while not interacting with the other speakers. Participants were asked to rate characteristics […]
- by An-Di GongMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. Free-to-play has become a common business strategy in the game market, the associated microtransactions of which have attracted academic attention. In recent years, gacha games have gathered a considerable consumer base in the mobile gaming market, and these players have demonstrated strong purchasing power with regard to additional game resources. Within the framework of parasocial interaction and the investment model, this study explored factors influencing players’ game commitment and purchase intentions. This study used structural equation modeling and moderation analysis to examine data collected from 2,045 Chinese mobile game players. Satisfaction and investment […]
- by Annabell HalfmannMobile Media & Communication, Ahead of Print. Balancing everyday tasks with the expectations of others regarding one's availability via smartphone is a challenge, especially for mothers. This research replicated and further developed studies by Halfmann and colleagues in 2021 and 2024 that yielded contradictory results regarding the conditions of feelings of guilt about (not) using the smartphone. More specifically, we investigated how smartphone-related goal conflict, the availability norm, and the parental phone use norm are related to mothers’ feelings of guilt when completing non-stressful everyday tasks. In addition, we researched how smartphone-related goal conflict and guilt are linked with experiences […]
- by Nadia Herrada HidalgoMobile Media & Communication, Volume 12, Issue 3, Page 475-498, September 2024. Mobile instant messaging (MIM) applications have received increasing attention from social science researchers lately. Despite the high frequency of its use for multiple purposes, research in such environments entails specific ethical challenges, more familiar for researchers from the Global South, where MIMs have become an important part of the media landscape for a decade or so. This article discusses the ethical dilemmas that emerged in two distinct cases where authors were part of the research teams, concluding that current frameworks fall short in the sociotechnical dimension. To address […]
- by Yutian XiongMobile Media & Communication, Volume 12, Issue 3, Page 517-535, September 2024. This article rethinks digitally mediated family, contending that WeChat facilitates the integration of digitally mediated Chinese family units and family practices into an entire system within traditional patterns. WeChat can serve as the hub for this kind of family mediation, since it is the dominant mega-platform in the smartphone-based Chinese polymedia environment, possessing superior technological convergence and sociocultural affordances. Based on qualitative data from 48 Chinese internal migrants, this article characterizes the entire system of the traditional Chinese family mediated by WeChat. First, the static Chinese family units […]
- by Debjani ChakrabortyMobile Media & Communication, Volume 12, Issue 3, Page 499-516, September 2024. The COVID-19 pandemic and the worldwide lockdowns that followed the same have led to drastic changes in our lifestyles. While the lockdowns marked a global transition to a world of online services and products, the change was neither easy nor smooth for many. From lack of access to technology to the absence of skills to use it, the act of “going digital” was littered with challenges for people across the world. In the South-Asian country of India, this lack of access was further amplified by the presence of […]
- by Lian WangMobile Media & Communication, Volume 12, Issue 3, Page 564-583, September 2024. There is a growing body of literature on the demographic and socioeconomic distinctions between mobile-only and hybrid Internet users and how the two groups use the Internet differently. However, little is known about why people change their type of Internet access and the impact of this change. Relying on data from two waves of a nationally representative survey conducted in China, this study demonstrates that capital-enhancing Internet activities are positively correlated with the likelihood of switching from mobile-only access to hybrid access and negatively correlated with the likelihood […]
- by Alper AlanMobile Media & Communication, Volume 12, Issue 3, Page 584-601, September 2024. Mobile apps have been developed to manage COVID-19 in many countries. However, for these apps to be truly effective, they need to be widely adopted by society. To date, there has been less qualitative research on user experiences and perspectives on these apps. The goal of this study was to explore how users perceive and use different features of a COVID-19 tracing app provided in Turkey. Semi-structured interviews (n = 15) were conducted over the phone, audio recorded, and then transcribed verbatim. The transcriptions were analyzed through thematic analysis. The […]