Mark Dixon 30795539

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Mobile Media Worlds

Current mobile technology has given birth to many new concepts and

ideas, one of which being mobile media. How does this technology fit into

New Media, and what effects will it have on us a society? Will this new

technology eclipse the more traditional forms of media, rendering them

redundant?

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In the 21st century, mobilisation seems to have been widely accepted as a major feature

of life. Mobile technology has become the counterpart to every device that we use, and we

have become evidently more dependent on mobile technology for orchestrating and

operating our lives. Many new media products have embraced these technological advances

and seem to have quickly adapted and implemented the technology to work in

synchronisation for a truly mobile media experience. This analytical report attempts to

comment and illustrate the convergence of mobile media technologies into other new media

objects, in particular mobile media worlds. The concept of a mobile media world is not

particularly new, however the technology used to create such mobile experiences is still only

young. With the current status of mobile technology, and greater social acceptance of a

mobile world, more opportunities have arisen for the development of mobile media. As such,

we as a society need to fully understand the potential implications of having such a mobile

world. Throughout this analytical essay aspects of the integration of mobile media

technology and mobile media worlds into society will be commented on and critiqued in a

manner that encourage the reader to engage the subject of a mobile media world in an

analytical way.

Alongside its obvious communicative implications, the mobile network influences people

in a range of cultural, social and political ways. A significant feature of contemporary life,

large portions of the population are dependent upon the network for staying “connected”

with the rest of the world. To not subscribe to such mobile technology leaves the individual

disconnected from the network, and thus potentially “un-informed” of all of the global

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happenings, whether local or international. Ever since the integration and acceptance of the

mobile phone into society during the late 20th century, cultural pressures have centred on

making the technology smaller, faster and better. What may have started as a simple idea to

allow communication on the move was before long expanding its horizons and surpassing

itself. Mobile technology soon became about the acquisition of data through a mobile device,

feeding the user information whilst retaining mobility and ease of access. First access to

mobile data came through the GSM WAP network as early as 1997, as “an effort to allow

Internet-like services within the GSM system and to avoid a situation where different

commercial actors would develop separate standards.” (Ling, 2004, p. 10). However WAP

only found a somewhat limited role within the mobile phone industry, in a practical sense it

did not offer such great viability to current standards such as HTML. WAP also lacked speed

and came at great financial expense to the user. However, current mobile telephony is a

technology that is quickly finding its niche.

“The technology has become reliable and easily accessible. In addition, it has been

adopted on a large scale, and is on the way to becoming a taken-for-granted part of

the social landscape in many countries.” (Ling, 2004, p. 21)

This acceptance and growth of mobile technology has had an impact on social

determinism. In a purely deterministic statement “the clock, not the steam engine, is

the key machine of the modern industrial age.” (Mumford, 1936, p. 14). This

statement being interpreted as; technical devices are at the root of all social

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formations, and evolve along their intended route. However, Richard Ling disagrees,

claiming “thus, while a mobile telephone is designed primarily as a communication

device, it can be conceivably function as a type of hammer, shoehorn, a bottle

opener, or even a type of flashlight, depending on the inventiveness of the user.”

(Ling, 2004, p. 23). This statement reflects Lings’s thoughts that technologies are

continually reinterpreted by users, and are given new, often unexpected, trajectories.

This may help to explain how mobile media has come to flourish, and how our mobile

telephone devices are now capable of much more than simple communicative tasks.

“We already know how it enables simple social communication, but increasingly it

plays a number of sophisticated roles in social interaction and everyday life. It is an

enabler of social interactions, hierarchies and communication. It is a fetishised object

that reinforces a sense of individual identity. It is a transformative technology that

changes the way we do business. It is a device that changes how we manage space

and time.” (Glotz, Bertschi and Locke, 2005, p. 11)

Technological convergence is considered to be the amalgamation and

synchronisation of two media technologies, particularly between a traditional

media product and a product of new media, to form a product of singular

proportion that achieves both set adjectives. Roger Fidler best describes

convergence in his ‘Principles of Mediamorphosis’, however outdated the 90’s

media technology may seem, his “mediamorphic process” (Fidler, 1997, p. 25) is

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applicable and compatible with today’s new media technologies. Fidler’s

mediamorphic view gives clear distinction about the evolution of media

technologies, and how convergence is the key element to the gestation and

development of new media technologies. The mobile phone is no stranger to the

process of mediamorphosis as throughout its ever-changing and influential time

with us as a society, it has been instrumental to the convergence and

metamorphosis of new media.

Modern mobile phones are marketed towards fast-paced societies and continually

growing and changing economies, and have become objects that are glorified for

their communicative and connective abilities. Having the power to stay informed

and updated while on the move is almost a prerequisite for the modern individual

taking part in a contemporary social hierarchy. Consumerist competiveness and

image-centric cultural foci causes the mobile phone to become “a fetishised object

that reinforces a sense of individual identity.” (Glotz, Bertschi and Locke, 2005, p.

11). Consumers are driven to buy the ‘latest and greatest’ mobile technology, not

primarily because they need the latest phone, but more often because it has more

features than their ‘old’ one.

Gerard Goggin claims that “digital media convergence has enriched the mobile

phone with various media functions, forms, channels and delivery methods. There

is hardly any other single media device which has converged so many technologies

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and functions.” (Goggin, Hjorth, 2009, p. 120). This assertion helps to illustrate the

full mobilization of media through the mobile phone, and dictates that mobile

technology is at the forefront of making media mobile. In particular the transition

from GSM to 3G/4G networks has been the main signifier for the evolution of the

mediatisation of the mobile phone, the culmination of which is the ability to follow

TV broadcasts on the mobile. Additionally, there has been further “ ‘mobilization’ of

the press; in some national newspapers in Finland there are columns which consist

purely of readers’ opinions and comments sent by SMS.” (Goggin, Hjorth, 2009, p.

120). Accessing data from the mobile phone has never been easier and offers such

a diverse range of experiences that the aspect of variability and the number of

possibilities are innumerate. Convergence has allowed mobile users to update their

social media status and keep connected at all times through the virtual networks

that they subscribe to, giving the masses of users power and control at their

fingertips.

Social mobile media is a mobile media world in itself and it seems as though the

convergence of social media with a mobile technology has been at the forefront of

the mobile media world for as long as it has been around. Apple offers a range of

‘apps’ for its iPad/Phone/Pod that allows users to update and be updated with their

social media while mobile, essentially mobile ‘produsing’. How does this fare then

for the traditional phone call or SMS, when it is just as easy for the user to contact

their colleagues through social media sites such as FaceBook via mobile

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technology? Phone companies themselves understand that mobile internet is now

becoming social norm, and offer data packages for most mobile plans, some even

boasting ‘unlimited’ access to social media sites. Not even wired service providers

are offering that yet. Perhaps this is a reflection that social media is something that

is more commonly happening in the mobile media world, and that it feels more

natural to operate from a mobile device. Some phones are even boasting Voice

Over Internet Protocol. Or ‘VoIP’, meaning call costs are minimal. While a good

quality internet connection is required for this, for most phones on either 3G or 4G

networks this is not an issue.

The mobile phone is therefore now a mobile media device, no longer “follow(ing)

developments of other media, but (becoming) a medium in itself, strongly created

by its different and changing uses.” (Goggin, Hjorth, 2009, p. 120). This claim makes

a clear connection with Ling’s previous statements, as he illustrates that the mobile

phone is simply a tool that is waiting to be invented, that it is ever evolving and

often becomes thrown on a trajectory of use that it was never intended for. But

through ‘mediamorphosis’ as coined by Fidler, the technology embraces the

change, evolves and adapts to its new use. In this way, by transforming itself from a

device for communication to a mobile media device, the mobile phone has most

recently been contracted for the task of serious mobile gaming. As a range of

experimental games hit the market, the trend seems to be growing at a slow but

steady rate. These games specifically are becoming known as mobile games, but

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can also fall into the category of MMMRPG’s (Massively Multiplayer Mobile Role

Playing Games). Location-aware or pervasive games often involve the use of GPS

(Global Positioning Systems), which allows games to be played simultaneously

online and offline. Gaming has typically always included “place and mobility, and

yet this is precisely what is missing in current games, especially single player

games.” (Goggin, Hjorth, 2009, p. 146).

These media forms become quite significantly transformed and remediated when

made available through a mobile device with location sensing technology, where

the physical position of a user can be broadcasted to all other mobile or fixed

devices. Thus what the mobile internet will provide is not only the merger of

communication and media, but the added facility of mobility, which has given rise

to MMMRPG and location based gaming (LBG). Taking this technology just a few

steps further, there are some games that offer an ‘augmented reality’, where the

user operates the devices much like viewing the world through a camera. The

device is GPS located and 3G/4G enabled, virtual objects can be seen through the

viewer, offering the user a virtual reality experience, but is in actual fact simply an

augmented version of reality.

Having outlined the developments in mobile media technology, the implications

that such technology may have on traditional forms of media distribution can now

be discussed, with a critical examination of possible forms of future new media

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convergence. In order to understand the effects of current advances in mobile

technology on the more traditional forms of media, Fidler advises:

“Metamorphosis: New media do not arise spontaneously and independently –

they emerge gradually from the metamorphosis of older media. When newer forms

emerge, the older forms tend to adapt and continue to evolve rather than die.”

(Fidler, 1997, p. 29)

Fidler’s commentary on the metamorphisis of new media conveys the message that

older traditional media will still have a part in our society even with the ever

growing and ever acceptable mobile media. More traditional forms of media such

as television may have to adapt to the changes and evolve to embrace new media,

for example: internet television that now allows streaming of television shows on

demand. In general, it seems that any negative outcomes against pre-established

forms of media when a new media technology is formed is minimal, given that in

the past most older technologies simply become converged into the new

technology. Rather than the traditional media becoming redundant and destroyed,

it is more “consumed” by the new media, and converged within it allowing users to

further access it on more channels as exemplified by mobile television.

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Given that though, ‘convergence’ isn’t something that can be taken and applied to

any two forms of media and a positive outcome be obtained. Fidler refers to his

‘mediamorphisis process’ and claims that the whole process of media

metamorphosis is based upon chaos theory:

“Chaotic systems are essentially anarchistic. That is, they exhibit nearly infinite

variability with no long-term patterns, which explains why precise long-range

weather and national economic forecasts are all but impossible. It also explains why

no one will ever be able to accurately predict which specific new media technologies

and forms of communication will ultimately succeed and which will fail.” (Fidler,

1997, p. 27)

Taking that into consideration when looking towards the possibilities of future

mobile media technologies, it is important to remember that these technologies are

almost ‘experimental’, not in the manner of instability, but more in the manner of

socially unexplored. In order for a media technology to take form, it has to be

popular and has to offer the user something that they desire. This is mostly why we

see convergences of technologies that are already both popular and socially

abundant, such as social networking converged with mobile technology leading to

mobile social networking. Individually, each was socially accepted to begin with

and abundant in nature, but by converging them the user is being offered the

chance to use familiar technology with a media that they enjoy.

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As a final summarization of this analytical essay, I would like to draw attention to

the following quote, as a possible reason for the consistent evolution of mobile

phone technologies:

“Many technologies have what one might call a crystallized solidity that

makes reinterpretation difficult. One can, for example, think of cars and the massive

system of roads, gas stations, marketing and fabrication that is associated with them.

While we can make small and almost inconsequential changes here, such as the style

of the cars or the features available in the sound-system, these changes represent

only the small personalization of a massive system. There are, however, no

substantial new areas of use that are being developed for the car-based

transportation system. On the other hand, relatively new technologies- such as

mobile telephony – are more available for reinterpretation. The time, place, reasons

for use , and way they are used are, in many ways, more open than in the case of the

more thoroughly established technologies.” (Ling, 2004, p. 21)

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Reference List

Fidler, R. 1997. Mediamorphosis: understanding new media. California: Pine Forge Press.

Glotz, Bertschi and Locke. 2005. Thumb culture: the meaning of mobile phones for society. London:

Verlag.

Goggin and Hjorth. 2009. Mobile technologies: from telecommunications to media. United Kingdom:

Taylor and Francis.

Jenkins, H. 2006. Convergence culture: where old and new media collide. New York: NYU Press.

Ling, R. 2004. The mobile connection: the cell phone’s impact on society. San Francisco: Elsevier.

Mumford, L. 1936. Technics and civilization. New York: Harcourt, Brace and company.