Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies

石头

作者：Manuel Castells, James E. Katz
出版日期：July 31, 2008
出版社：其它
页数：472
ISBN：ISBN-10: 0262113120 ISBN-13: 978-0262113120
文件格式：PDF


Product Description
Mobile communication has become mainstream and even omnipresent. It isarguably the most successful and certainly the most rapidly adopted newtechnology in the world: more than one of every three people worldwidepossesses a mobile phone. This volume offers a comprehensive view ofthe cultural, family, and interpersonal consequences of mobilecommunication across the globe. Leading scholars analyze the effect ofmobile communication on all parts of life, from the relationshipbetween literacy and the textual features of mobile phones to the useof ringtones as a form of social exchange, from the “aspirationalconsumption” of middle class families in India to the belief in partsof Africa and Asia that mobile phones can communicate with the dead.The contributors explore the ways mobile communication profoundlyaffects the tempo, structure, and process of daily life around theworld. They discuss the impact of mobile communication on socialnetworks, other communication strategies, traditional forms of socialorganization, and political activities. They consider how quicklymiraculous technologies come to seem ordinary and even necessary—andhow ordinary technology comes to seem mysterious and even miraculous.The chapters cut across social issues and geographical regions; theyhighlight use by the elite and the masses, utilitarian and expressivefunctions, and political and operational consequences. Taken together,the chapters demonstrate how mobile communication has affected thequality of life in both exotic and humdrum settings, and how itincreasingly occupies center stage in people’s lives around the world.
About the Author
James E. Katz is Chair of the Department of Communication at RutgersUniversity and director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies.He is the author of Magic in the Air: Mobile Communication and the Transformation of Social Life and coauthor of Social Consequences of Internet Use (MIT Press, 2002).