The rocket in your pocket: how mobile phones became the media by stealth

Abstract

Where is your mobile telephone? Is it turned on? For most of us the mobile telephone has quietly become the technology that is always with us, and is always on. The mobile telephone is suddenly no longer simply about voice or text communication; the latest models are a portable digital media production and delivery system in their own right. This paper describes the diffusion of mobile phones around the world, and focuses on their use by younger people as a media and social management tool. The paper also describes some of the new media content forms developing around mobile phones, and considers the features of mobile media in terms of their capacity to deliver, produce and share content.