Arnt Maasø

Small Talk Makes a Big Difference: Recent Developments in Interactive, SMS-Based Television

The article discusses key features of SMS-based television. It has a particular focus on the shift from one-way broadcast communication toward two-way interactivity, and on new forms of user participation through SMS-based televisions interactive design interfaces. The article presents a multimodal analysis of design in SMS-based television formats, a discourse analysis of their roles and interactions, and a typology of their degrees of interactivity. It also draws on interviews with industry decision-makers and on relevant statistics. The article develops a conceptual interest, introducing some neologisms to account for the original textual features of SMS-based television. Its designs are analyzed using a concept of “zones,” while its roles and interactions are seen as linking these zones by means of “axes.” In closing it is suggested that SMS-based television presents us with interactivity as a realized, albeit mundane, fact rather than as a future promise.

Music Streaming, Festivals, and the Eventization of Music

Abstract A key aspect of music-streaming services is the user’s access to their vast libraries and abundant choices anytime and anywhere. This article explores how artists performing at a large music festival in Norway were streamed before, during, and after the festival over the course of four different years. The data shows that festival streams grew by more than 40% compared to control weeks and were particularly pronounced among users who lived near the venue. The article then argues that changes in listening patterns may reflect a more general shift towards the “eventization” of streaming media.

Mediating Music: materiality and silence in Madonna's 'Don't Tell Me'

This article investigates how the concrete sound of and recording process behind a pop tune relate to the possibilities and constraints of its electronic media. After a brief presentation of some theoretical issues related to the question of mediation and materiality, we address the claim that digitisation erases the material aspects of mediation through an investigation of contemporary popular music. Through a close analysis of the sound (and the silence) in Madonna’s song ‘Don’t Tell Me’, from the album Music (2000), as well as in a handful of related examples, we argue that one can indeed identify specific aural qualities associated with digital sound, and that these qualities may be used to achieve different aesthetic effects as well as to shed light on mediation and medium specificity as such.

High Risk, Strong Belief

Abstract When planning for the future, media managers must balance realism with the need to foresee unexpected changes. This article investigates images of the future in the Norwegian media industry in the early years of the 21st century and identifies five key trends that media managers envisioned: personalized content, user-generated content, rich media, cross-platform media, and mobility. We argue that increased reflection on such visions and how they are formed may put managers (and researchers) in a better position to meet the future. We therefore ask to what degree they were influenced by actual developments at the time, or anchored in more classical imagery of the future. The analysis illustrates how new technologies become focal points for articulating old dreams about the future. At the latest turn of the century, the mobile phone served as such a focal technology.