Thilo von Pape

An Integrative Model of Mobile Phone Appropriation

The evolution of mobile communication devices and services has taken up a dynamic that makes any prognosis in the field almost impossible. Whereas part of this dynamic may remain inscrutable, we believe that a much higher degree of explanation can be achieved by systematically paying closer attention to the process of appropriation. To seize upon this potential, we present an integrative model to analyze mobile phone appropriation (the “MPA model”). The model is based on existing theoretical approaches of the quantitative “adoption” paradigm (namely, Innovation Diffusion Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior) as well as the mostly qualitative research paradigm devoted to “appropriation” (Cultural studies and Frame Analysis), with the Uses-and-Gratifications approach playing a role on both sides. The model has been developed, operationalized and empirically applied in the context of mobile phone appropriation; however, with certain modifications it can be adapted to other information and communications technology (ICT) innovations. Resume An Integrative Model of Mobile Phone Appropriation The evolution of mobile communication devices and services has taken up a dynamic that makes any prognosis in the field almost impossible. Whereas part of this dynamic may remain inscrutable, we believe that a much higher degree of explanation can be achieved by systematically paying closer attention to the process of appropriation. To seize upon this potential, we present an integrative model to analyze mobile phone appropriation (the “MPA model”). The model is based on existing theoretical approaches of the quantitative “adoption” paradigm (namely, Innovation Diffusion Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior) as well as the mostly qualitative research paradigm devoted to “appropriation” (Cultural studies and Frame Analysis), with the Uses-and-Gratifications approach playing a role on both sides. The model has been developed, operationalized and empirically applied in the context of mobile phone appropriation; however, with certain modifications it can be adapted to other information and communications technology (ICT) innovations. ZhaiYao

Evolving Mobile Media: Uses and Conceptualizations of the Mobile Internet

Technological convergence has led to the ability to access the internet from a variety of mobile devices. Drawing on the Mobile Phone Appropriation Model (Wirth, von Pape & Karnowski, 2008), we sought to understand how people conceptualize and use the mobile internet by conducting semistructured interviews with 21 mobile internet users, half American and half German in order to explore cross-cultural differences. Findings suggest little cross-cultural difference in use and understanding of the mobile Internet. Users do not perceive the act of “going online” as a significant step, even if it is on a mobile device. They do, however, distinguish between different ways of consuming information online (extractive and immersive), relating them to different situations and devices.

The development of video game enjoyment in a role playing game.

This study examines the development of video game enjoyment over time. The results of a longitudinal study (N=62) show that enjoyment increases over several sessions. Moreover, results of a multilevel regression model indicate a causal link between the dependent variable video game enjoyment and the predictor variables exploratory behavior, spatial presence, competence, suspense and solution, and simulated experiences of life. These findings are important for video game research because they reveal the antecedents of video game enjoyment in a real-world longitudinal setting. Results are discussed in terms of the dynamics of video game enjoyment under real-world conditions.

Success in online searches: Differences between evaluation and finding tasks

Several studies have identified important factors for search success in online searches, but until now it has not been determined whether the influence of these factors varies during the search process. This study analyzes (a) whether search expertise, prior topic knowledge, topic interest, or flow experience during a search of the World Wide Web (WWW) influence success in finding relevant information and (b) whether the effects of these predictors vary during the course of the search process. Two different search tasks are investigated: The evaluating task focuses on the selection of relevant websites from a large number of potentially relevant sites, whereas the finding task focuses on the difficulty of finding information in the case of a lack of potentially relevant websites. Survival analysis is applied to data from a quasi‐experiment. This analysis considers not only the question of whether information is found, but also when. Findings show that search expertise and flow explain success in the evaluation task; however, flow is only influential in the first phase of the search process. For the finding task, the predictors have no explanatory strength.

Images in Mobile Communication

This volume provides an original perspective on mobile communication, focusing on the emerging deployment of images in mobile phone usage: photography, video, mobile television, mobile internet, etc. Deeply embedded in our audiovisual culture, images possess the undeniable power to reshape the future of the mobile phone as an “individual mass medium”. In this collection, European researchers in media and communication studies, sociology, anthropology and political science present empirical and conceptual work on a wide range of issues, including cultural change, new forms of sociability on individual and societal levels, tactics and strategies of users and producers, and finally, representations and imaginaries of the mobile phone in other established media.This book is written for researchers and students of sociology, communication studies and cultural studies as well as for practitioners of interactive media and online communication.

Welcome to Mobile Media & Communication

There is a long and healthy debate about the “new” in “new media,” and ever more scholars in the social sciences and humanities are entering the debate. Whichever side one takes in that debate, there is evidence of new forms of interaction and connection by way of modern media. Teenagers renegotiate relations to their parents by real time sharing and withholding of information on their location, their activities and their emotional states. Cultural goods such as literature and music acquire new and different meanings and affective investments when no longer collected and used in a material form but streamed to devices at hand. New potentials for health provision, social welfare and trade arise in regions where people have their first contact with hospitals, government agencies and banks through the screens of their mobile phones instead of computers or human agents. We cannot yet systematically define precisely what these observations have in common. But they all touch the phenomenon of mobility in communication. We believe that the time has come for a joint effort to explain this still unfolding phenomenon. This is what Mobile Media & Communication is about.

Which Place for Mobile Television in Everyday Life

Television and mobile telephone constitute two media technologies that are strongly anchored in most consumers’ everyday life. Hence, combining those two seems a promising bet. Not surprisingly, early expectations on the success of mobile TV were extremely confident (European Commission 2008, Abiniak, 2008, Cugnini, 2008). While no reliable data for a realistic evaluation of the global market for mobile TV can be found today, there is a general agreement that the early expectations were far too optimistic. As Goggin sums up in 2010 , “consumers have been slow to turn to mobile television” (Goggin, 2010, p. 83).

Ein integratives Modell der Aneignung mobiler Kommunikationsdienste

Weitgehend unbeachtet von Medien und Wissenschaft hat die Mobilkommunikation in Deutschland im Herbst 2006 einen Meilenstein ihrer Entwicklung erreicht: Wie die Bundesnetzagentur (Bundesnetzagentur 2006) meldete, hat der Markt im dritten Quartal eine hundertprozentige Penetration erreicht - auf ca. 82 Millionen Deutsche kommen mehr als 83 Millionen Mobilfunkanschlusse. Spatestens mit diesen Zahlen drangt sich die Frage auf, wie sich die Mobilkommunikation nun weiter entwickeln wird. Rein quantitativ betrachtet ist jenseits der 100%-Marke nur noch wenig Raum fur Wachstum, denn ein Zweit- oder Drittanschluss wird wohl auch in Zukunft eher die Ausnahme bleiben.

Privacy by disaster? Press coverage of privacy and digital technology:

Digital technologies challenge the existing expectations of privacy for both individual users and societies at large. Although numerous surveys and experiments have studied how individual users respond to these challenges, we know little about such perceptions and debates in the larger public. This study investigated this question by analysing German media coverage of the issue of privacy during the current age in times of widespread digital technology. We asked which events journalists report when they broach the issue, what aspects of privacy they cover and whether the coverage refers to different kinds of privacy-related events and to different publication contexts. The results showed that it is not necessarily disasters that give coverage a new orientation. Instead, changes come from events that have the potential to enhance privacy in the future. The publication context also influences the presentation of privacy.

Perspektiven und Trends der Privatheit

Privatheit ist gewinnt vor allem in einem sozialen und kommunikativen Kontext an Bedeutung. Die Perspektiven und Trends der Privatheit beziehen sich also immer darauf, welchen Stellenwert Fragen des Datenschutzes, der Selbst-Preisgabe und der informationellen Selbstbestimmung in unserem Alltag haben. Wir mochten in diesem Beitrag aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln die sich verandernden sozialen und kommunikativen Bedingungen und Umgangsweisen der Privatheit betrachten: Zunachst werden wir die Bedeutung interpersonaler Kommunikation fur die Wahrnehmung, Aneignung und Nutzung neuer privatheitsgefahrdender Medientechnologien diskutieren. Anschliesend gehen wir auf die Ergebnisse einer inhaltsanalytischen Untersuchung der deutschen Berichterstattung zum Thema Privatheit ein. Aufbauend auf diese Verortung neuer Technologien in die kommunikative Umwelt der Menschen gehen wir exemplarisch auf individuelles Privatheitsverhalten im Kontext von Suchmaschinen und sozialen Netzwerkseiten ein. Wir schliesen diesen Beitrag mit einer Reflexion der Forschungsergebnisse hinsichtlich aktueller gesellschaftlicher und technologischer Trends sowie politischer Entwicklungen.