Issue No. 7 (September 2003) — New Media Technologies
Why are people interested in news and what maintains their interest
in it? These questions are the subject of much debate and analysis
by media scholars and contemplation of the enduring interest in and
desire for news has resulted in numerous explanations, from the
broader political and economic need for information to the
satisfaction of the simply prurient and curious tendency in people.
This paper considers the argument of Shoemaker (http://web.syr.
edu/~snowshoe/frames/) that news has an important “surveillance
function” (1996. p.32) which is a primary, but not the only reason,
why people are interested in it. The paper considers this function
of news in the context of the widespread and increasing use of
mobile communications technology (MCT).
Shoemaker argues that the surveillance function of news is a
result of biological and cultural evolution that results in people
having “an innate desire to detect threats in the environment,
keep informed about the world, and devise methods of dealing
with these threats, whether real or potential” (p.32). In this
paper the widest definition of Shoemaker’s term is understood
to be applicable to the determination of what constitutes ‘news’.
That is, surveillance is understood to refer to a monitoring of the
environment for potential threats but also for events of interest
and novelty. Davie and Upshaw have also applied Shoemaker’s
definition to electronic media in general to argue,
Surveillance requires us to go beyond what we usually define
as news to a broader combination of information and impressions
of the world we inhabit. To keep our balance in that world, so full
of strangers and unexpected events, we constantly scan the people,
things, and spaces around us. We are looking for reassurance,
for a zone of safety, not realising, or only half-realising, that
we’re doing so. (2002. p.14)The surveillance function of news is a particularly relevant
It is important to note that in this paper the primary perspective
is that of the user of MCT with reliable access to a mobile network.
At present such users are predominantly urban based. Mobile
communication consumers in remote and regional areas - where
access to services may be unreliable or unavailable -perhaps have
a more pressing need to access news in the surveillance of the
physical environment and are likely to have different issues and
different responses regarding access and availability to news
beyond the scope of this paper. The disparity of access to MCT
between individuals in more affluent, technologised countries and
many poor and economically developing countries is also acknowledged
and it is important to note that MCT is bringing electronic media and
telecommunications to people in many parts of the world who have
not previously had access to them. In July 2003, at a conference at
the United Nations on Wireless Internet Access, “many of the more
than 200 participants agreed that the wireless Internet, or Wi-Fi,
must become a priority for policymakers in the developing world.
They cited its costeffectiveness, worldwide standards, potential
for growth, and its deregulated nature.” (Radio Free 2003. http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/07/02072003154546.asp)
The successful diffusion of MCT on a global level has seen the
number of users of mobile or cellular telephony expand to 1.3
Billion in May 2003 (http://www.cellular.co.za/stats/stats-main.htm)
thus allowing many more people to use this new medium and to begin
to access the services offered. Projections for the future indicate
that the number of people who use MCT will continue to rise with
media services for the mobile communications market becoming
increasingly important.
The potential for individuals to demand access to information
that is time critical and relevant that can be delivered by MCT
is an important factor in the role of the surveillance function
of news in a mobile communications environment. That is, the
use of MCT offers the potential for MCT users to choose news
and information according to their individual needs. Similarly, as
changes occur in the environment, the information deemed necessary
to feel comfortable and secure is also likely to change. For example,
people living in cyclone prone regions may place higher importance on
weather news while those in densely populated urban areas would
value traffic information more highly. The use of MCT will require
more rapid changes in the news environment, depending on
consumer needs and demands, and in response to particular
events and locations. Such changing consumer demands will
require associated changes in the production of news and in
the responsiveness of the media to specific, localised events.
The greater physical mobility of many people as a result of
contemporary transportation together with their increasing
“telepresence” (Virilio, 1997) in the abstract space of the
global communication network, including that afforded by
the increasing use of MCT, creates multiple environments
for an individual in contemporary society. The use of MCT
enhances physical mobility and connects people to the
global communication network in situations never before
possible, for example, when in a car or on a train, and
more generally, wherever a signal is available. Until recently,
the use of mobile communication was confined mostly to
one to one communication, primarily by voice, but also by
Short Message Servicing (SMS). The introduction of mobile
Internet access and a range of associated services, including
the ability for one to many messaging, is now creating a
much more diverse and sophisticated mobile media environment.
In the multiple environments of contemporary life, where people
are mobile over large distances and interact with numerous
social networks, there is an increased need and desire for
people to be able to access information about what is going
on in different places. MCT makes it possible for them to
do so, efficiently and reasonably cheaply. The need to
monitor the environment, as described by Shoemaker
(1996), is a powerful determinant of social behaviour
and confers a high value on access to news and other
information that assists in the monitoring process.
The mobility of MCT, together with access to the Internet,
will enable individuals to ‘move’ between the global cybersociety
and the localised environment of their daily life. Individual users
of MCT are already able to do this by maintaining contact, and
being contactable, and so live simultaneously in a local,
individualised physical space and within the space of the
global communication network. The desire and curiosity to
know what is happening in both the physical environment
and the abstract environment of the information world has
the potential to become a “supervening social necessity”
(Winston, 1998. p.6) that will drive the diffusion of news
and information services into the mobile communications
environment. Winston argues that “supervening social
necessities” are the generalised social forces that assist
in the transformation of technology from ideas through
the process of innovation and development to applications.
They can range from the objective requirements of changed
social circumstances (such as the consequences of the
introduction of one technology forcing the development of another)
through to the subjective whims of perceived needs
(such as the introduction of new consumer technologies
to fulfil essentially the same function as those filled by
previously diffused consumer technologies). (p.6).News and information that users can access using MCT are
Virilio’s (1997) concept of ‘telepresence’ is an apt descriptor
for the relationship between an individual and the global
telecommunications system and the growing dependence
on access to it. It is especially appropriate when considering
MCT and issues of time and space although the industry
marketing concept of ‘anywhere, anytime’ communication is
perhaps more succinct. However, the issue of whether a
particular technology has the ability to transform our perception
of time and space is not new. In 1977, Cherry attributed the
development of the telephone system with the “creation of
mobility” because it “allows us to move about the country
(or today, over much of the world) and yet appear to stay in
one place,” (p. 114). In a similar way, in his analysis, The Media
in Everyday Life, Moores (2000) uses Williams’ (1974) concept
of “mobile privatisation” which famously defined elements of the
cultural shifts that developed as a result of the technology of
the car and the television. Williams argues that the combination
of the two technologies “enhanced a style of living that is both
private and mobile.” (p.26) and also attributed the development
of both desire for and reliance on new media technologies,
specifically radio and television, which had the capacity to
deliver “news from ‘outside’ from otherwise inaccessible sources”
(1975. p.27) to the rise of “mobile privatisation”. Williams’
concept of “mobile privatisation” is now useful in examining
MCT and understanding how people use the technology to
manage their lives and to manage time and space. An important
element in managing time and space is to maintain a flow of
information about and within different environments. MCT allows
individuals to electronically shift between locales and to maintain
contact with significant members of relationship networks by
being able to answer the questions, “Where are you?, What’s
happening?, What’s next?, Where are you going?” These functions
of MCT have been explored by several researchers,
(Rakow and Navarro, 1993. Ling and Haddon, 2001. Plant,2001.)
resulting in the identification of the use of mobile
communications by individuals to facilitate a monitoring
of relevant environments and even individuals. For example,
Rakow and Navarro (1993) found that the use of mobile
communications allowed women to undertake “remote mothering”
by being able to access, and to be accessible to, their children.
While the information that they sought was of a more personal
nature than that provided by a media organisation, some media
news and information would support their specific needs, for
example, weather news, news about transport strikes or school
closures.
In the past decade the provision of on-line news services by
existing media organisations has provided access to a range
of media to audiences who would previously have found
them difficult or expensive to obtain. Considerable discussion
and analysis of the consequences for the media of the new
media environment has accompanied this development. In the
United States the Pew Research Center (http://people-press.
org/about/) (sic) for the Press and the People conducted research
through i t s Internet and American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org/)
in the first six days of the 2003 war in Iraq “to survey Americans
about their views about the conflict, how they were getting news
about it, and the impact of developments on them.” (p.2) Amongst
the findings the report notes that,
Many are using their Internet connections to keep abreast of war
developments, perhaps because it is the most convenient way for
them to catch up on headlines during the day or because they are
not immediately able to turn on a TV or radio. (p.4. http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/pdfs/PIP_Iraq_War_Report.pdf)This finding supports Shoemaker’s theory that the surveillance
The availability of credible news is especially meaningful in the process
of monitoring the environment because the information acquired from
news organisations is understood to have been collected, checked,
filtered and edited. That is, it is news that has been processed through
the gatekeeping function of the media (Singer, 1998). Singer argues
that the gatekeeping function of the media endows news and
information with authority. It is this authority that audiences value
when they seek news from traditional media sources to monitor
the environment.
However, the use of MCT is different from previous forms of
media communication technology in one significant respect.
MCT will be used increasingly by media professionals but also
by audiences who will be able to use it to transmit information
themselves. News and information will not only be delivered to
mobile communication devices but delivered from them by both
media professionals and individuals using MCT in different
situations. We are already seeing this in reporting of news
where members of the public call in with reports from incidents
such as accidents. Most recently, in much of the reporting of
the War in Iraq of 2003, the increased use of MCT in the production
of news was evident with the use of satellite phones,
video-telephones and mobile phone direct to air interviews
with reporters. As more content increasingly becomes
available via MCT, it will be possible to transmit news and
information to mobile communications devices without it
being processed via a centralised media facility. The ‘live
to air’ phenomenon, sometime in the future, will become a
‘live to mobile’ one. Such a move has implications for both
the gatekeeping role of the media and the surveillance
function of news.
Already, many news organisations provide a service to send
news and other updated information direct to mobile devices.
The British newspaper, The Guardian, offers several services
for mobile communication users
( http://www.guardian.co.uk/index/platforms/0,3109,342891,00.inc )
t h a t exemplify the new mobile news and information.
The newspaper offers,
a range of SMS services, providing users with the latest updates on
news, media, politics and business. Plus a Goal Alerts service to keep
football fans in touch with their teams.It states that these,
News Alerts, Political Alerts, Media Alerts and Business Alerts are
bespoke services written by Guardian Unlimited journalists. (2003)Such news and news related services are regarded as ‘leading’
CBC Mobile News Updates are an essential service for anyone who
wants to stay in touch with the major news events that shape our
world today.While handset manufacturer Nokia suggests that we,For the day's top news that is of interest to you, count on the
CBC to get the story to you first - straight to your cellular phone. (http://cbcnews.zim.biz/cbcnews/login.inc)
Take the net traveler's word for it: when trekking up the highest
mountains, or forging through the deepest jungles, there is no room
for surprises. Whether you have to double-check the best route back
to base camp, or research the social customs of local cultures, it all
comes down to trusting your source of information. http://www.nokia.com/cda1/0,4879,401,00.incIn Australia, mobile telecommunications carrier, Optus, exhorts
Keep in touch with what's happening at home and overseas with
our regular news bulletins. We have several news categories, which
include business, sport and entertainment news.In much of the promotional material offering news services,News is available from your WAP capable mobile phone under News
on the 'yes' info WAP menu. We have regular news updates from
Reuters and CNN with breaking news in a number of categories,
including general, business, sport, technology, health and environment.
We also offer press digests from around the globe. (http://www.info2you.com.au/cgibin/info2you/
static_file/inter_page.cgi?service_id=17)
In all areas of mobile communications, news services are one
of the major applications consistently promoted and offered
via these new and emerging technologies. In Japan, however,
the successful introduction of mobile Internet access via the
i-Mode system showed that entertainment applications are
just as likely to captivate the consumer and are ones for
which they are prepared to pay. This is an important point
for, as we have seen with the recent (and continuing)
rationalisation of the Internet sector, the ability of a
technology to deliver an information service is negated
if that service cannot be continually produced for free,
under subsidy or for a profit. It took some time for Internet
content providers to comprehend the extent of the production
costs for content for the new technology. Already, media
organisations and mobile carriers are finding that people
will pay for those services that allow people to monitor their
physical, professional and social environments.
It is also salient to observe that the relevant factor assisting
the diffusion of the IMode technology in Japan was not so
much one of urgent survival but one driven more by the
social desires associated with the consumers of the youth
market. The desire for social inclusion and the need for young
Japanese consumers to monitor their social environment,
rather than the need to monitor the physical environment
for danger, has been the key factor in promoting the
adoption and use of I-Mode. In this sense, the surveillance
function of the mobile technology serves as an extension of
existing social or cultural practices and suggests that particular
consumers have their own specific ‘news’ agenda. Ling (2001),
in a study of adolescent girls and young adult men in Norway,
also found that MCT is used to monitor remotely social
relationships and networks while Rheingold (2002) has observed
this phenomenon in other contexts and for other purposes,
including the monitoring of situations for political organisation.
The prospect of ‘anywhere, anytime’ communication is perfectly
suited to the essential task of the media, i.e. providing information
from a specific source to an individual or group of individuals.
The fast delivery of information has always been a quintessential
element of the media’s role and, as the speed of modes of delivery
has increased, the media has adapted its own processes and
means of production. The potential of communications technology
to make information mobile has always been quickly adopted by
journalists from John Reed’s (1961) eye-witness reporting of the
Russian Revolution via telegraph in 1917 (which took five days to
appear in print in the US) to live reports from accident scenes and
trouble spots around the world via satellite. Such use of technology
has helped to fuel audience expectations for the instantaneous
reporting of events.
Another example from the past is the delivery of news via telephone,
the closest medium to current mobile communication devices which,
in the operation of Telefon Hirmondo in Budapest between 1896 and
1925, demonstrated that the delivery of news direct to individual
consumers via voice was a tenable proposition (Marvin, 1987). The
services available via Telefon Hirmondo look surprisingly familiar to
those promised by mobile media providers – it included news, stock
exchange reports, sport, a daily calendar of events, amusements,
theatre news and music. Radio later extended the delivery of news
via voice-based communications and transistor radio while in-vehicle
radios allowed news producers to reach an audience that could be
mobile. New MCT will allow the further extension of media for audiences
to respond by choosing to access those services that most fit their own
perceived needs in the specific environment that is important to them.
Existing media organisation will have to be adaptable to meet the needs
of a much more fragmented audience with needs that change according
to different environmental factors.
The news media is well suited to take advantage of the capabilities
of new communications technologies in enhancing the speed and
efficiency of the transmission of information. Timeliness in both the
production and transmission of news is accepted at every level of
the news media as a fundamental priority and amounts to a defining
characteristic of the news media. Even for those elements of the
media where speed is not essential it remains important. The demands
of the new MCT environment will most affect those media for which
the delivery of up to date news and information is a critical factor.
New MCT will permit consumers to access news media wherever they
are, from whatever source they choose; for example, a tourist will be
able to access news from their home and news from the place they
are visiting, or are about to visit. While this is possible now with the
Internet, the added dimension of the greater mobility of communications
technology will further expand the potential for access to news and
information and increase audience expectations of access to news
and information. Consumers will expect to access news services
wherever and whenever the technology allows rather than constructing
access to news around fixed media schedules and deadlines. The mobile
Internet, in particular, will allow consumers greater autonomy in determining
how they can monitor events and situations of relevance with the
assistance and support of Internet accessible, mobile media.
For producers of news via mobile communications, speed and brevity
are the dominant issues related to the increased speed with which
information is gathered, analysed and edited for the mobile environment.
The use of mobile communications speeds the access to primary sources
of information by journalists working in the existing media. For broadcast
journalists, one effect of this has been the development of news delivery
via mobile phone, live via radio or as part of a television news service.
The consequence is that news organisations have even faster access
to information from a distance. Radio has already adopted this method
even to the extent where audience members are solicited to make calls
with information about specific events such as traffic incidents and
news events. News producers have also realised that, when news
occurs in remote situations, they can often access information and
reporting via mobile phone before a journalist can reach the location.
Further developments in the fidelity of the technology will increasingly
see amateur reports used in such situations. As the audience becomes
more mobile and technically proficient, they will also become more
actively involved in producing their own news from specific locations
of events of interest. Media organisations are likely to tap into this as
a resource which they can use either directly or to enhance the content
produced by professional staff. The paradox is that some media
professionals are likely to become increasingly confined to their production
offices and will spend more time sifting, checking and editing information.
In this case they will truly become ‘gatekeepers’ of information as it
flows in from the world around them and their job will be to redistribute
it to a wider and more mobile audience. Michael Schudson
(1995) argues that, in such a situation, the importance of the
gatekeeping function of the media will be increased as people will
need to authenticate the flow of information they receive. At the same
time, the need for journalists and other media professionals to produce
material from specific locations will see some of them working more from
the field than from an office.
At present, however, because a majority of mobile news providers are
also providers of news for older media, according to one analyst, they
…. have this data that already exists. With a little bit of programming
effort, it can be trimmed down, sliced and diced and put onto a
cell phone. (Godell. in Jenner, 2000.)Journalists are already debating what the outcome of this approach
…everybody at the NetMedia conference agreed that squeezing Web
content into a mobile phone is just a low-cost, first-stage approach,
in the same way that repackaging the printed page's content into a
home page served the purpose of jump-starting Web sites a few years ago.While the editing process for mobile news will be critical to its success,
Journalists and the media have managed the need to respond to the
elements of brevity, mobility and critical time constraints associated
with the development of new communications technologies. Contemporary
mobile communication technology will require that media professionals bring
existing modes of media production to a new platform. They will also be
required to examine their own professional processes and practices to
determine what the standards for the MCT environment will be. For example,
the editing process and its impact on the content of news and information
is already a key concern with critics of the ‘sound bite’ and ‘headline grabbing’,
condemning the process where information can be distilled to the point where
it loses meaning. This issue will become even more important as people
consume more news in small bits via MCT. In responding to the surveillance
function of news and the demand by consumers for news and information
that is relevant to them, media professionals will have to ensure that the
content produced retains the elements of authority and credibility that
should set the media apart from other providers of content.
Collette Snowden has worked as a journalist, media advisor,
public relations practitioner, and as a consultant and researcher
in the mobile communications and information technology sector.
She is currently the Donald Dyer Research Scholar in the School of
Communication, Information and New Media at the University of
South Australia where she is finalising her doctorate on the use
of mobile communications by media professionals.
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Note on the author: Collette Snowden has worked as a journalist,
media advisor, public relations practitioner, and as a consultant
and researcher in the mobile communications and information
technology sector. She is currently the Donald Dyer Research
Scholar in the School of Communication, Information and New
Media at the University of South Australia where she is finalising
her doctorate on the use of mobile communications by media
professionals.
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