FUNDAMENTOS DE “FISICA SECUENCIAL” DE JOHNSON

The uses and gratifications theory assumes that media audiences are active in selecting and using media based on their social and psychological needs along with their gratification-seeking motives (Katz, Blumler & Gurevitch 1973). The term active

audience means utility (the uses people have for communication), intentionality (prior

motivations that direct communication behaviours) and selectivity (prior interests and desires that affect communication choices and content) (Katz & Blumler 1974; Palmgreen, Wenner & Rosengren 1985). Pearce (2013, p. 78) suggests that, since assumptions made on motivations for using mobile media can result in misleading conclusions, it is advisable to employ the uses and gratifications theory as the basis for studies on mobile media in developing countries.

Scholars of the uses and gratifications theory examine individuals’ mobile phone use and the gratifications they seek and receive. O'Keefe and Sulanowski (1995) posit that the effectiveness of a technology is measured by how well it satisfies individuals’ needs. Just like telephones (landline), mobile phones have characteristics of unmediated interpersonal communication and mediated mass communication, such as connecting two people for interactive conversations. Due to their portability and

data services, mobile phones perform more entertainment and information functions than landlines, leading to mediated mass communication (Leung & Wei 2000, p. 309).

Several researchers have examined the gratifications people seek from the conventional telephone and their motives viz.- intrinsic or social; instrumental or task- oriented (Keller 1977; Noble 1987); functional and relational (Claisse & Rowe 1987); fun or entertainment (Williams, Dordick & Jesuale 1985); reassurance (fulfilling psychological needs) (Dimmick, Sikand & Patterson 1994); and social mobility, entertainment, acquisition, and time management (Leung & Wei 2000; O'Keefe & Sulanowski 1995).

Leung and Wei (2000) uncovered seven gratifications of mobile users aged 18 years and older in Hong Kong. They were fashion/status, affection/sociability (the main gratification); relaxation; mobility, immediate access, instrumentality and reassurance (Leung & Wei 2000, p. 317). Among Taiwanese college students, affection was the most sought out gratification followed by ‘social utility’ such as relieving boredom and communicating for relaxation (Wei & Lo 2006, pp. 67, 8). Gender was a significant predictor of mobile phone use, where women used it more than men to contact their families, while men used them for ‘efficiency and practical purposes’ (Wei & Lo 2006, p. 68).

However, Wei and Lo’s (2006) study was conducted in 2001, when mobile phones were primarily used to make and receive voice calls. As such, they did not examine other functions and services such as SMS, MMS and Internet availability. Further, the sample consisted of college students aged around 19 years, limiting the generalisability of the findings.

Sundar and Limperos (2013) used the uses and gratifications approach to study new media. They state that the concept of active user has now become a reality, thanks to the tools of modern media such as the Internet and cable and specific venues on those channels (e.g. social networking sites, home shopping networks) that enable more interactivity in terms of media content. These tools allow users to ‘interact with’ these media and to ‘interact through them’, to connect with others (Sundar & Limperos 2013, pp. 504-5).

Analysing 20 studies of uses and gratifications published between the 1940s and 2013, Sundar and Limperos (2013, p. 505) observed that, similar to studies of traditional media, those examining new media are based on social psychological factors without focusing on medium-related characteristics. It proposed enhancing future uses and gratification studies on new media, by considering that ‘the technology itself could be responsible for creating new gratifications’ (Sundar & Limperos 2013, pp. 506, 7). Hence, gratifications based on modality, agency, interactivity and

navigability (the MAIN Model) are relevant when studying the uses and gratifications

of new media (Sundar & Limperos 2013, pp. 506, 12).

Modality is defined as ‘the different methods of presentation (e.g., audio or

pictures) of media content, appealing to different aspects of the human perceptual system (e.g. hearing, seeing)’ (Sundar & Limperos 2013, p. 512). The mobile phone has the capacity to present content in different forms, including text, pictures, audio and video. Modality affordance directs the users to the four gratifications of realism, coolness (involving more of our five senses), novelty, and being there (2013, p. 513). Realism and being there, give users a sense of direct involvement and connection, facilitated through features such as video calling and access to news web sites on mobile Internet. Coolness can be sought with new mobile phones and enhanced interfaces. Novelty, associated with coolness, can create uncertainty (being uncertain of the next function to perform), while interacting with a new mobile phone.

Agency affordance refers to the ability of new media technologies to allow

users to be ‘agents or sources of information’ (Sundar & Limperos 2013, p. 513). It provides gratifications such as ‘agency-enhancement; community building; bandwagon; filtering/tailoring; and ownership’ (2013, p. 513). For instance, when text and video messages created by users go viral among other mobile phone users, receivers of such content can respond directly to the sources of the content, fulfilling the agency-enhancement and community-building gratifications.

Interactivity affordance allows ‘the user to make real-time changes to the

content in the medium’ with interaction, activity, responsiveness and dynamic control, identified as its gratifications (Sundar & Limperos 2013, pp. 513, 5). Interaction and responsiveness could be reasons for the emerging popularity of smart mobile phones with interfaces that respond immediately in real-time to the requirements of their users.

Navigability refers to movement through the medium (Sundar & Limperos

2013, p. 516) which mobiles phones may fulfil these gratifications, using an internet connection. Implementing the affordance-based MAIN model in studies of new media technologies that are based on the uses and gratifications approach allows exploration of the ‘technology-driven needs’ of mobile users (Sundar & Limperos 2013, p. 512).

Along with the dominant gratifications shaped by the socio-psychological factors of media users, gratifications derived from the affordance-based MAIN model have implications for this study, because it focuses on the needs fulfilled by the mobile phone, particularly with interactive interfaces and Internet connectivity.

2.6.3 Domestication

Introduced by Roger Silverstone (1994), domestication refers to the social shaping of technologies in the adoption and use of ICTs while paying attention to ‘what the technologies and services mean to people, how they experience ICTs, and the roles that these technologies can come to play in their lives’ (Haddon 2011, p. 312). A technology becomes domesticated when bound with the needs of the people or household groups who maintain it, finding it a ‘specific place’ in their ‘rhythm of life’ (Green 2002, p. 43). The domestication of ICTs within households and individual lives has become more important than in employment settings (Haddon 2002). Haddon and Green (2009) claim that the term domestication even suggests taming the wild, while the term adoption suggests an ongoing process that involves members in a household with symbolic and family tensions, in and around the functional uses of technology within the physical domains of the home (Haddon 2003).

With respect to the personal computer, Internet and mobile phones, ‘appropriation’ refers to how these new technologies fit into users’ lives (Haddon 2011, p. 316). However, since these new technologies are no longer new, the direction of domestication studies had to be changed by questioning ‘how ICTs may be domesticated differently at different points in the life course, such as in the family of origin; in early adulthood; in couple form; and in transition to retirement’ (Haddon 2011, p. 317). A further suggestion is to narrow the focus and choose smart phones instead of generic mobile phones, conducted on the cultural contexts, relating to specific countries, and their impact and changes on our lives; individuals’ different

degrees of commitment to these technologies; and their symbolic meaning in our lives (Haddon 2011, p. 315).

Ito, Okabe and Matsuda (2005), for instance, see Japanese mobile users as more in favour of text messages because of the norms regulating mobile phone sounds in public spaces. Hjorth (2008, p. 124) claims that ‘the mobile phone […] becomes the battlefield in which a sense of identity and community are contested’. Dobashi (2005), Donner et al. (2008), Haddon and Vincent (2005), Hijazi-Omari and Ribak (2008), Horst and Miller (2006), Ling (1998, 2004) and Ling and Yttri (2005) also employed the domestication approach in their studies, to explore interactions between the mobile phone and its users in families; how related expenses are managed in the family finances; reflections of gender relations and cultural values; and meanings made in different contexts for mobile phones, based on the purposes for which they are used.

There are four phases in the transactional system in which the moral economy of the household is expressed, viz. – appropriation, objectification, incorporation and

conversion (Silverstone, Hirsch & Morley 1992, pp. 20-1, 6-7).

Appropriation is the process by which commodities become objects and takes

place at the time an object, technology or message is sold. At that point, the object leaves the world of commodity and is possessed and owned by an individual or household (Silverstone, Hirsch & Morley 1992, p. 21). The appropriation process is relevant not only to material objects but also to the selection of media content, such as television programs and software or subscription to a mobile network. When the object or mediated texts and services are taken to the moral economy of the household, the meaning ascribed to them in the public sphere is transformed.

Objectification refers to the display of the object in the household expressing

the household’s sense of itself and place in the world. Objectification reflects spatial differentiation between private, shared, adult, child, male and female spaces, reflecting the geography of the home. ICTs are also objectified via consideration of and selection for their compatibility with the aesthetic environment of the household. Their display and appropriation take place in relation to other objects in the household in an already constructed meaningful spatial environment, leading some, for example, to place expensive technologies for maximum visibility. Even non-material and semi-material

objects are objectified within the moral economy of the household, such as when television programs are discussed or photographs of celebrities are displayed (Silverstone, Hirsch & Morley 1992, pp. 23-4).

Incorporation refers to the ways in which technologies are used. To be

functional, a technology must find a place within the moral economy of the household and be incorporated into its daily routine. The functions of a technology may differ from the expectations of its designers and marketers. For example, mobile phones acquired for business or economic purposes may also be used for social purposes. A technology can be used to save time, control time (video function and microwave) and spend time better (listen to the radio while travelling). The incorporation of technology into the household also reflects issues of power in relation to gender and age differentiations and reinforcement, as well as assertions of status within the home, such as who has access to a technology and when. For an individually-owned and used technology such as a mobile phone, the same issues arise if it is shared between multiple members of the household or when it is bought by one member for the use of another (e.g. parent for child) (Silverstone, Hirsch & Morley 1992, pp. 24-5).

Conversion is the ‘relationship between the household and outside world – the

boundary across which artefacts and meanings, texts and technologies, pass as the household defines and claims for itself and its members a status in the neighbourhood or within work and peer groups in the ‘wider society’ (Silverstone, Hirsch & Morley 1992, p. 25). Comparing meanings to currencies, and because some technologies can be converted while some cannot, it is argued that even though the household facilitates negotiation and transformation of the meaning of commodities, if they are not displayed or accepted outside the home they remain private, inaccessible or irrelevant in the public sphere. For example, television programs are a topic in daily conversations or the currency of daily life. The expression of the moral economy of the household would be important for an individual to enter a certain social group, for instance, teenagers using recorded music or a collection of computer games to join a peer-group (Silverstone, Hirsch & Morley 1992, pp. 25 -6). Children not allowed or unable to access such technologies or consume those texts, are excluded from such conversations and groups.

Hence, domestication theory is useful when exploring the complexity between mobile phone appropriation and users- in this case the research participants and its integration into their daily lives- which are not uniform and cannot be neatly categorised.