Smartphones in Media
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Smartphones in Media The New York Times: Representation of the smartphone and the paper’s potential for normative influence of smartphone behavior Hanna Meyer zu Hörste One-year Master Thesis, 15 Credits Media and Communication Studies Malmö Högskola, Spring 2017 Supervisor: Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt Source of picture: https://gclibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu/files/2014/04/laptop-iphone-nyt.png Abstract This thesis sets out to investigate the representation of smartphones by one of the biggest English daily newspapers of the world – the New York Times – and further sheds light on the potential influence the newspaper has on the norms of smartphone behavior. The research is conducted in two parts. For the first research question through a quantitative and the second research question a qualitative content analysis of New York Times articles about smartphones from the years 2007 and 2016. For the content analysis as well as the analysis of the results three different theoretical frameworks are applied: Stuart Hall’s (1997b) representation theory, McGuire’s (2001) media effect factors and social norms theory, mainly according to Cristina Bicchieri (2017). Since assumptions on the outcome of research question one exist on the grounds of previous research conducted in the field, two hypotheses were formed: H1 – In 2007 the coverage of smartphones will be mainly positive and focus on technological aspects. H2 – In 2016 the coverage will be more critical about the consequences of the pervasion and influence of the smartphone in society. The main findings of the thesis are, for research question one, a validation of the hypotheses through the quantitative content analysis and application of the representation theory through which a distinction in the representation of the smartphones denotation and connotation could be made. And for research question two, that the strongest potential of influence on norms of smartphone behavior lies in conveying and updating and thus sometimes changing of empirical and normative expectations together with further intertwined factors. Keywords Smartphone, New York Times, social norms, representation, media effect factors, 2 Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 5 2 CONTEXT ................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Smartphone ............................................................................................................................................................................. 7 2.2 New York Times ................................................................................................................................................................... 10 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................... 10 3.1 Stuart Hall’s theory of representation ........................................................................................................................ 11 3.1.1 The constructionist approach .............................................................................................................................. 12 3.1.2 Saussure’s concepts of linguistics ....................................................................................................................... 13 3.1.3 Semiotic approach ..................................................................................................................................................... 13 3.2 Media effect factors of McGuire .................................................................................................................................... 15 3.3 Theories of social norms .................................................................................................................................................. 16 3.3.1 Social norms in social sciences ............................................................................................................................ 17 3.3.2 Theory of norms according to Bicchieri .......................................................................................................... 18 4 LITERATURE REVIEW OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH ........................................................ 27 4.1 Smartphone in scientific research ............................................................................................................................... 28 4.1.1 Ubiquity of the smartphone .................................................................................................................................. 28 4.1.2 Benefits of smartphone use ................................................................................................................................... 28 4.1.3 Negative effects of smartphone use ................................................................................................................... 29 4.2 Examples of applied social norms theory ................................................................................................................. 30 4.3 Media influence .................................................................................................................................................................... 31 5 DATA AND METHODOLOGY .................................................................................... 31 5.1 Data ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 32 5.2 Methodology .......................................................................................................................................................................... 35 5.3 Quality and Ethics ............................................................................................................................................................... 36 5.3.1 Quality ............................................................................................................................................................................ 36 5.3.2 Ethics ............................................................................................................................................................................... 37 3 6 RESEARCH RESULTS AND ANALYSIS ......................................................................... 37 6.1 Research questions I .......................................................................................................................................................... 37 6.1.1 Results ............................................................................................................................................................................ 37 6.1.2 Analysis .......................................................................................................................................................................... 46 6.2. Research question II ......................................................................................................................................................... 49 7 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................ 59 7.1 Societal Implications .......................................................................................................................................................... 59 7.2 Limitations and further research ................................................................................................................................. 61 8 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 62 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 65 APPENDIX .................................................................................................................. 74 4 1 IntrodUction A life without a smartphone seems hard to imagine anymore – at least for the so- called Millennials1 in developed countries. No other technology has shaped social life so extensively in the last 10 years. 1.5 billion smartphones were sold worldwide last year (Statista, 2016). The penetration rates are constantly rising and the saturation levels are almost reached in many countries if they aren’t already. In 2015 e.g. ownership rates in South Korea were reported to be at 88% (Poushter, 2016). In the USA the smartphone ownership more than doubled from 35% in 2011 to 77% in 2016 (Street et al., 2017). But how exactly does the now ubiquitous (Rainie and Zickuhr, 2015) smartphone influence our society? This question is not only of academic- but also of personal nature, since a change of habits in myself and my surrounding led me to conduct further research. In a previous work in this master’s program I started to study the use of smartphones during face-to-face conversations (Meyer zu Hörste, 2017), which I will use as a background for this thesis. During my research I came across many articles that critically question effects of intensive smartphone use. This spiked my interest in the media’s representation of the mobile device and their potential influence on norms around smartphone behavior. To narrow down the field of research I chose to focus on the USA, since it is a large country