Media students/10/c 3/2/06 8:34 am Page 350 CASECASE STUDY:STUDY: RESEARCHING RESEARCHING MOBILE MOBILE PHONE PHONE TECHNOLOGIES TECHNOLOGIES 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 • Getting started • Academic research into phone use 8 • Using Wikipedia • Googling 9 • Company websites • References and further reading 10 • Keeping your eyes and ears open 11 12 13 A common media debate concerns the impact of new Getting started 14 media technologies. In this case study we will consider 15 There are many ways to approach this kind of question ways of accessing and using research material for such 16 (including using proprietary software packages to help a debate. Depending on your course, you may be 17 you order your ideas) and you should use the way that asked to give a short written answer to a relatively 18 suits you best. Here we will use a ‘spidogram’. The simple question or to explore a more complex set of 19 questions in a longer essay in which you discuss your question is about ‘text and image messaging’, so we’ll 20 research methodologies. In both cases you will need put that in the centre. We want to know about its 21 to prepare by undertaking background research. impact on two separate entities, industries/producers 22 Let’s begin by considering a relatively and consumers/users. In effect, the three are linked 23 straightforward question: together in a kind of triangular relationship. Now we 24 can see a dynamic relationship between the three, 25 Q How has the development of ‘text and image what will we need to do to explore how it works? 26 messaging’ on mobile phones affected the media 27 industries and the media consumer? audiences 28 representation definitions history 29 You may feel that you can get straight to grips with text and image messaging products 30 this question because you are probably one of those 31 ownership digital technologies consumers who have enjoyed using your mobile phone 32 synergies and have upgraded to get new features. However, if institution 33 you want to answer the question effectively, you will Figure 10.6 Spidergram of producers, consumers and texting. 34 need to stand back and ‘distance’ yourself from your 35 own experience to make sure you take account of the 36 wider question. You can then use what you know in A definition of each of the three would be useful as 37 conjunction with what you find. well as some further understanding of media industries 38 (ownership) and media consumers (how do we 39 describe/classify them?). The relationship will have 40 developed over time so we need to consider its 41 ‘history’. We would expect all our key concepts to be 42 350 Media students/10/c 3/2/06 8:34 am Page 351 CASE STUDY: RESEARCHING MOBILE PHONE TECHNOLOGIES 1 important in some way so it would be good to check The page tells us that the official term for texting 2 through ‘representation’, ‘audience’, ‘institution’, etc. is SMS (short message service) and it offers links 3 Our final spidogram (Figure 10.6) will give us a sense to ‘mobile phones’ and to ‘GSM’ (global system for 4 of the possible ground to cover. Some concepts may mobile communications) and ‘3G’ (third generation 5 be less important than others, but it is useful to have mobile phone technology) – we’ll decide if we want 6 a checklist to make sure we don’t miss any obvious to pursue these a little later. It also suggests that the 7 points. first text message was sent in 1992 to a phone on a 8 Let’s look at how we might pursue one or two of Vodafone network. The rest of the Wikipedia entry 9 these. We might be texting every day, but do we know tells us something about which country has the most 10 what kind of technology it is, when it started and how frequent ‘texters’ (Singapore) and about the swift 11 it developed? We will need a workable definition of growth of a valuable business. In 2004, there were 12 terms. 500 billion texts sent worldwide, a business worth 13 around $50 billion. Several other related technologies are mentioned as well as some indication of news 14 Using Wikipedia 15 stories involving text messages. At the bottom of the 16 Wikipedia is a good starting point for definitions. page we find references and links, to both other 17 Type <text messaging> into the search box on Wikipedia pages and to external sites. It might be 18 Wikipedia’s front page (i.e. the words inside the <> useful at this point to follow the link for MMS 19 symbols). You should be taken to the page shown in (multimedia messaging system). This reveals that 20 Figure 10.7. It won’t necessarily look the same on your there is a second set of technologies associated 21 computer because we have selected a ‘skin’ – a page with sending images and video via mobile phones. 22 design – that we find easier to read, but it should We need at this stage to summarise some of our 23 contain the same information. You could also get there findings: 24 by typing <texting>. Of course, Wikipedia is always • ‘Text messaging’ and ‘image messaging’ are two 25 being updated, so the page might change over time. separate technologies known as SMS and MMS. 26 Even so, we can be confident it will give us some • They work on widely available mobile phone 27 starting points. systems such as GSM (Global System for Mobile 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 Figure 10.7 Wikipedia page 42 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texting). 351 Media students/10/c 3/2/06 8:34 am Page 352 THE MEDIA STUDENT’S BOOK Communications) – digital telephony systems <O2> into any search engine and the company website 1 available worldwide. should come up in the first few hits. Both websites 2 • The idea of ‘messaging’ dates back to at least 1992. have a similar design and the first question is where 3 • It involves telephone companies such as Vodafone. to look to find some useful material. The sites most 4 • Messaging is a very widespread activity that has had likely to appear on search lists are ‘consumer sites’, 5 impact on public and private life. designed to give information and persuade potential 6 These are all important areas of research which refer customers to sign up with the provider. A good start 7 to our original question. We haven’t yet looked at the for us might be to look at the menu for an ‘About us’ 8 history of the technology (i.e. from 2G to 3G) and we or ‘About this site’ entry. This will often lead to a 9 could make a decision at this point as to how much corporate site where you can find details of the 10 detail we need on both the history and the nature of ownership of the company, the size of its operation 11 the technology and its protocols (how it is to be used). and possibly a ‘Media Centre’ with press releases 12 You will often have to make a decision like this since announcing new products or services or changes in 13 you could spend all your time reading background the business operation. On these two websites there 14 material and amassing more and more detail, without is a great deal of information. The Vodafone site tells 15 actually developing an argument and answering us that in 2005 there are nearly 50 million mobile 16 the question. Here, we will simply note that 2G phones in the UK and that Vodafone has 14.6 million 17 technologies operating in GSM systems enabled the customers. O2 claims 14.38 million so we know that 18 spread of the practices of texting and image messaging we have found two of the biggest companies. What 19 that the question requires us to discuss. We’ll now else do we learn about the mobile telephony business? 20 focus on: • Both companies list their operations in other 21 • the telephone companies (‘telcos’) – which countries – Vodafone has operations in ‘27 22 companies, how do they hope to make profits, how countries, across five continents’, making it a 23 are their activities regulated? global player (see comments on other similar 24 We could continue to explore Wikipedia, but a companies such as Telefónica in ‘Case study: 25 better bet may be to use selected specialist websites The media majors’. 26 associated with the telcos and the news organisations • The major announcement about technology 27 which report on consumer behaviour. We also need involves the move to ‘3G’ and the new media 28 to bear in mind that we are interested in ‘messaging’ services this will make available. 29 as a media form. This means that we are thinking Vodafone’s site provides a very sophisticated ‘flash’ 30 about mobile phones as a new form of distributing and presentation which creates a future world of science 31 displaying both traditional media texts and ‘new media’ fiction-like communication. This will give us plenty of 32 (‘texting’ could itself be described as new media). ideas that we could follow up. Let’s stick with just two 33 aspects of this for a moment: 34 How do the telcos relate to the media industries? Company websites • 35 • Why are they discussing 3G? 36 UK readers will know about most local phone service If we go back to Wikipedia, we can find out pretty 37 providers and it shouldn’t take long to find two of the quickly that O2 began life as part of BT, once British 38 biggest, O2 and Vodafone.