Mobile Communication in Asia: Local Insights, Global Implications – serie

This volume captures the domestication of mobile communication technologies by families in Asia, and its implications for family interactions and relationships. It showcases research on families across a spectrum of socio-economic profiles, from both rural and urban areas, offering insights on children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. While mobile communication diffuses through Asia at a blistering pace, families in the region are also experiencing significant changes in light of unprecedented economic growth, globalisation, urbanisation and demographic shifts. Asia is therefore at the crossroads of technological transformation and social change. This book analyses the interactions of these two contemporaneous trends from the perspective of the family, covering a range of family types including nuclear, multi-generational, transnational, and multi-local, spanning the continuum from the media-rich to the media have-less.

This book analyzes mobile gaming in the Asian context and looks into a hitherto neglected focus of inquiry – a localized mobile landscape, with particular reference to young Asians’ engagement with mobile gaming. This edition focuses not only on the remarkable success of local mobile games, but also on the significance of social milieu in the development of Asian mobile technologies and gaming culture. It analyzes the growth of the current mobile technologies and mobile gaming not as separate but as continuous developments in tandem with the digital economy. It is of interest to both academics and a broader readership from the business, government, and information technology sectors

This book explores how personalized content and the inherent networked nature of the mobile media could and do lead to positive externalities in social progress in Asian societies. Empirical studies that examine uses of the mobile phone and apps (voice mailing, SMS, mobile social media, mobile Weibo, mobile WeChat, etc.) are featured as a response to calls for theorization of the mobile media's efficacy as a tool for citizen engagement and participation in civic and political affairs, especially in the search for collective solutions to widespread social problems of food safety, pollution, government corruption, and public health risks. Considering the vast cultural diversity of Asian societies that are shaped by different levels of political, social, economic, and religious development, the book offers nuanced studies that provide in-depth analysis of the mobile media and political communication in a variety of communities of leading Asian countries. From the country-specific studies, broad themes and enduring concepts emerge.

This open access book offers a detailed account of a range of mHealth initiatives across South, Southeast and East Asia. It provides readers with deep insights into the challenges such initiatives face on the ground, and a view of the diverse cultural contexts shaping strategies for overcoming these challenges. The book brings together various discussions on the broader mHealth literature, and demonstrates how a research focus on diverse Asian contexts influences the success and/or failure of current mHealth initiatives. It also highlights the important roles social scientists can play in advancing theoretical approaches, as well as planning, implementing and evaluating mHealth initiatives. The book is a valuable resource for project planners, policy developers in NGOs and government institutions, as well as academics, researchers and students in the fields of public health, communications and development studies.

This volume captures the domestication of mobile communication technologies by families in Asia, and its implications for family interactions and relationships. It showcases research on families across a spectrum of socio-economic profiles, from both rural and urban areas, offering insights on children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. While mobile communication diffuses through Asia at a blistering pace, families in the region are also experiencing significant changes in light of unprecedented economic growth, globalisation, urbanisation and demographic shifts. Asia is therefore at the crossroads of technological transformation and social change. This book analyses the interactions of these two contemporaneous trends from the perspective of the family, covering a range of family types including nuclear, multi-generational, transnational, and multi-local, spanning the continuum from the media-rich to the media have-less.

This book analyzes mobile gaming in the Asian context and looks into a hitherto neglected focus of inquiry – a localized mobile landscape, with particular reference to young Asians’ engagement with mobile gaming. This edition focuses not only on the remarkable success of local mobile games, but also on the significance of social milieu in the development of Asian mobile technologies and gaming culture. It analyzes the growth of the current mobile technologies and mobile gaming not as separate but as continuous developments in tandem with the digital economy. It is of interest to both academics and a broader readership from the business, government, and information technology sectors

This book explores how personalized content and the inherent networked nature of the mobile media could and do lead to positive externalities in social progress in Asian societies. Empirical studies that examine uses of the mobile phone and apps (voice mailing, SMS, mobile social media, mobile Weibo, mobile WeChat, etc.) are featured as a response to calls for theorization of the mobile media's efficacy as a tool for citizen engagement and participation in civic and political affairs, especially in the search for collective solutions to widespread social problems of food safety, pollution, government corruption, and public health risks. Considering the vast cultural diversity of Asian societies that are shaped by different levels of political, social, economic, and religious development, the book offers nuanced studies that provide in-depth analysis of the mobile media and political communication in a variety of communities of leading Asian countries. From the country-specific studies, broad themes and enduring concepts emerge.

This open access book offers a detailed account of a range of mHealth initiatives across South, Southeast and East Asia. The book brings together various discussions on the broader mHealth literature, and demonstrates how a research focus on diverse Asian contexts influences the success and/or failure of current mHealth initiatives.

This edited volume brings together cutting-edge studies from emerging scholars of East/Southeast Asia who explore the role of mobile media in the contemporary transformation of the region’s social intimacies, from the romantic to the familial to the communal. By providing a regional and transnational overview of such studies, it affords new insights into how these mobile technologies have contributed to the rise of ‘glocal intimacies’. This pertains to the normalisation and intensification of how people’s relationships of closeness are entangled in the ever-shifting and constantly negotiated flows between global modernity and local everyday life. In providing case studies of mobile media and glocal intimacies, the chapters in the volume attend to a broad range of countries that include China, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and Taiwan. This illustrates the differing ways in which mobile media might be embedded in the region’s divergent articulations of social intimacies, which reflect the ongoing tensions between Western and Asian imaginaries of modernity. The chapters also discuss a wide array of mobile media that people use, from social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, to messaging apps like KakaoTalk and WhatsApp, to dating apps like Tinder and Blued. This allows for a mapping out of the different levels of impact that mobile media might have on social intimacies in a region that contains some of the most technologically advanced as well as the most technologically behind societies in the world. In summary, this book allows readers to take a comparative approach to understanding the complexity of the glocal intimacies that are emerging from the ways people in Asia use mobile media to reconfigure their local ties and to enact global relationships. This volume will benefit students, academics, and researchers who are keen in media and communication, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, and Asian studies. “This exciting and much-needed book will greatly advance our efforts to decolonise media and communications research. The chapters offer empirically rich and nuanced accounts that challenge the dominant paradigms about mediated intimacy.”Mirca Madianou, Goldsmiths, University of London “This collection develops the original concept of ‘glocal intimacies’ to describe how mobile media have become a crucial site where new social intimacies are enacted, reinforced and transformed in Asia. It introduces fresh empirical research from emerging scholars to furnish deep theoretical insights into these imaginaries and practices.” Audrey Yue, National University of Singapore

This edited volume brings together cutting-edge studies from emerging scholars of East/Southeast Asia who explore the role of mobile media in the contemporary transformation of the region’s social intimacies, from the romantic to the familial to the communal. By providing a regional and transnational overview of such studies, it affords new insights into how these mobile technologies have contributed to the rise of ‘glocal intimacies’. This pertains to the normalisation and intensification of how people’s relationships of closeness are entangled in the ever-shifting and constantly negotiated flows between global modernity and local everyday life. In providing case studies of mobile media and glocal intimacies, the chapters in the volume attend to a broad range of countries that include China, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, and Taiwan. This illustrates the differing ways in which mobile media might be embedded in the region’s divergent articulations of social intimacies, which reflect the ongoing tensions between Western and Asian imaginaries of modernity. The chapters also discuss a wide array of mobile media that people use, from social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, to messaging apps like KakaoTalk and WhatsApp, to dating apps like Tinder and Blued. This allows for a mapping out of the different levels of impact that mobile media might have on social intimacies in a region that contains some of the most technologically advanced as well as the most technologically behind societies in the world. In summary, this book allows readers to take a comparative approach to understanding the complexity of the glocal intimacies that are emerging from the ways people in Asia use mobile media to reconfigure their local ties and to enact global relationships. This volume will benefit students, academics, and researchers who are keen in media and communication, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, and Asian studies. “This exciting and much-needed book will greatly advance our efforts to decolonise media and communications research. The chapters offer empirically rich and nuanced accounts that challenge the dominant paradigms about mediated intimacy.”Mirca Madianou, Goldsmiths, University of London “This collection develops the original concept of ‘glocal intimacies’ to describe how mobile media have become a crucial site where new social intimacies are enacted, reinforced and transformed in Asia. It introduces fresh empirical research from emerging scholars to furnish deep theoretical insights into these imaginaries and practices.” Audrey Yue, National University of Singapore

This book focuses on developments and trends pertaining to online falsehoods and mobile instant messaging services (MIMS), the impact of online falsehoods transmitted via MIMS, and practice and intervention. As the reliance on mobile devices for news seeking and information sharing continues to grow, the spread of online falsehoods on MIMS is a problem that confounds academics, practitioners, and policymakers. Recent developments in countries such as Brazil and India demonstrate how MIMS facilitate the spread of online falsehoods. Given that a number of non-academic and non-governmental institutions in the region are doing important work in countering the influence of online falsehoods, this book also includes contributions by practitioners who design initiatives and programmes in this area. The book is a timely contribution in addressing the distinct issues of online falsehoods in a large, technophilic region such as Asia, grappling with problems of online falsehoods on so many fronts, including ideological extremism, political opportunism, cyberscams, political activism, digitalised learning, geopolitical tensions, and more. Relevant to researchers and policymakers, this book provides a timely and critical analysis of both research and practice conducted in the Asian context by scholars hailing from a range of disciplines such media studies, political communication, cultural studies, and cognitive science.

This book focuses on developments and trends pertaining to online falsehoods and mobile instant messaging services (MIMS), the impact of online falsehoods transmitted via MIMS, and practice and intervention. As the reliance on mobile devices for news seeking and information sharing continues to grow, the spread of online falsehoods on MIMS is a problem that confounds academics, practitioners, and policymakers. Recent developments in countries such as Brazil and India demonstrate how MIMS facilitate the spread of online falsehoods. Given that a number of non-academic and non-governmental institutions in the region are doing important work in countering the influence of online falsehoods, this book also includes contributions by practitioners who design initiatives and programmes in this area. The book is a timely contribution in addressing the distinct issues of online falsehoods in a large, technophilic region such as Asia, grappling with problems of online falsehoods on so many fronts, including ideological extremism, political opportunism, cyberscams, political activism, digitalised learning, geopolitical tensions, and more. Relevant to researchers and policymakers, this book provides a timely and critical analysis of both research and practice conducted in the Asian context by scholars hailing from a range of disciplines such media studies, political communication, cultural studies, and cognitive science.

This book examines mobile media use among children and youths within an Asian context. By studying the impact of mobile media on children and youth in Asia, it focuses on the explosive growth of mobile media among young people and seeks to understand the potential consequences of mobile media use on society, relationships, and what it means to be a young person. With this, it provides a richly contextualized Asian voice to research on mobile media and young people, enriching the global conversation surrounding an increasingly central aspect of youths’ everyday lives. Research on mobile media and its impact on children and youths in Asia is not thoroughly represented, despite the proliferation of smartphone and tablet use in the region. This volume fills this gap by canvassing contemporary research on mobile media, children, and youth in Asia through the perspectives of emerging scholars in the region and beyond. It promotes an understanding of the motivations and patterns of use by children and youth in the region, examines contemporary research on the antecedents and consequences of mobile media use on society, relationships, and the individual, and provides a critique of mobile media use among children and youth. The volume also provides a culturally sensitive examination of mobile media use among children and youth, describing and analyzing policies enacted to manage young people’s smartphone use. It acknowledges Asia as a large and diverse region with differing linguistic, cultural, and sociopolitical traditions and contexts, and so the work does, as far as possible, look to ensure geographic and cultural diversity by prioritizing works from countries that are typically underrepresented. It is a relevant text to graduates and researchers in communication and media studies, social and developmental psychology, human development studies, science and technology, information systems, and design science.