Effects of Cell Phone on Media Essay Example for Free

Effects of Cell Phone on Media Essay The introduction and use of cell phone devices or technologies has transformed everyday practices of people. The role of cell phones the so called portable media devices has gone beyond communication where they are used in complicated multimedia hybrids, personal digital assistants that is PDAs, MP3 players, personal media centres and playing of games (Cary 17). This work therefore examines the effects of cell phone on media together with related or associated issues such as how they are changing the way people interact through watching televisions, advertisement and even reading of articles. Cell phone is being used by people in accessing email and web interface, as game device, MP3 player and digital video camera. The most common one is where people have used the mobile phones to access internet. There are also a number of cell phones that can receive television broadcast over the cellular network. Such cell phones are called phone-game hybrids and include: Nokia’s, N-Gage QD and Samsung’s new arrival that is the SCH-V450 and the Digital multimedia broadcasting handsets (Goggin 39, 2004). Mobile phones have also played a major role in communication, cultural studies and urban design where they are primarily considered as carrier of message or voice-carrier and text message transmission device. In this way cell phones have helped in carrying out advertisements. However, since the current media environment is evolving beyond the primary role of passing information, they are nowadays engaged in a number of functions in which many people view them as Sociotechnical devices, portable and interactive techno spaces which in turn form a variety of media-forms (Gatens 48 and Marvin, 26). Read more:Â  Harmful Effects of Mobile Phones on Students This makes cell-phone become devices which are not only viewed as telecommunication tools but also as transmedia tools. The message being conveyed here is that cell phones are considered both as communication tools and info-mediatic collections within which the technologies and practices of communication, information and media normally interact together. A part from carrying out communication or passing information, cell phones have also been in playing games, taking photographs and downloading materials such as polyphonic ring tones (Everett and Caldwell 53). This has been by the wireless application protocol (WAP) with I-mode technology that enables individuals using cell phone find it easy in downloading materials from the internet using their mobile phones. This was recently launched by the Japan Company called DoCoMo. The use of cell phones in watching news and movies has brought a lot of problems especially on the media industry. The cell phone industry has manipulated the scientific world where pornographic pictures are watched, news and other programs watched on television (Rheingold 175). Customers are lost by the media industry however this has not been proved. . The media industry has raised a lot of question on the problem posed to them by the cell phone industry. The industry looks at the cell industry to be making a lot of money since they loose their customers to them.. Entertainment nowadays can be done through cell phone. Most of the youths more so the adolescent who are the major customers of media industry are nowadays attracted by the cell phone industry (Cary 18, 1992). Games such as Gambling, electronic games, casinos, pod casting and music can be listened to using the cell phones. Cell phone has also promoted business activities. Market research, industry analysis broadcasting and even publishing are carried out using cell phone. Business men and entrepreneurs nowadays use cell phone to advertise their business. This shows that they have shifted their ways of promoting their business through T. V to mobile phones since most people own mobile phones with internet; it is easier for them to access or see the advertisement the moment they log into the internet. Media industry such as televisions that normally offer these programs increasingly face stiff competition from the mobile industry. The use of cell phone in reading novels has made it be referred to as a portable communication media and collection or convergence of technologies. As people use cell phones for reading novels it not only changes the reading habits of people but also changes other media. (Rheingold 161) For example the cell phone novel known as the deep love which was first published as text message was published as a book later(Kasesniemi18). The novel was later on produced and filmed as a movie then made into a television show. Even through the process of changing the cell-phone novel to a book, movie and into television show does not create a new medium. It has also affected other media at the same time. All the other technologies have been merged or conveyed together because of the cell phone (Levinson 132). .Conclusion The effect of cell phone on media is notable in every life. Rheingold (16, 2002) describes cell phone as a handheld communication tool that merges different technologies together. Some of the effects have been noted in reading and downloading of articles online. Online games can be played by the use of phones, movies and news that were initially watched on T. V screens can be watched using cell phones. This has brought a lot of problems on the media industry. As a matter of conclusion it can be said that cell phone has affected the media industry such as movie, film and television in a number of ways, which have been discussed above. Works Cited Crary, Jonathan. Techniques of the observer: on vision and Modernity in the nineteenth century. Cambridge; Mass: MIT Press, 1992. Crary, Jonathan. Suspensions of perception: attention, spectacle and modern culture. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1992. Everett, Anna and Caldwell J. T (Eds) Theories and Practices of Dijitextuality: New York: Routledge, 2003.