Convergence of Mobile TV with Everyday Life1 and Culture

Introduction

Media use is profoundly associated with culture and individuals’ everyday lives and practices of those who have grown up with digital technologies such as the computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone. For the young generation, the use of these media has become routine. Particularly, mobile media, usable anytime and anywhere, is now becoming more widely connected to people’s daily life and culture. People carry and use their own mobile media everywhere and they are engaged with it in a wide range of social and cultural contexts. As Fujimoto (2006, p.87) points out that “the keitai² is a locus that integrates Japanese subcultures,” mobile media culture integrates with many subcultures, such as the choice of ringtones and straps, e-mail, texting, picture messaging, and social networking. In this regard, the use of mobile media might be incorporated into the public’s everyday life, affecting the patterns of media use and creating new trends in a specific culture (Lee, 2008). The adoption of mobile media will likely have profound social and cultural effects. In their study of mobile TV, Constantiou, Papazafeiropoulou, and Vendelø (2009) underline the importance of culture in the adoption of mobile TV and in differentiating the preferences for mobile TV content services.

Because mobile communication technology has become one of the most popular technologies, closely associated with everyday routines for many users, mobile communication technology -- such as the mobile phone -- has expanded into mobile multimedia, which can be used not only for communication, but also for mobile Internet, music, games, banking, shopping, and even television. In other words, mobile technology has evolved from a simple communication tool to mobile multimedia, combining the capabilities of the Internet, camera, video, and TV. As the convergence of text, audio, video, and visual images (May & Hearn, 2005), mobile multimedia play an increasingly important role of transmitting and disseminating information and entertainment, in addition to voice communication and text messaging. Mobile multimedia represents four distinctive attributes - convergence, immediate accessibility, individuality, and portability, allowing users to do many things with one, multi-purpose device. These characteristics indicate vital implications for mobile multimedia use in that they can be used regardless of time and place in everyday life.

The latest evolution of mobile technology includes the launch of mobile TV. The convergence of digital broadcasting and telecommunications, so-called “Mobile TV,” is an emerging mobile multimedia technology (Lee, 2007). The idea of delivering live TV and audio and video content to mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and laptops has resulted in mobile TV. Mobile TV refers to the integration of live TV, personalized time- and place-shifted TV, and on-demand audiovisual content delivered to mobile devices. It is called ‘TV on the palm or on my hand’ (Burns, 2007; Europa, 2007; Reardon, 2005; Suh, 2005). Mobile TV is the convergence multimedia of telecommunications as an extension of mobile phones, broadcasting as an extension of television, and the information technology as an extension of the Internet.

This chapter explores the diffusion, adoption and early use of mobile TV-DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) in its initial stages of adoption and characterizes the use of mobile TV-DMB in a wide range of everyday practices. It also focuses on examining the factors that influence the adoption and use of mobile TV-DMB, based on the diffusion of innovations and adoption approach (Rogers, 1995). It aims to depict a contextual understanding of mobile TV-DMB that may affect media use patterns in a wide range of social and cultural contexts. It proposes two main research questions, “What factors influenced the adoption and use of mobile TV?” and “How was mobile TV used in public places?”