In this companion, a diverse, international and interdisciplinary group of contributors and editors examine the rapidly expanding, far-reaching field of mobile media as it intersects with art across a range of spaces-theoretical, practical and conceptual. As a vehicle for-and of-the everyday, mobile media is recalibrating the relationship between art and digital networked media, and reshaping how creative practices such as writing, photography, video art and filmmaking are being conceptualized and practised. In exploring these innovations, The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media Art pulls together comprehensive, culturally nuanced and interdisciplinary approaches; considerations of broader media ecologies and histories and political, social and cultural dynamics; and critical and considered perspectives on the intersections between mobile media and art. This book is the definitive publication for researchers, artists and students interested in comprehending all the various aspects of mobile media art, covering digital media and culture, internet studies, games studies, anthropology, sociology, geography, media and communication, cultural studies and design.

The last decade has witnessed the rise of the cell phone from a mode of communication to an indispensable multimedia device, and this phenomenon has led to the burgeoning of mobile communication studies in media, cultural studies, and communication departments across the academy. The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media seeks to be the definitive publication for scholars and students interested in comprehending all the various aspects of mobile media. This collection, which gathers together original articles by a global roster of contributors from a variety of disciplines, sets out to contextualize the increasingly convergent areas surrounding social, geosocial, and mobile media discourses. Features include: comprehensive and interdisciplinary models and approaches for analyzing mobile media; wide-ranging case studies that draw from this truly global field, including China, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, as well as Europe, the UK, and the US; a consideration of mobile media as part of broader media ecologies and histories; chapters setting out the economic and policy underpinnings of mobile media; explorations of the artistic and creative dimensions of mobile media; studies of emerging issues such as ecological sustainability; up-to-date overviews on social and locative media by pioneers in the field. Drawn from a range of theoretical, artistic, and cultural approaches, The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media will serve as a crucial reference text to inform and orient those interested in this quickly expanding and far-reaching field.

This collection explores the relationship between digital gaming and its cultural context by focusing on the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region. Encompassing key locations for global gaming production and consumption such as Japan, China, and South Korea, as well as increasingly significant sites including Australia and Singapore, the region provides a wealth of divergent examples of the role of gaming as a socio-cultural phenomenon. Drawing from micro ethnographic studies of specific games and gaming locales to macro political economy analyses of techno-nationalisms and trans-cultural flows, this collection provides an interdisciplinary model for thinking through the politics of gaming production, representation, and consumption in the region.

Digital games are one of the most significant media interfaces of contemporary life. Games today interweave with the social, economic, material, and political complexities of living in a digital age. But who makes games, who plays them, and what, how and where do we play? This book explores the ways in which games and game cultures can be understood. It investigates the sites, genres, platforms, interfaces and contexts for games and gameplay, offering a critical overview of the breadth of contemporary game studies. It is an essential companion for students looking to understand games and games cultures in our increasingly playful and 'gamified' digital society.

While a decade ago much of the discussion of new media in Asia was couched in Occidental notions of Asia as a "default setting" for technology in the future, today we are seeing a much more complex picture of contesting new media practices and production. As "new media" becomes increasingly an everyday reality for young and old across Asia through smartphones and associated devices, boundaries between art, new media, and the everyday are transformed. This Handbook addresses the historical, social, cultural, political, philosophical, artistic and economic dimensions of the region's new media. Through an interdisciplinary revision of both "new media" and "Asia" the contributors provide new insights into the complex and contesting terrains of both notions. The Routledge Handbook of New Media in Asia will be the definitive publication for readers interested in comprehending all the various aspects of new media in Asia. It provides an authoritative, up-to-date, intellectually broad, conceptually cutting-edge guide to the important aspects of new media in the region - as the first point of consultation for researchers, advanced level undergraduate and postgraduate students in fields of new media and Asian studies.

With the increase of digital and networked media in everyday life, researchers have increasingly turned their gaze to the symbolic and cultural elements of technologies. From studying online game communities, locative and social media to YouTube and mobile media, ethnographic approaches to digital and networked media have helped to elucidate the dynamic cultural and social dimensions of media practice. The Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography provides an authoritative, up-to-date, intellectually broad, and conceptually cutting-edge guide to this emergent and diverse area. Features include: a comprehensive history of computers and digitization in anthropology; exploration of various ethnographic methods in the context of digital tools and network relations; consideration of social networking and communication technologies on a local and global scale; in-depth analyses of different interfaces in ethnography, from mobile technologies to digital archives.

As social, locative, and mobile media render the intimate public and the public intimate, this volume interrogates how this phenomenon impacts art practice and politics. Contributors bring together the worlds of art and media culture to rethink their intersections in light of participatory social media. By focusing upon the Asia-Pacific region, they seek to examine how regionalism and locality affect global circuits of culture. The book also offers a set of theoretical frameworks and methodological paradigms for thinking about contemporary art practice more generally.

As an example of convergence, the mobile phone-especially in the form of smartphone-is now ushering in new promises of seamlessness between engagement with technology and everyday common experiences. This seamlessness is not only about how one transitions between the worlds of the device and the physical environment but it also captures the transition and convergences between devices as well (i.e. laptop to smartphone, smartphone to tablet). This volume argues, however, that these transitions are far from seamless. We see divisions between online and offline, virtual and actual, here and there, taking on different cartographies, emergent forms of seams. It is these seams that this volume acknowledges, challenges and explores-socially, culturally, technologically and historically-as we move to a deeper understanding of the role and impact of mobile communication's saturation throughout the world.

Media across the Asia-Pacific region are at once social, locative and mobile. Social in that these media facilitate public and interpersonal interaction, locative in that this social communication is geographically placed, and mobile in so much as the media is ever-present. The Asia-Pacific region has been pivotal in the production, shaping and consumption of personal new media technologies and through social and mobile media we can see emerging certain types of personal politics that are inflected by the local. The six case studies that inform this book-Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Manila, Singapore and Melbourne-offer a range of economic, socio-cultural, and linguistic differences, enabling the authors to provide new insights into specific issues pertaining to mobile media in each city. These include social, mobile and locative media as a form of crisis management in post 3/11 Tokyo; generational shifts in Shanghai; political discussion and the shifting social fabric in Singapore; and the erosion of public and private, and work and leisure paradigms in Melbourne. Through its striking case studies, this book sheds new light on how the region and its contested and multiple identities are evolving, and concludes by revealing the impact of mobile media on how place is shaped, as well as shaping, practices of mobility, intimacy and a sense of belonging. Employing comprehensive, cross-disciplinary frameworks from theoretical approaches such as media sociology, ethnography, cultural studies and media and communication studies, Online@AsiaPacific will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Asian culture and society, cybercultures, new media studies, communication studies and internet studies.

As social, locative, and mobile media render the intimate public and the public intimate, this volume interrogates how this phenomenon impacts art practice and politics. Contributors bring together the worlds of art and media culture to rethink their intersections in light of participatory social media. By focusing upon the Asia-Pacific region, they seek to examine how regionalism and locality affect global circuits of culture. The book also offers a set of theoretical frameworks and methodological paradigms for thinking about contemporary art practice more generally.

As an example of convergence, the mobile phone-especially in the form of smartphone-is now ushering in new promises of seamlessness between engagement with technology and everyday common experiences. This seamlessness is not only about how one transitions between the worlds of the device and the physical environment but it also captures the transition and convergences between devices as well (i.e. laptop to smartphone, smartphone to tablet). This volume argues, however, that these transitions are far from seamless. We see divisions between online and offline, virtual and actual, here and there, taking on different cartographies, emergent forms of seams. It is these seams that this volume acknowledges, challenges and explores-socially, culturally, technologically and historically-as we move to a deeper understanding of the role and impact of mobile communication's saturation throughout the world.

Media across the Asia-Pacific region are at once social, locative and mobile. Social in that these media facilitate public and interpersonal interaction, locative in that this social communication is geographically placed, and mobile in so much as the media is ever-present. The Asia Pacific region has been pivotal in the production, shaping and consumption of personal new media technologies and through social and mobile media we can see emerging certain types of personal politics that are inflected by the local.

The six case studies that inform this book Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, Manila, Singapore and Melbourne offer a range of economic, socio-cultural, and linguistic differences, enabling the authors to provide new insights into specific issues pertaining to mobile media in each city. These include social, mobile and locative media as a form of crisis management in post 3/11 Tokyo; generational shifts in Shanghai; political discussion and the shifting social fabric in Singapore; and the erosion of public and private, and work and leisure paradigms in Melbourne. Through its striking case studies, this book sheds new light on how the region and its contested and multiple identities are evolving, and concludes by revealing the impact of mobile media on how place is shaped, as well as shaping, practices of mobility, intimacy and a sense of belonging.

Employing comprehensive, cross-disciplinary frameworks from theoretical approaches such as media sociology, ethnography, cultural studies and media and communication studies, "Online@AsiaPacific" will be of huge interest to students and scholars of Asian culture and society, cybercultures, new media studies, communication studies and internet studies.

In this companion, a diverse, international and interdisciplinary group of contributors and editors examine the rapidly expanding, far-reaching field of mobile media as it intersects with art across a range of spaces-theoretical, practical and conceptual. As a vehicle for-and of-the everyday, mobile media is recalibrating the relationship between art and digital networked media, and reshaping how creative practices such as writing, photography, video art and filmmaking are being conceptualized and practised. In exploring these innovations, The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media Art pulls together comprehensive, culturally nuanced and interdisciplinary approaches; considerations of broader media ecologies and histories and political, social and cultural dynamics; and critical and considered perspectives on the intersections between mobile media and art. This book is the definitive publication for researchers, artists and students interested in comprehending all the various aspects of mobile media art, covering digital media and culture, internet studies, games studies, anthropology, sociology, geography, media and communication, cultural studies and design.

This century has been marked by the rapid and divergent uptake of mobile telephony throughout the world. The mobile phone has become a poignant symbol for postmodernity and the attendant modes of global mobility and immobility. Most notably, the icon of the mobile phone is most palpable in the Asia-Pacific in which a diversity of innovation and consumer practices - reflecting gender and locality - can be found. Through the lens of gendered mobile media, Mobile Media in the Asia Pacific provides insight into this phenomenon by focusing on case studies in Japan, South Korea, China and Australia. Despite the ubiquity and multi-layered nature of mobile media in the region, the patterns of female consumption have received little attention in the growing literature on mobile communication globally. Utilising ethnographic research conducted in the Asia-Pacific over a six-year period, this book investigates the relationship between gender, technology and various forms of mobility and immobility in the region. This book outlines the emerging modes of gender performativity that makes the Asia-Pacific region so distinct to other regions globally. Mobile Media in the Asia Pacific is a fascinating read for students and scholars interested in new media and gender in the Asia-Pacific region.

With at least seven billion subscriptions worldwide, the impact of mobile devices undoubtedly rivals that of television, radio, and newspapers. Mobile technologies have had-and continue to have-a profound influence on every sphere of public and private life. Unsurprisingly, since their emergence in the late 1970s, mobile technologies have been the focus of serious scholarly study and exploration, and, as research on mobile technologies continues to grow dramatically, this new four-volume collection from Routledge provides an authoritative reference work to make sense of their defining aspects and cardinal dynamics. Edited by three leading scholars, Mobile Technologies brings together in one easy-to-access set, the essential, 'must-read' Major Works on the greatest technology of our time. Goggin, Ling, and Hjorth have carefully integrated foundational texts with the most significant and pioneering new material to create an indispensable research tool and pedagogic resource.

While a decade ago much of the discussion of new media in Asia was couched in Occidental notions of Asia as a "default setting" for technology in the future, today we are seeing a much more complex picture of contesting new media practices and production. As "new media" becomes increasingly an everyday reality for young and old across Asia through smartphones and associated devices, boundaries between art, new media, and the everyday are transformed. This Handbook addresses the historical, social, cultural, political, philosophical, artistic and economic dimensions of the region's new media. Through an interdisciplinary revision of both "new media" and "Asia" the contributors provide new insights into the complex and contesting terrains of both notions. The Routledge Handbook of New Media in Asia will be the definitive publication for readers interested in comprehending all the various aspects of new media in Asia. It provides an authoritative, up-to-date, intellectually broad, conceptually cutting-edge guide to the important aspects of new media in the region - as the first point of consultation for researchers, advanced level undergraduate and postgraduate students in fields of new media and Asian studies.

This collection explores the relationship between digital gaming and its cultural context by focusing on the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region. Encompassing key locations for global gaming production and consumption such as Japan, China, and South Korea, as well as increasingly significant sites including Australia and Singapore, the region provides a wealth of divergent examples of the role of gaming as a socio-cultural phenomenon. Drawing from micro ethnographic studies of specific games and gaming locales to macro political economy analyses of techno-nationalisms and trans-cultural flows, this collection provides an interdisciplinary model for thinking through the politics of gaming production, representation, and consumption in the region.

This century has been marked by the rapid and divergent uptake of mobile telephony throughout the world. The mobile phone has become a poignant symbol for postmodernity and the attendant modes of global mobility and immobility. Most notably, the icon of the mobile phone is most palpable in the Asia-Pacific in which a diversity of innovation and consumer practices - reflecting gender and locality - can be found. Through the lens of gendered mobile media, Mobile Media in the Asia Pacific provides insight into this phenomenon by focusing on case studies in Japan, South Korea, China and Australia. Despite the ubiquity and multi-layered nature of mobile media in the region, the patterns of female consumption have received little attention in the growing literature on mobile communication globally. Utilising ethnographic research conducted in the Asia-Pacific over a six-year period, this book investigates the relationship between gender, technology and various forms of mobility and immobility in the region. This book outlines the emerging modes of gender performativity that makes the Asia-Pacific region so distinct to other regions globally. Mobile Media in the Asia Pacific is a fascinating read for students and scholars interested in new media and gender in the Asia-Pacific region.

This book directs critical attention to one of the most ubiquitous and yet under-analyzed games, Minecraft. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork into mobile games in Australian homes, the authors seek to take Minecraft seriously as a cultural practice. The book examines how Minecraft players engage in a form of gameplay that is uniquely intergenerational, creative, and playful, and which moves ambivalently throughout everyday life. At the intersection of digital media, quotidian literacy, and ethnography, the book situates interdisciplinary debates around mundane play through the lens of Minecraft. Ultimately, Exploring Minecraft seeks to coalesce the discussion between formal and informal learning, fostering new forms of digital media creativity and ethnographic innovation around the analysis of games in everyday life.

This book directs critical attention to one of the most ubiquitous and yet under-analyzed games, Minecraft. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork into mobile games in Australian homes, the authors seek to take Minecraft seriously as a cultural practice. The book examines how Minecraft players engage in a form of gameplay that is uniquely intergenerational, creative, and playful, and which moves ambivalently throughout everyday life. At the intersection of digital media, quotidian literacy, and ethnography, the book situates interdisciplinary debates around mundane play through the lens of Minecraft. Ultimately, Exploring Minecraft seeks to coalesce the discussion between formal and informal learning, fostering new forms of digital media creativity and ethnographic innovation around the analysis of games in everyday life.

The last decade has witnessed the rise of the cell phone from a mode of communication to an indispensable multimedia device, and this phenomenon has led to the burgeoning of mobile communication studies in media, cultural studies, and communication departments across the academy. The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media seeks to be the definitive publication for scholars and students interested in comprehending all the various aspects of mobile media. This collection, which gathers together original articles by a global roster of contributors from a variety of disciplines, sets out to contextualize the increasingly convergent areas surrounding social, geosocial, and mobile media discourses. Features include: comprehensive and interdisciplinary models and approaches for analyzing mobile media; wide-ranging case studies that draw from this truly global field, including China, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, as well as Europe, the UK, and the US; a consideration of mobile media as part of broader media ecologies and histories; chapters setting out the economic and policy underpinnings of mobile media; explorations of the artistic and creative dimensions of mobile media; studies of emerging issues such as ecological sustainability; up-to-date overviews on social and locative media by pioneers in the field. Drawn from a range of theoretical, artistic, and cultural approaches, The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media will serve as a crucial reference text to inform and orient those interested in this quickly expanding and far-reaching field.

Exploring questions of both exploitation and empowerment, Understanding Social Media provides a critical conceptual toolbox for navigating the evolution and practices of social media. Taking an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach, it explores the key themes and concepts, going beyond specific platforms to show you how to place social media more critically within the changing media landscape. Updated throughout, the Second Edition of this bestselling text includes new and expanded discussions of: Qualitative and quantitative approaches to researching social media Datafication and algorithmic cultures Surveillance, privacy and intimacy The rise of apps and platforms, and how they shape our experiences Sharing economies and social media publics The increasing importance of visual economies AR, VR and social media play Death and digital legacy Tying theory to the real world with a range of contemporary case studies throughout, it is essential reading for students and researchers of social media, digital media, digital culture, and the creative and cultural industries.

The iPhone represents an important moment in both the short history of mobile media and the long history of cultural technologies. Like the Walkman of the 1980s, it marks a juncture in which notions about identity, individualism, lifestyle and sociality require rearticulation. this book explores not only the iPhone's particular characteristics, uses and "affects," but also how the "iPhone moment" functions as a barometer for broader patterns of change. In the iPhone moment, this study considers the convergent trajectories in the evolution of digital and mobile culture, and their implications for future scholarship. Through the lens of the iPhone-as a symbol, culture and a set of material practices around contemporary convergent mobile media-the essays collected here explore the most productive theoretical and methodological approaches for grasping media practice, consumer culture and networked communication in the twenty-first century.

This international, interdisciplinary collection explores a range of possible theoretical and empirical approaches to cultural technologies and mobile communication by treating the iPhone as a case study. As the mobile phone graduates into a fully web-capable and multi-media device, the contributors to this volume critically examine the nature and implications of this shift, considering the iPhone as a significant moment in media history.

With the emergence of networked, convergent mobile media devices like the iPhone, new media and communication practices are emerging. Increasingly, the mobile phone is becoming a platform for gaming, online social networking and emergent lifestyle applications. The iPhone is symbolic of this phenomenon, but it also has its own distinctive features (in terms of branding and use), and so provides media and communication theorists with a unique opportunity to explore these practices. Indeed, the iPhone--as part of broader shifts toward ubiquitous, convergent mobile devices and "smartphones"--can be usefully deployed as a case study enabling new insights into mobile media culture.

In light of emerging forms of software, interfaces, cultures of uses, and media practices associated with mobile media, this collection investigates the various ways in which mobile media is developing in different cultural, linguistic, social, and national settings. Specifically, contributors consider the promises and politics of mobile media and its role in the dynamic social and gender relations configured in the boundaries between public and private spheres. The collection is genuinely interdisciplinary, as well as international in its range, with contributors and studies from China, Japan, Korea, Italy, Norway, France, Belgium, Britain, and Australia.