Relational maintenance: An examination of how gender, relational maintenance strategies, and commitment affect the use of text messages in romantic relationships

This communication study explores the relation between commitment, relational maintenance strategies, and text message use in romantic partners. This study examines how these three factors are connected through the use of surveys. It was hypothesized that romantic partners who were more committed to one another would use text messages to communicate about certain relational maintenance strategies. Results showed romantic partners who used more relational maintenance strategies did in fact use text messages to communicate about these issues more often. Also, couples who were more committed to their partner did use more positivity when communicating through text messages with their partner. It was also found that males use the relational maintenance strategy of openness more often than females when communicating through text messages

Relationship Between the Use of Mobile Telephone, Intimate Relationships and Interpersonal Conflict In Nigeria

The responses of 121 Nigerian public servants in Abuja metropolis, the country’s capital city, to a survey instrument were used to determine the extent to which mobile telephone use impacted the intimate relationship and interpersonal conflicts in Nigeria. The data showed that partners in intimate relationships experience a number of problems to which they adopt the full range of options for resolving conflicts including negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. Furthermore, mobile telephone use was said to relate directly to mistrust between parties in intimate relationships aside from being generally rated in a positive light. In addition, mobile telephone use was perceived to have impacted on aspects of human behavior including participation in social, cultural, and religious affairs as well as limiting social support to and from families of partners in a relationship. These findings were discussed in terms of dysfunctional patterns of adjustments to what can still be described as new technology and the transition from tradition to modernity in this part of the world. It was suggested among others; that people need to be educated about the distrust, disconnection, and other relational problems associated with mobile telephone use and the need to engage professionals to resolve problems of mistrust in intimate relationships and interpersonal conflicts

’Hey, I’m Here Right Now’ : Camera Phone Photographs and Mediated Presence

A photograph can mediate the presence of the absent, the object or person captured in the photograph. Now, with the aid of the network connection provided by the camera phone, photographs can function as communicative objects through which distant people engage with each other quite synchronously, helping them to form a connection in the present, as opposed to a connection between past and present. The purpose of the article is to join these two aspects of presence, thereby integrating the study of photography with mobile communication studies. The article contributes to the discussion on camera phone photography by focusing expressly on photography as a communication medium. The camera phone deserves a substantial position in the study of photography, as a rapidly increasing share of cameras are placed in mobile phones. In the article, it is argued that mediating presence visually is an integral practice of using photographs in mobile communication. With results from an empirical case study of Finnish camera phone users, it is demonstrated how photographs can provide means for both maintaining a connection between individuals and mediating presence.Peer reviewe

Intercultural New Media Studies: The Next Frontier in intercultural Communication

New media (ICT\u27s) are transforming communication across cultures. Despite this revolution in cross cultural contact, communication researchers have largely ignored the impact of new media on intercultural communication. This groundbreaking article defines the parameters of a new field of inquiry called Intercultural New Media Studies (INMS), which explores the intersection between ICT\u27s and intercultural communication. Composed of two research areas—(1) new media and intercultural communication theory and (2) culture and new media—INMS investigates new digital theories of intercultural contact as well as refines and expands twentieth-century intercultural communication theories, examining their salience in a digital world. INMS promises to increase our understanding of intercultural communication in a new media age and is the next frontier in intercultural communication

’The Mission is to Keep this Industry Intact’: Digital Transition in the Japanese Newspaper Industry

The focus of this paper is the digital transition in major Japanese newspapers that sell millions of copies per day. By digital transition we refer to the shift to publishing content on digital platforms – in this case the shift from print to online and mobile media. Japan is globally one of the most important newspaper markets with the world’s largest daily newspapers circulation-wise. The research focusing on the digital transition in Japanese newspapers and the implications of this shift has been hitherto almost non-existent. In the paper, the digital transition is examined by means of qualitative in-depth interviews with representatives from the Japanese leading newspapers. The conclusion based on the empirical analysis is that for the Japanese newspapers the most essential approach in coping with the digital transition is protecting the printed paper and treating the digital platforms as supplementary.Peer reviewe

Digital Ethnography for Intercultural Professional Communication: Some Best Practice Principles

With global compressions of time and space, intercultural contact is heightening. Digital networks are converging. Perhaps more than ever before, professional communicators require cultural and technical savvy, allowing them to navigate, in a principled manner, digitally-mediated contexts (Spilka, 2010). Since no mediation is value neutral, digital technologies can spark intercultural friction (Thatcher, 2004; Warshauer, 2003, p. 6), blur ethical codes (Capurro, 2008; Himma, 2008), and perpetuate colonial relations (Ess & Sudweeks, 2012, p. xvi). How to operate in such complex, power-laden environments is a central concern in intercultural professional communication (IPC) and merits additional inquiry

iDisconnect: smartphones, social media and mobile mediation

This thesis examines the evolution of mobile phones, social media and their impacts on self and society. Key elements include how the use of mobile phones blurs fundamental aspects of social organization such as the distinction between public and private life, understandings of time and space and social norms of behavior in face to face interaction. Additionally, social media further blurs these fundamental aspects of social organization of daily life, and offers sites for self-expression to a mass audience. The primary data source was focused interviews with 11 smartphone owners and social media users, whether past or present. The study's key findings provide a nuanced understanding of people's relationships with smartphones, each other and their perceptions of mobile mediated interactions