Mobile Media & Communication

📵📱 CfP — Special Issue:

"Mobile Disconnection"

Editors: @mqrmobile.bsky.social, Mora Matassi & @trinesy.bsky.social

📅 Abstracts due: July 31, 2026

🔗 Full CfP: journals.sagepub.com/page/mmc/mob...

Exciting news for Mobile Communication Division members attending the @icahdq.bsky.social Annual Conference in Cape Town in June! We are offering division swag.

More reasons to come join us later this year at the #ICAMobile reception!

#ICA2026

A heartfelt thank you to our guest editors, Rich Ling, Scott Campbell, and Lara Wolfers, for their dedication and vision in curating this special issue on #MobileCommunication #Theory. 🙌

📱🧠 Mobile Media Decision-Making (MMDM) – New in our special issue on #MobileCommTheory

Ragan Glover Glover introduces MMDM, a mid-range theory for understanding how mobile media inform, support, and sometimes replace decision-making in everyday life.

🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

📚📱 New Book Review
@ioansu.bsky.social reviews The Mobile Media Debate (eds. @tvpape.bsky.social & @vkarnowski.bsky.social, 2024).

The volume challenges simplified claims about mobile media through thesis–antithesis–synthesis debates across individuals, groups, and spaces.
🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2050...

Glocal intimacies as non-West and global South theory-building for mobile media and communication - Cecilia S. Uy-Tioco, Jason Vincent A. Cabañes, 2026 Using the theory of glocal intimacies as an illustrative case, this article argues for the value of non-West and global South theorizing for mobile media and co...

🚨Pub alert! Jace Cabanes' and my latest article is out online first in @mobilemediacomm.bsky.social! In this piece, we make a case for the value of non-West and global South theorizing for mobile media and communication scholarship using our concept of glocal intimacies as an example.

🤖📱 Managing Learning with Mobile AI

New study: Shwadhin Sharma & Anita Khadka show how ChatGPT helps students in Nepal reduce cognitive load, lower anxiety, boost engagement, and support learning.

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2050...

A heartfelt thank you to our guest editors, Rich Ling, Scott Campbell, and Lara Wolfers, for their dedication and vision in curating this special issue on #MobileCommunication #Theory. 🙌

🌍📱 Global intimacies & Mobile Comm Theorizing

@luytioco.bsky.social and Jason Cabañes argue for non-Western and Global South theory-building in mobile media research.

💡 A must-read for scholars seeking inclusive, contextualized approaches to mobile communication.

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2050...

📱📞 Do mobile phone numbers have politics?

In Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, phone numbers are more than technical identifiers, they function as tools of surveillance, control, and symbolic boundary-making.

New study by Tamar Ashuri, Malka Shacham & Dvora Vidmann
🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2050...

📚📱 New Book Review

Shuai Li reviews "Smartphone Filmmaking: Theory and Practice" (2021) by Max Schleser, a comprehensive exploration of how smartphones have reshaped filmmaking, visual storytelling, and creative practice.

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2050...

📚📱 New Book Review

Halima Lul Ali reviews "TikTok: Creativity and Culture in Short Video" by Kaye, Zeng & Wikström (2022), examining TikTok as a mobile-first platform shaping creativity, labor, and power.

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2050...

A heartfelt THANK YOU to our guest editors, authors, and reviewers for their outstanding work, expertise, and dedication in curating this rich and timely collection on #aging, #mobilecommunication, & #digitalculture! 🙌👏

Mobile Media & Communication - Volume 14, Number 1 Table of contents for Mobile Media & Communication, 14, 1

👵📱👴 The full Special Issue “Mobile Communication and Later Life: From Theories to Empirical Frescoes”, including the editorial by @mireiafa.bsky.social & @sakaritaipale.bsky.social is now online! ✨📖
👉 Editorial: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
👉 TOC: journals.sagepub.com/toc/mmca/14/...

You asked, we listened: ✨Relaunching Mobile Research Resources in MMC✨

Why?🧐
Digital & comp tools are central to our field, but scattered. MRR gives them a home - supporting transparency, reuse & recognition.🏠🤝

✍🏻 Editor @dscheykopp.bsky.social
Learn more here 👉 journals.sagepub.com/page/mmc/mob...

📱🖥️ One Platform, Different Terminals

💡Zheng Yang, Yuanting Huang, Mingyue Zhu, & Xi Lu show that the same platform produces different political engagement depending on the terminal used (📱 WeChat Mini Program, 📲 app, 🌐 mobile web, 🖥️ PC).

🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Are older adults really “tech-reluctant,” or is that just a stereotype? 🤔📱

Focus groups by @nicoledalmer.bsky.social, Stephen Katz, @socbarb.bsky.social & Kirsten L. Ellison show that older adults are capable, creative, and tech-savvy on their own terms.💡

🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Ever found yourself scrolling on your phone in the middle of a conversation?📱👥Curious about why this happens, @annastockmann.bsky.social and I explored the situational drivers of co-present phone use in our new🔓#OpenAccess paper, just published in @mobilemediacomm.bsky.social🎉 (1/6)

#OpenAccess
📱👥 @anishaarenz.bsky.social & @annastockmann.bsky.social examine what triggers phone use while with others.

💡 Across 829 interactions, co-present use rose when others were on their phones or notifications appeared.

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2050...

Wei Hong, Ru-De Liu, Jia Wang, Zien Ding & Jiabin Liu track how nomophobia, anxiety when out of phone contact, shapes youth wellbeing over time. 📱😰

Findings:
Nomophobia → self-control ⬇️ → academic achievement 📉
Nomophobia → self-esteem ⬇️ → mental health 💔

🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

📞🎮 Sidetalking: Nokia’s playful design gone sideways

Heikki Jungman, @t0mm7.bsky.social, Niklas Nylund & @sotamaa.bsky.social revisit the N-Gage’s sideways-calling feature.
💡 The article shows how cultural misalignment, not tech flaws, doomed it.

🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

New #openaccess article in @mobilemediacomm.bsky.social

"Sidetalking: Domesticating Nokia's playful designed identity"

On the Nokia mobile gaming platform: the Nokia NGage, released 2003.

A THREAD.

Download: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

#gamestudies #platformstudies

📱🙈 New study by So Jin Lee, Jaeyeon Bang, Jiyeon Park, Yejoo Lee, Eunseo Kim, Suyeon Kim & Taeyeon Kim examines how individuals respond to phubbing.

💔 Key finding: Being phubbed threatens social needs, lowers mood, and reduces intention to interact.

🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

A heartfelt thank you to our guest editors, @sakaritaipale.bsky.social and @mireiafa.bsky.social, for their dedication and vision in curating this special issue on #LaterLife and #MobileCommunication. 🙌

📹🏖️ “Vlogging my lives of two homes”

Yongjian Li & Tonny Krijnen show how Chinese older seasonal migrants use Douyin (TikTok) to create hybrid digital–physical spaces and reimagine mobility.

💡 Their vlogs challenge ageist views with vitality and agency.

🔓 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

📱🏡 Sarah Wagner explores how long-term care residents in 🇨🇦 engage with - and sometimes resist - mobile tech.

💡 The study reframes digital inclusion through relational digital agency, highlighting choice, limits, and meaning in connection and disconnection.

🔓 #OpenAccess: doi.org/10.1177/2050...

📱⚖️ New study: kevinkoban.bsky.social explores how 🇺🇸 & 🇮🇩 youth manage smartphone checking, digital stress & disconnection strategies.

📈 Key finding: For U.S. youth, reflective disengagement eases habitual checking stress 🧘- but can heighten it for compulsive checkers. 😣

🔗 doi.org/10.1177/2050...

📰📱 When do young people read news on their phones?

A new study by Morley Weston, Daniel Vogler, Adrian Rauchfleisch, Pascal Jürgens & Mark Eisenegger finds:

⏰ Peaks on voting day
📉 Dips on weekends
📱 Spikes at first unlock
🔗 Boosts by social apps

#OpenAccess
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Does your 📱 make you feel rushed?⏳

kvgaever.bsky.social, daviddeseg.bsky.social, smurphee.bsky.social‬ & Mariek M. P. Vanden Abeele show how smartphone email, chat, work app & social media use shape time pressure and task juggling.

�� https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2050157925137707010

Pushing Past News Avoidance: Implications of Mobile Alerts on News Engagement Intentions - Renee Barnes, Rory Mulcahy, Aimee Riedel, 2025 The ubiquitous presence of smartphones has led to their prominence as a dominant source of news for a vast majority of people. In this context, the impact of mo...

📲📰 Can mobile news alerts engage news avoiders?

In their new study, @renbarau.bsky.social, Rory Mulcahy & Aimee Riedel show how positively framed alerts can spark curiosity and boost engagement - even for those who usually avoid the news.

🔓 #OpenAccess
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....