Magister Artium - MA / This ethnographically-orientated intervention explored how members of a Cape Flats reading club “took hold” (Street, 2009) of digital literacy in their engagement with online fictional stories accessed by a mobile phone. The Masifunde reading club takes place inside the premises of a church located in one of the most impoverished and resource-constrained communities on the outskirts of Cape Town. The club is connected to a bigger sets of clubs under the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign seeking to create nurturing spaces for learning by introducing children to literacy through story-telling. I wanted to diversify and increase the literacy material available by introducing mobile phones to the club. This research paper is theoretically grounded in the New Literacy Studies (NLS) framework which argues that the social turn and digital turn to literacy have transformed literacy. I adopted an ethnographic approach to literacy in order to understand how mobile reading is ‘taken hold’ of within an already established activities of the club which are conceptualized using Goffman’s (1983) “interaction order”. Goffman’s (1983) “interaction order” was used to map the established print-based interaction order and then to examine the practices of reading online fiction and the materiality of the mobile phone as taken hold of within this interaction order. The notion of ‘taking hold’ of was further extended to reveal the ways in which mobile stories were resemiotized in the shared practices of the club members. The introduction of mobile phones is viewed within Prinsloo’s (2005) “placed resources” concept that pays attention to the specificity of the context in how the phone was taken hold of. What is more, through Goffman’s (1956) back stage and front stage concept, I was able to trace using Ker’s (2005) “text-chain” concept, how interactions in the back region WhatsApp group chat moved across space-time to the front stage interactions in the Saturday club event. This revealed the ways in which the uses and valuing of the phone changed across these spaces, with the phone being naturalised in the back stage, but being treated as a difficult object in the front stage sessions by the volunteers, while the children took up the phones in easy ways consistent with the existing interaction order and therefore as placed resources. The study reveals that triumphalist claims about uptake of digital technologies in resource-poor contexts and dismal internet connectivity need to be treated with caution.

A tendência de utilização de dados voluntários e colaborativos no contexto de fenômenos naturais é crescente. Esse fato, aliado aos alagamentos e inundações que ocorrem na cidade de São Paulo, traz a possibilidade de exploração sobre o modo voluntário e colaborativo de geração e transmissão do dado geográfico de forma dinâmica. Isso é proporcionado por tecnologias acessíveis à população, como a Internet, o GPS (Global Positioning System) e demais sistemas de localização embarcados em celulares. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo a proposta de um esquema conceitual para um sistema dinâmico e colaborativo de mapeamento dos pontos alagados, cuja fonte de dados advém das pessoas equipadas com aparelhos celulares que permitem a sua localização. Os resultados apresentados correspondem aos esquemas conceituais do sistema, bem como ao protótipo Pontos de Alagamento - mapa disponibilizado via web com os pontos de alagamento da cidade, fornecidos no momento da ocorrência do evento por pessoas comuns. O protótipo foi desenvolvido por meio da plataforma livre e de código aberto Crowdmap/Ushahidi. O sistema foi avaliado através de um questionário respondido por usuários, os quais opinaram sobre a viabilidade do mesmo, bem como os ajustes que devem ser realizados para o uso efetivo da população. Constatou-se a complexidade e as particularidades da aplicação para alagamentos e inundações, em especial com relação à questão temporal. / The trend of using volunteered and crowd data in natural phenomenon contexts is growing. This fact coupled with flooding that occurred in the city of São Paulo, brings the possibility of exploration about the voluntary and collaborative approach to the generation and transmission of the geographic data dynamically. And these are provided by technologies accessible to the population, such as internet, GPS (Global Positioning System) and other positioning systems embedded in cell phones. This research aims to propose a conceptual scheme for a dynamic and collaborative mapping system of flooding, whose source of data corresponds to those equipped with mobile devices that enable location. The results correspond to the conceptual schemes of the system as well as the prototype Points of Flooding available map on the web with the points of flooding, provided at the time of the event by people. The prototype was developed through the free and open source platform Crowdmap/Ushahidi The system was evaluated by a questionnaire answered by users, who opined about the viability of this as well as the adjustments that must be done for the effective use by population. There has been a thoughtful analysis of the complexity and particularities of the application to flooding, particularly related to temporal issue.

This thesis presents findings from a qualitative enquiry into the rapid uptake of the mobile phone by pastoral communities in Tanzania and its use as a tool to tackle marketing constraints. The research design involves an interregional comparative analysis of two key production regions: Arusha and the Lake Zone, and two groups of livestock producers (the Maasai pastoralists and Wasukuma agro-pastoralists respectively). Applying the Social Shaping of Technology (SST) perspective from Science and Technology Studies (STS), and in particular the concept of 'appropriation', the study examines the embrace of mobile phones by those producers - who keep livestock under the extensive (pastoralist) and semi-intensive (agro-pastoralist) systems respectively. The thesis examines the extent to which the mobile phone is changing how livestock keepers interact in the livestock market and how this is affecting their livelihoods. The thesis shows that the significance of the mobile phone varies with user groups; for instance, for the Maasai who still lead a nomadic life, the mobile phone is used 'conservatively' to communicate about herd management and to coordinate household affairs in ways that do not substantially disrupt traditional social practices and roles. In contrast, the Wasukuma agro-pastoralists use mobile phones to introduce new processes to support production and marketing, one good example being the strategy used to coordinate transportation of cattle to market. The study findings suggest the extension of the 'appropriation' (Williams, Stewart, & Slack, 2005) conceptualisation by adding the possibility of a spectrum from shallow to extended according to users' role and the context of use. Nevertheless, and in more generic terms, it is possible to say that the mobile phone use did not disrupt some of the traditional practices and trade customs amongst the Maasai, and it has reinforced the innovative behaviour of the Wasukuma. The thesis also examines a parallel initiative whereby aid agencies and public bodies in Tanzania supported the development of the Livestock Information Network and Knowledge System (LINKS), as an ICT platform designed to improve the livestock market by sharing market information. However, studies show that LINKS has not had the intended effect, is not trusted and has not been adopted by many pastoralists. The study shows how the concept of trust, which is key in market dynamics and trade relations, has been reshaped, because the mobile phone has supported informal communications that reinforce traditional methods of policing trust in the market. The thesis contributes to ongoing debates surrounding the conceptualisation of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). The failure of early ICT4D initiatives was attributed to a failure to address users' specific requirements, due to gaps in the translation process, as well as to socio-political and technical fragilities such as the lack of adequate infrastructure, and a deficient social learning process. The initial reworking of ICT4D highlighted the need to design technology as a specific solution appropriate to particular contexts/user groups. These were seen as finished solutions (corresponding to the idea of a 'technical fix'). Focusing upon 'appropriation', in line with the Social Shaping of Technology - Mark 2 approach - allows scope for a further rethinking of ICT4D which addresses not just design but the active role of users in shaping technological innovation to the context and purposes of communities in developing countries.

This thesis aims to assess the usefulness of actor-network theory (Latour, 2005) in understanding the process of implementing mobile phone-based innovations within the broader government-led public sector in less developed countries. An examination of the literature on implementations of innovations involving mobile-phones suggests that previous studies have either focused on the social elements or the physical elements in isolation and have failed to consider how one influences the other. It is proposed that actor-network theory may be able to provide an alternative ontological perspective that bridges this social physical divide and allows the influence of the relationships between the human and the non-human elements to be taken into consideration. In order to assess this, the thesis utilises a single case study from its inception, through development, to its eventual end. The case in question, is the implementation of a mobile phone- based information system known as MADEX. This effort, is a nation-wide project made by the federal government of Nigeria to deploy this innovation within the government-led public health sector. MADEX was designed to support a nation-wide scheme known as the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS); a public sector initiative that was set up to address the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) relating to mother and child health. The main objective of MADEX in its initial stages was to enable the routine reporting of maternal health information from primary health facilities across the country up to the national level (NPHCDA) where this information is required by public health administrators for action - that is regular and timely monitoring of key maternal and child health indicators as well as strategic planning and the setting of priorities. The expectation was that, MADEX will bring about increased information accessibility for monitoring and planning, ensure global transparency and accountability in the area of maternal and child health statistics and promote m-health activities. An interpretive approach using qualitative methods was adopted in this research to obtain and analyse the data acquired through interviews. These interview, were conducted with a total of about 75 participant from across the various levels of the public health system. Whilst initially these events are narrated using a traditional chronological format, the use of such a format hides the complex nature of the relationships that enable the case under study. Actor-network theory therefore provides a means of exposing some of this complexity and as a result can be regarded as a useful methodology for understanding mobile phone innovations deployed in the public sector of LDCs. In addition, the thesis shows that the actor-network perspective allows the process of implementing mobile-phone innovations, to be considered in a manner that demonstrates the complex interdependent relationships between the physical and the social dimensions as well as the impact of non-humans in shaping this process.

Submitted by Alisson Mota (alisson.davidbeckam@gmail.com) on 2015-06-03T18:30:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao-Mayara Letícia Paiva Magalhães.pdf: 7601313 bytes, checksum: 63999b2e24a9729cba48a674a92c3b67 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2015-06-08T13:46:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao-Mayara Letícia Paiva Magalhães.pdf: 7601313 bytes, checksum: 63999b2e24a9729cba48a674a92c3b67 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Divisão de Documentação/BC Biblioteca Central (ddbc@ufam.edu.br) on 2015-06-08T13:50:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao-Mayara Letícia Paiva Magalhães.pdf: 7601313 bytes, checksum: 63999b2e24a9729cba48a674a92c3b67 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-08T13:50:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao-Mayara Letícia Paiva Magalhães.pdf: 7601313 bytes, checksum: 63999b2e24a9729cba48a674a92c3b67 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-20 / FAPEAM - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas / The aim of this study is to investigate, in its principal aspect, the way in which occurs the process of interaction through writing emerging from the use of mobile phones. The research is considered as a field research, making use of questionnaire in order to investigate the profile of mobile technology users. In addition to the questionnaires, the corpora for analysis were obtained by observing a group in an instant messaging application for mobile phones WhatsApp, using the virtual ethnography proposed by Hine (2000). The sample is composed of undergraduate students of the second semester in Journalism and the fourth semester in Communication - Public Relations, of Federal University of Amazonas. It is generally used as theoretical support the sociointeractionist approach of language, which finds its assumptions in Bakhtin. It is used as corpora analysis tool the perspective of Conversation Analysis in Marcuschi and Interactional Sociolinguistics in Goffman. The analysis of the corpora of the research is guided by the research of how to configure the essential elements that enable verbal interaction. It analyzes, then, the organizational structure, by checking the discourse topic, the conversational turn, conversational sequences, the recasting activity (correction), and politeness, looking for similarities and differences between the uses of strategies in two planes, real and digital, face to face and virtual. Analyzing the digital conversation and the face to face conversation, it was noticed that some essential elements that enable verbal interaction can be used equally in both media, with, however, some own conversational strategies of digital media. / O objetivo desse trabalho é investigar, em seu aspecto principal, a forma pela qual se dá o processo de interação que ocorre por meio da escrita que emerge da utilização dos telefones celulares. A pesquisa enquadra-se na qualidade de pesquisa de campo, por meio da aplicação de questionário, com o objetivo de investigar o perfil dos usuários da tecnologia móvel. Além da aplicação de questionários, o corpus para análise foi obtido por meio da observação em um grupo no aplicativo de mensagens instantâneas para telefones celulares WhatsApp, utilizando-se da etnografia virtual proposta por Hine (2000). A amostra é composta por alunos do segundo período do curso de graduação em Jornalismo e do quarto período do curso de graduação em Comunicação Social – Relações Públicas, da Universidade Federal do Amazonas. De forma geral utiliza-se como aporte teórico a abordagem sociointeracionista da linguagem, que encontra seus pressupostos em Bakhtin. Utiliza-se como ferramenta de análise do corpus a perspectiva da Análise da Conversação em Marcuschi e da Sociolinguística Interacional em Goffman. A análise do corpus da pesquisa está pautada na investigação de como se configuram os elementos essenciais que permitem a interação verbal. Analisa-se, então, a estrutura organizacional, por meio da verificação do tópico discursivo, do turno conversacional, das sequências conversacionais, da atividade de reformulação (correção) e da polidez, buscando semelhanças e diferenças entre os usos das estratégias nos dois planos, real e digital, face a face e virtual. Ao analisar a conversação digital e a conversação face a face, evidenciou-se que alguns elementos essenciais que permitem a interação verbal podem ser usados de igual modo nos dois meios, havendo, contudo, algumas estratégias conversacionais próprias do meio digital.

Hearing loss can significantly hinder an individual's ability to engage socially and, when left untreated, can lead to anxiety, depression, and even dementia. The most common type of hearing loss is sensor-neural hearing loss that is treated using hearing aids (HAs). However, a significant fraction of individuals that may benefit from using HA do not use them and, the satisfaction of those that do, is only around 60%. Today, we have only a limited understanding regarding the factors that contribute to the low adoption and satisfaction rates. This is a limitation of existing laboratory-based assessment methods that cannot accurately predict the performance of HAs in the real-world as they do not fully reproduce the complexities of real-world environments. There four core contributions of my PhD thesis: i) the development new computer-based methods for assessing HAs in the real-world. Our approach is based on the insight that HA performance is intrinsically dependent on the context in which a HA is used. A context includes characteristics of the listening activity, social context, and acoustic environment. To evaluate this hypothesis, we have developed AudioSense, a system that uses mobile phones to jointly characterize the context of users and the performance of HAs. ii) We provide the first instance of characterization of the auditory lifestyle of hearing aid users, and the relationships that exist between the context and hearing aid outcomes. iii) We utilize the subjective data collected using AudioSense to build novel models that can predict the success of hearing aid prescriptions for new and experienced users. We also quantitatively prove the importance of collecting contextual information for evaluating hearing aids. iv) We use the objective audio data collected with AudioSense to predict contextual information like acoustic activity and noise level. This provides us a way to intelligently infer contextual information automatically and reduce the burden on the study participants.

Mobiltelefoner är ett starkt växande digitalt verktyg i dagens samhälle, där i stort sett alla idag haren mobiltelefon. Det tillsammans med svenska skolungdomars försämrade resultat i de senasteårens PISA mätningar, där framförallt problemlösningsförmåga mäts, har lett till en debatt gällandehur mobiltelefoner bör finnas tillgänglig i skolans undervisning. Med anledning av detta är syftet idenna studie att genom en strukturerad icke-deltagande observation undersöka ifall mobiltelefonerpåverkar den tid det tar att lösa ett problem samt om några steg av problemlösningprocessenpåverkas och i så fall hur. Resultatet visar ingen signifikant skillnad i genomsnittstid mellan de tvågrupperna i denna studie. Men vad gäller problemlösningsprocessen visade resultatet på skillnadermellan grupperna, där förståelsesteget var det steg som påverkades negativt hos de elever som hademobiltelefonerna tillgängliga. / Mobile phones are a growing digital tool in todays society, where almost everyone have their ownmobile phone. Together with Swedish adolescences negative results in the last years measurementsof PISA, where problem solving is a considerable part, it has become a debate about whethermobile phones should be a part of the education or not. With that in mind, the aim of this study isto, through a structured non-participating observation, examine if the mobile phones affect the timepupils need to solve a problem. It also aim to examine if phones affect some of the parts in theproblem solving process and how. The result of this study shows no significant difference in timebetween the groups and it shows that the understanding part of the problem solving process whereaffected by the mobile phones being accessible.

The older population is increasing, as is life expectancy. Technical devices are becoming more widespread and used for many everyday tasks. Knowledge about new technology is important to remain as an active and independent part of the society. However, if an old user group should have equal access to this technology, new demands will be placed on the design of interfaces and devices. With respect to old users it is and will be important to develop technical devices and interfaces that take the age-related decline in physical and cognitive abilities into account. The aim of this work was to investigate to what extent the age-related cognitive decline affects performance on different computer-related tasks and the use of different interfaces. With respect to the use of computer interfaces, two studies were conducted. In the first study, the information was presented with a hierarchical structure. In the second study the information was presented as a 3D-environment, and it was also investigated how an overview map could support navigation. The third study examined the age-related cognitive decline in the use of a small mobile phone display with a hierarchical information structure. The results from the studies showed that the most pronounced age-related difference was found in the use of the 3D-environment. Within this environment, prior experience was found to have the largest impact on performance. Regarding the hierarchical information structures, prior experience seemed to have a larger impact on performance of easy tasks, while age and cognitive abilities had a larger impact on performance of more complex tasks. With respect to navigation aids, the overview map in the 3D-environment did not reduce the age-differences; however, it contributed to a better perceived orientation and reduced the feeling of being lost.

This dissertation examines the use of the mobile phone in contentious politics in contemporary China. It undertakes a qualitative analysis of multiple cases to investigate how Chinese people adopt and appropriate mobile media to meet their communication needs, struggle against the authorities, and facilitate an inexpensive counter-public sphere. Drawing on Negt and Kluge's conceptual framework of the counter-public sphere, specifically, this study addresses the role of the mobile phone in guaranteeing the right to communication, which not only articulates the lived experiences of social and political exclusion but also ensures a relatively independent communicative sphere for counter-publics beyond the dominant public sphere in contemporary China.

While there are exemplary studies on the relationships between social networks and media such as television and the Internet, less is known about the social network consequences of mobile phone use during life-stage transitions. This study investigates the roles that mobile phones play in supporting the relationships of young people as they transition to and through their first-year of university in Toronto, Canada. Focussing on information practices during a transition that tests the resilience of support networks, this study queried the extent to which mobile phones play a role in keeping relationships intact, enabling students to maintain a sense of social cohesion and belonging. Data were collected from November 2007 to September 2008 through a longitudinal research design. Socio-technical concepts and network analysis techniques were applied to analyze the ways in which mobile communication is embedded in the everyday social life of young people aged 17-34. Set within the culturally-specific context of urban Canada, the data provided substantial evidence that mobile phones foster social cohesion within intimate relations but provide a more tenuous platform from which to nurture new relationships. First-year undergraduates have integrated the mobile phone into the way they engage with their social networks to a considerable degree, with commuter students experiencing additional tensions in negotiating relationships from home and on-campus. Findings showed that mobile phones were the devices of choice to mitigate feelings of loneliness, with deleterious consequences for the development of new relationships. Furthermore, the mobile phone was a key contributor to a rising sense of empowerment and autonomy for young adults as they negotiated identity transformations during their rite of passage into adulthood. Issues of trust and reciprocity in forming new relationships were mediated through a continuum of social media of which the mobile phone was the most intimate. Evidence of continuous access to social networks has broader implications for how mechanisms for coping with being alone and disconnection are acquired in this generation. Finally, observations of ritualistic interaction practices involving mobile phones may be theorized as small-scale evidence of larger societal shifts from collective constructs of community to that of networked individuals.