Media representation of mobile technologies: a content analysis of television commercials

This study conducts a quantitative content analysis to examine how mobile technologies are represented in television commercials. The sample commercials were broadcasted in China between 2006 and 2009, including three basic types of mobile technologies - cars, computers, and mobile phones. The analysis of multiple co-presences indicates the practical function of mobile technologies in separating time and space. The analysis of mobility values illustrates symbolic values people attach to different mobile technologies. As a result, cars are found to enable the co-presence of place-sharing and be consumed with directional mobility values of the early modernity. In contrast, mobile phones are found to enable the co-presence of time-sharing and be consumed with non-directional mobility values of the late or post modernity. Computers are found to fall in between cars and mobile phones.

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