Week 7 – Mobile Participation
Since I am doing a Master of Communication, communication plays a very pivotal role in terms of technology. An example of this week’s lecture for Mobile Applications, participation is very important in terms of user interaction and how they interact with the App. I am currently working on a thesis of a similar venture, but it is important to note that the users are able to produce their own content and distribute it on a global scale using mobile phone Apps through the internet.
“Interactivity” is an important concept from the “Uses and Gratification Theory” in which users can create Apps in relation to multiple platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, website and blogs. Ruggiero defines “interactivity” as the degree to which participants in the communication process have control over, and can exchange roles in their mutual discourse” Ruggiero 2000, p.15). In relation to Ruggiero’s definition of interactivity, participants are able to create their own content and have some sort of control over their applications via the platform used.
One media scholar defines interactivity in more detail where he mentions online media. Carpentier discusses that it creates bigger opportunities for interacting with various users as well as engaging in new forms of communication” (Carpentier 2012, p. 5). This definition in relation to mobile applications show how advanced our technology has become in the online sphere, and how users take advantage of this form of communication in order to reach a wider audience.
List of References:
Ruggiero, T. (2000). Uses and Gratification Theory in the 21st Century. 1st ed. [ebook] Texas: University of Texas Press, p.15. Available at: http://www.kayesweetser.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/adpr5990_ruggerio.pdf [Accessed 17 May. 2017].
Carpentier, N. (2012). The Conception of Participation: If they have access and interact, do they really participate?. 1st ed. [ebook] Brazil: Unisonos, p 5. Available at:
http://revistas.unisinos.br/index.php.fronteiras/article/download/fem.2012.142.10/1001 [Accessed 17 May 2017]. 
