Paper to be presented at the "Seamlessly Mobile" ICA Pre-Conference Boston, United States, May 25-26, 2011

Mobile News Life of Young

Oscar Westlund & Jakob Bjur * University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract: The mobile has become something far beyond a simple communication device. Its technological transformation is continuously forming it into an increasingly powerful ubiquitous multimedia device. Clearly, with the virtual explosion of mobile applications that enable personalized and location-sensitive services and content, the mobile empower users to have an always-on connection and to develop a mobile news life. The aim of this paper is to assess to which degree this potential to mobile news life is actually realized and by whom. Considering earlier constructions of tweens and teens as particularly eager to adopt new media, describing them with labels such as generation digital and digital natives, the paper focus this generation of young to delineate how mobile news accessing become part of their lives. The paper, which draws on a theoretical framework of media life and news media orientation against the broader fond of everyday life, empirically investigates patterns of news accessing with mobile devices. The findings from a robust postal-survey data from 2010 outline a young generation which grows into a more mobile, more digital, and also more individualized news media life. The multivariate regression model explains the contemporary foundations of news accessing with mobile devices. The model illustrates that general orientation towards online news media (Online news life =.237), orientation towards using particular functions of the mobile device (Mobile media profile =.204), and the centrality of the mobile device to everyday life (Mobile media life =.134) partially explains the development of a mobile news life. Key words: Convergence, media life, mobile media, news, seamless, young

* In equal contribution

Introduction

The mobile phone has become deeply embedded in contemporary social life and interpersonal communication (i.e. voice calls and SMS) among several billion users around the world. Numerous studies have demonstrated its increasing social impact for interpersonal communication around the globe. In recent years it has also gained foothold as a portable device that enables computer-mediated communication, such as accessing Internet and news. This paper uses the term mobile device to emphasize that what was formerly conceived of as a mobile phone, actually has developed into a convergent multimedia technology equipped for versatile use of audio, video, graphics, text and animation. Its continuous technological transformation has formed it into an increasingly powerful ubiquitous multimedia device. Clearly, with the virtual explosion of mobile applications that enable personalized and location-based services, the mobile empower users with an increasingly user-friendly always-on Internet connection. In light of convergence, a blurring of boundaries between mobile devices, laptops, tablets and other ICTs has taken place. Also the boundaries between work, home, and play has become blurred, as ICTs that were previously confined to particular locations (i.e. household or workplace), now have become omnipresent through their portable nature and integrated access to Internet on the go. The mobile device is, par excellence, personal, portable and ubiquitous. A retrospective glance at the development and uptake of Internet-based media for mobile devices in North America and Europe illustrates that it was conceived of as relatively limited until about 2008/2009 (Church et.al, 2007; Gomz-Barosso et.al 2010; Park et.al, 2008, Wilken & Sinclair, 2009; Wilson 2006). In the years prior to 2008, there was a significant discrepancy between the numbers of individuals that possessed mobile devices equipped with mobile Internet functionality, and the number that was in fact making use of it. An explanation was that also prior to the diffusion of contemporary touch-screen enabled so-called smart-phones, most mobile devices available for sale had become equipped with a mobile web browser. As it had

become a standard feature, the diffusion of Internet-enabled mobile devices was high, but usage was limited (WAN, 2007; Westlund, 2008; Gomz-Barosso et al., 2010). At the time of prior to 2008 the relative uptake was significantly higher only in Japan and South Korea (Ito et al 2005, WAN 2007; NTT DoCoMo 2007; Westlund, 2010b), but has since actually taken off also in North America and Europe (Pascu, 2008; Horrigan 2009; Ling & Sundsy, 2009). The uptake coincides with technical and economic developments that match long-term social changes. In terms of user-friendliness, the impact touch-screen devices such as iPhone has had on the uptake of mobile media are prevalent (Goggin 2009, Ling & Sundsy, 2009; Wilken & Sinclair, 2009). If we see to the diffusion of OS used in different parts of the world as of late 2010, Symbian (Nokia) was indeed the worldwide leader, thanks to being by far the strongest player in the Asian, African and South American regions. Meanwhile iOS (iPhone) came second, thanks to its prominent position in Europe, North America and Oceania (Pingdom, 2010). That iPhone, and subsequent smart-phones, typically have been coupled with more favorable flat-rate tariffs have clearly reduced undesired uncertainty about costs (Westlund, 2007; Mitomo, 2009). While the mantra of content as king has deteriorated, one must credit that the massive growth of contents and services tailored for access with mobile devices, through mobile sites and apps, has contributed significantly to its usability and user-friendliness. In conjunction with the web 2.0 turn, with its focus on enhancing Internets social and participatory attributes (OReilly, 2007), there has been subsequent rise of social networking sites (SNS). It is therefore not surprising to note that SNS such as Facebook and Twitter, which essentially focus communication, have driven adoption and use of mobile Internet (Ofcom, 2008; ComScore 2008; Fox et.al., 2009). With the emancipation of mobile media there is however also a wide array of other contents and services which have become appropriated into the media lives of different generations. At the loci of scrutiny to this paper is to describe and explain mobile news accessing in the lives of a younger generation

Study Rationale

Journalistic news articles make an important type of content in society and for the mobile media ecology, thanks to its historical importance and that several traditional news media were relatively fast to couple with mobile media. From more recent investigations we can note that traditional news media producers have become increasingly engaged in making developments of mobile news (Goggin, 2010; Westlund, 2011a). Furthermore, studies of the adoption and accessing of news with mobile devices illustrate that it made an important part of mobile media usage in its earlier days (Westlund, 2010a; Westlund & Bohlin, 2008), and that there also has been a significant uptake in recent years. From such studies it is obvious that mobile news accessing is correlated to factors such as age and gender, illustrating a general pattern involving younger men as particularly keen users. Meanwhile, these recent studies of mobile news accessing have either focused those aged 15 and older (Westlund, 2010c) or 18 and older (Rosenstiel et.al, 2011). Limited efforts have been invested in exploring how even younger generations, such as tweens and teens, access news with their mobile devices. From other streams of scholarship we can acknowledge that young has been constructed as particularly inclined to adopt and use digital media. These have been labeled as X-, Y- and N-generations (Tapscott, 1998), generation digital (Montogomery, 2009) and digital natives (Prensky, 2006). On the other hand, such constructions have been criticized for their exaggerated emphasis on heterogeneity with respect to responsiveness to digital- (and mobile) media (Buckingham, 2008; Savage et.al., 2006). It therefore makes makes sense to empirically investigate how this generation makes use of news thru their mobile devices. The purpose of this paper is to outline and explain youngs mobile news lives. The paper draws on a theoretical body involving media life against the broader fond of everyday life and news media orientation. As such, media are conceptualized as coupled with everyday life. The paper will present an explanatory model of mobile news accessing that will account for three key

parts with presumed relevance to news accessing with mobile devices, which are referred to as media life, mobile media profile and news life. These aspects are anticipated to correlate with, and ultimately explain, contemporary youngs news accessing. Age and gender are complementing the model following their documented importance for news accessing and alignment to new technology. The dataset that will be explored was collected through a postal-based survey conducted in Sweden during 2010, in collaboration with the Swedish Ministry of Culture and its Media Council. The survey was sent to 2000 young aged 9-16 years, generating 1181 responses and a net response rate of 60 percent.). The data is statistically representative to Sweden, and has wider implications as one consider that the media, culture and society of Sweden shares many characteristics with other Western countries. A somewhat unconventional disposition of the paper has been applied in this paper, with the explicit intention to refine the stringency of argumentation. Next section discusses the general framework used, which is followed by a section organized through three subsections dedicated to the respective key parts. Each of these three subsections firstly introduces and reflects on relevant contemporary research, thereafter presents suitable inquiries. These inquiries are subsequently addressed and analyzed, leading to presentation of bivariate explanatory effects. These findings are used for building the multivariate regression model presented in the fourth and final subsection. Our conclusions close the paper.

Towards a Framework for Exploring and Explaining Mobile News Lives.

Two decades ago citizens more or less only accessed news via newspaper, television or radio. Japan, Switzerland and the Nordic countries were characterized by a strong orientation towards newspapers, whereas the US and countries in southern Europe were more skewed towards television news. While these characteristics remain in some sense, our contemporary news media landscape has become increasingly complex, fragmentized, digitized and individualized. There are

variations to how different generations and individuals are accessing news throughout the course of their everyday lives. One may speak of a general trend of spatial and temporal disembedding (Giddens, 1991) to the ways media are used in increasingly individualized and fragmentised media landscapes (Bjur, 2009). Different generations, and individuals, orientate towards media and news through either old (analogue) and/or new (digital) media. The virtual explosion of online news sites with linear producer-user logic played an important role to early transformations of news usage patterns. Following buzz-word concepts such as convergence, interactivity and web 2.0, there has since emerged patterns of elevated participation and sharing with respect to news. While some navigate to news sites through their homepage settings and bookmarks, much traffic is also generated through search engines, blogs, microblogs and social networking sites. With the growing diffusion of mobile media it has furthermore become evident that more and more people access news on both the go and at home, either through mobile sites or mobile applications (i.e. iOS, Android, Windows 7 etc.). The mobile device has emerged as a powerful means for accessing news, and through its pervasive, ubiquitous and seamless attributes, it has lately become deeply embedded into the daily textures of peoples everyday lives. As it potentially enters the individualized media lives of young, it will not only enter their personal ecology of news, but cause complementary or displacement effects. Contemporary premium mobile devices, which are equipped with touch-screens, microcomputers and tailored applications, has facilitated a blending of ICTs, as well as introducing ubiquitous accessing of news. Such blurring of boundaries have been labelled as convergence culture (Jenkins, 2006) and liquid society (Baumann, 2000) by influent thinkers. The mobile device has furthermore been labelled as one of most obvious miniaturized mobilities, as discussed by Elliott & Urry (2010). A label used to connote how expectations of human mobility have become ingrained into the design of ICTs. The paper draws on recent theorizing on media life, which is a grand approach to the intersecting and dissolving textures of media, humans and society. Media life draws on related

theoretical concepts in social theory and media studies (Deuze, 2011a). Deuze propose that the ever-presence of media in our lives calls for treating individuals and media not only as people using media in their lives, but rather to conceive them as living lives in media. As everything in everyday life becomes mediated, media itself becomes more invisible, which may lead to that people cease to note the presence of media in their lives. Deuze argues that peoples life experiences are framed by, made immediate by, and mitigated through media (Deuze, 2009; 2011a). Media life discussed that omnipresent media has become increasingly invisible (Deuze, 2011b). Media life take an everyday life perspective on how media is appropriated, used and becomes part of those media practices (Deuze, Blank & Speers, 2010). To date, the media life perspective has mostly been theorized on a macro level, while there has been less effort to conceptualize it on meso- and micro levels, and to operationalize it through empirical research. This paper departs in an understanding of media as generally being deeply embedded into the textures of everyday life. It also emphasizes that different generations and individuals develop media lives with varied characteristics. Such variations have been investigated in numerous studies on adoption, appropriation and domestication, and have often placed emphasis on factors related to either the medium or the individual. With this paper we want to explore and explain the relevance of what individuals do with media. Youngs news accessing with mobile devices will therefore in the following be investigated through the lens of their media life, their mobile orientation and their news life.

Youngs Mobile News Lives: Research Inquiries and Findings

As of 2010 there were eight percent who had developed a mobile news life. Among those mobile news users, 10 percent reported assessing mobile news daily, 20 percent did so weekly, and the residual 70 percent did so more seldom (than weekly). The amount of young who had developed a mobile news life was consequently, at this stage in history (2010) and life (9-16 years old), still

fairly limited in scope. The low initial level can partially be explained by their low interest in mobile news, but must also be understood as a direct effect of how mobile news life is encapsulated within the broader mobile media life built on availability of, and ability, towards mobile technology among young. In order to deliver a more profound delineation of mobile news life - what fuels it and delimits it the three seminal parts of media life, mobile media profile and news life will be discussed and analyzed in the following three subsections. Conclusions will be presented for each subsection, and will subsequently be used as variables in the multivariate regression model presented in the fourth subsection.

1. Media Life: Outline of Inquiry

Media life concerns which role different media have in the lives of young. The point of departure is that degree of involvement with particular media is assumed to correlate with their mobile news lives. The assumption is that particular media are coupled to accessing news with the mobile, while others are not. For instance, watching television or listening to radio are conceived of as traditional media associated to relatively passive usage patterns, and are assumed to correlate little with accessing news with the mobile device. On the other hand, if individuals media lives are strongly oriented towards mobile devices, a stronger correlation is assumed to take place. The assumption concerns that when individuals spend much time with their mobile device, engaging in activities such as SMS, voice calls, games, they are likely to explore and use other types of functions as well. Clearly, some may be resistant to using their mobile device for news accessing, as they are not keen on connecting to Internet through their mobile device. In light of this, it can be assumed that a complementary media life is coupled to mobile news life, namely their Internet lives. Young people to whom Internet has become deeply ingrained into everyday life practices are assumed to have developed both relevant literacy and needs. Individuals who have developed profound Internet lives are therefore assumed to be particularly responsive to accommodating

mobile media usage patterns, subsequently resulting in accessing news with the mobile. The paper therefore sets to investigate whether a profound mobile life in particular, but also Internet life, is coupled to mobile news life. In order to explore the effect of mobile life and Internet life, the paper will draw on a conceptualization of media life focusing mobile, gaming, television and Internet (Bjur & Westlund, 2011; Westlund & Bjur, 2011). Based on self-reported survey data, an index was created that accounted for both frequency and length of usage. The conceptualization was empirically grounded, as groups were grouped into four categories in a continuum based on the role the different media played in their lives. On the one end we have those who are so deeply integrated with media that they can appropriately described to have a life in media, while we on the other end have those who have a life sans media. In the continuum between those two extremes, we have those who either have a life with media or a life around media (Westlund & Bjur, 2011). On the continuum, those included in the life in media category were those who used respective media at least three hours or more every day. It was prevalent that fewer young lived their life in television (11%) and gaming (14%), compared to Internet (16%) and mobile (18%). When it comes to television and Internet, few had a life sans media, while the number was significantly higher, for the mobile, although it was in particular gaming that that was excluded in the media lives of young. A scrutiny of the continuum between life in media and life sans media show that about one quarter occupied a life with Internet, while about one in ten did so with respect to the mobile. On the other hand, these showed higher numbers when it came to living a life around media life (Westlund & Bjur, 2011). In addition, there was also heterogeneity in terms of gender and age. With respect to Internet the media lives were similar across genders, while the results showed that the mobile occupied a slightly more pronounced role in the media life of young girls than boys. The importance of age as a differentiating factor was even higher. Interestingly, among tweens the usage of television and gaming was significantly higher than for Internet and mobile, but the role

of Internet and mobile in the media lives of younger teens was accentuated. While television and gaming are typically introduced and used for entertainment in the household, the mobile device and Internet are more individualized and related to communication and information usage (Westlund & Bjur, 2011). In the light of this discussion, it is clear that age differences constitute background explanation in the following empirical analysis of how mobile- and Internet lives are coupled to accessing of news with the mobile.

1. Media Life - Findings

The two graphs (Figure 2) picture the mobile and the Internet media lives of young. Of prime focus is mobile media life while Internet media life serves as reference point in assessment of the specificity and pace of mobile media life development. The four categories of media life - based on frequency and time of use - are laid out as fields changing composition as age increases. Mobile media life (to the left) shows how close to none of the 9 year olds live their life in media (black field) while this state of media life dominates among 16 year olds (51%). The weak position of the mobile among the youngest reflects to some extent a factual lack of sufficient mobile devices. This lack is mirrored by the category of life sans media (field on top) that correlate strongly with the ownership and availability to a personal mobile device. At the age of 11 around 90 percent has access to a personal mobile device, but before that age pure scarcity in availability keeps the usage down. Evidenced by the curves is that mobile media life gets established in this actual age span - from 9 to 16. Even if 63 percent of all 9 year olds have access to a private mobile phone, the comprehensive use takes off first at the age of 12 to 13, thereafter it rises steadily. At the age of 16 the number non-users have disappeared, and only 26 percent report living a life around media (moderate use). Added to the fact that the majority of 16 year olds spend 3 to 4 hours or more on daily on mobile phone use there is no reason but to conclude that this group live a life in media strongly supported by mobile technology.

Figure 1 Mobile and Internet Media Lives Development over Age for the Young Generation (Media Life in Percent).

Comment: Media life is a interaction variable merging frequency of use and time of use. The derived scale has nine steps reaching: 8 (Life in media), 6-7 (Life with media), 1-5 (Life around media) and 0 (Life sans media). N (Mobile) = 1155, N (Internet) = 1157.

The parallel Internet media life of the young (to the right) extends in a similar manner to that of the mobile media life. A distinguished difference is that Internet to a higher extent had become established among the youngest, which had comparatively better access to Internet than mobile devices. This is illustrated by the smaller group living a life sans media (top field), which decreases with age. Interestingly, this initially higher level of use does not produce an equally high amount of 16 year olds reporting leading a life in media. The growth of Internet use is less steep and about 40 percent (compared to 52% for mobile) report a life in media. Similarly, it should be noticed that there is still some individuals (2% compared to none for mobile) reporting an Internet life sans media. Consequently, there are affordances tied to the mobile device such as individualization, ubiquity, mobility and pervasiveness - that makes it more central than Internet to young peoples media life. Even if small, these differences seem to indicate Internet still is a medium young can

live without, and stay away from occasionally, while the mobile device at the age of 16 occupies a more compulsory position (it is something you sleep with). A prerequisite for accessing mobile news is of course mobile use, and a reasonable assumption is that the over all probability of mobile news consumption rises with increased amount of use. Consequently, mobile media life will be used as an explanatory factor to mobile news life later on. An additional question raised by the exhibit of the two media lives above is if Internet media life could play some part in guiding accessing of mobile news. The plausibility of the assumption follows the above sustained notion that Internet and mobile use rise in parallel and are fairly well correlated (.410). The amount of Internet use might in this way indirectly fuel different mobile born practices (news usage among them). Based on this linkage Internet media life will also be put into the equation even if comparatively distantly related to mobile new life. Summing up the conclusion reached this far: contemporary media life is increasingly a mobile media life to the young generation. Remains to be researched, later on below, is the explanatory role of mobile media life and Internet media life in guiding mobile news life. Before that, the next step in progress is to outline how young people engage with their mobile devices and in which way these uses are patterned. 2. Mobile Media Profile: Outline of Inquiry

It has been stressed that the ways people use particular media (mobile- and Internet life), as well as their general and specific orientation towards news accessing, presumably are correlated to accessing of news with mobile devices. Subsequently, it can also be anticipated that the characteristics of their mobile usage plays an important role. It should be acknowledged that people with pronounced mobile lives engage with it in diverse ways. Some only use SMS and voice, others make use of games and the camera, and some use it for Internet. An assumption,

which will be investigated in this paper, concerns those individuals general orientation towards particular types of content and services is correlated to their use of news with the mobile. Rather than investigating the correlation and effect of how particular functions and services are used, these will be conceptualized into different categories in the form of a typology. We will take departure in a typology of mobile usage, which was constructed on the result of a recent qualitative investigation into mobile media experiences (i.e. mobile Internet and mobile search). The typology categorized users into three main domains; the traditionalists, the diversionists and the connected (Westlund et.al, 2011). The traditionalists are users with practices confined to using their mobile device for interpersonal communication via voice calls and SMS. They typically had no intention to use their mobile for anything but these basic communicative functions. The diversionists also used their mobile device for voice calls and SMS, but added use also for off-line oriented multimedia functionalities such as the camera and MP3-player. The connected, added different practices related to accessing Internet to the practices of the traditionalists and the diversionists. The connected involved novice users, who user typically uses mobile Internet only while on the move, i.e. when she/he cannot access the Internet in any other way. Accessing mobile Internet in that sense functions as a complement to computer based Internet, but is used rather occasionally. There were also more advanced users among the connected, who can be characterized by media lives in which access to mobile Internet was seamlessly integrated. They did not make use of mobile Internet only on the go and other situations when computers were inaccessible, but rather used it in complementary ways in all sorts of contexts. The advanced users had typically acquired smart phones with touch-screen and a flat-rate price plan (Westlund et.al, 2011).This means that use of Internet-based functionalities were coupled with a premium mobile device as well as a subscription for mobile Internet. This postulates that young, who are dependent on sponsoring from their parents, are less likely to have acquired such a mobile device. Meanwhile, some will have been given such devices (new or used), in particular as the young turn older.

2. Mobile Media Profile: Findings

This subsection focuses how mobile media profile fuel mobile news life among the young. An important explanation in addition to mobile media life, concerns profile orientation expressed in diverging patterns of mobile use. An initial inquiry concerns how the typology of mobile media profiles traditionalists, diversionists and connected plays out among the young generation. Mapped out in the table are the two underlying dimensions that can be identified in the present patterns of usage. Arranged in the table are widespread practices tied to mobile devices such as making (81%) and receiving (71%) voice calls, SMS (78%), music listening (66%) and taking pictures (59%), but also less common practices like gaming (43%), production of personal videos (22%), MMS (18%) and watching video (8%). Only 6 percent of the group reported accessing the Internet through their mobile device.

Table 1 Mobile Media Profile Assessed by Means of Factor Analysis with Varimax Rotation (Factor Loadings and Adj. R2)
Components Diversionists Access Internet Watch video Produce personal video MMS (send) Make voice calls SMS Take pictures Music listening Receive voice calls Gaming R
2

Connected .652 .807 .594 .393

.726 .727 .690 .649 .694 .433 27.9 18.5

Comment: Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Varimax rotation with Kaiser Normalization (rotation converged in 3 iterations). Restriction: Two-factor solution. Factor loadings < .300 are deleted from the table. N=1155.

Assessing the mobile orientations inherent in young peoples mobile use the three expected sets of orientation do not emerge. Regardless if studied as correlation matrixes or as above (Table 1) in the form of dimensional analysis1, the border between traditionalists and diversionist is blurred. Emerging is, instead of three, two rather distinct mobile orientations. The first is broad and comprehends traditional mobile practices such as voice calls (calling and receiving) and SMS together with diversionist features such as music listening, taking of photos and gaming. This mobile orientation exploits the broad potential of the mobile as a communication device and gadget for entertainment, but without making use of its digital network capacity. The orientation
1

In order to achieve clarity in presentation and explanation, the performed factor analysis has been forced to produce a two-factor solution.

has been labeled diversionists. The second mobile orientation, labeled connected, is on the contrary falling back on this specific potential to connect the device to Internet. The mobile device is used to access Internet, to watch and produce clips and film and to send MMS. The traditionalist orientation, with origin in functionality of the earlier more simple mobile phones (as communication devices), is not present among the young. Their mobile media profiles are consistently characterized by a more comprehensive use of the broader functionality of todays mobile devices (as multimedia communication device). This development is most probably a composite effect, encompassing both technological leverage of the devices themselves (capacity) and leverage of technical literacy of the users (ability). A reasonable assumption is that the mobile media profiles of the young above will contribute to explaining accessing of news with mobile devices. Following this, both factors diversionists and connected will be merged into the final explanatory model. From the general media life to specific mobile orientations, the paper will now discuss and analyze the role of youngs news life.

3. News Life: Outline of Inquiry

The mobile news life is contextualized within a broader frame of a general news life comprising an array of different news media, in which some presumably are more coupled to developing a mobile news life. A discussion about mobile news life involves asking what role the mobile play for news accessing in the media lives of contemporary citizens. While the studies discussed in the introduction show a rapid increase in recent years, it can be presumed that the mobile media (r)evolution has just started. A Danish study indicate that it was valued as less worthwhile compared to other news media (Schrder & Larsen, 2010) and others report that that the mobile predominantly has found its niche in the interstices of everyday life (Dimmick et.al, 2010). On the other hand, more recent investigations indicate that for connected advanced users it has entered the textures of numerous everyday life occurrences (Comscore, 2010; Westlund, 2011b).

We know that the adoption and use of mobile media in general (Westlund et.al, 2011), and mobile news in particular, relates to both medium- and user related factors. There are many studies that have stressed medium factors such as usability (i.e. available services and content), user-friendliness (i.e. touch-screen interface) and costs (flat rate subscription model), as well as characteristics of user groups (i.e. age, gender, education, income). For instance, users of mobile news in Sweden are typically educated men aged 15-49 with a subscription rather than pre-paid card (Westlund, 2010c). Mobile news users in the US are portrayed as young or young adults, living in urban areas with a family with high income, and typically engage more with social media than others. Contrary to what many assume, only about one in ten make use of mobile applications (including tablets), and the authors find reason to label the situation as the app gap (Rosenstiel et.al, 2011). But there are also other factors relevant to understanding the use of mobile news. One factor that is anticipated to explain future developments regard users needs for news. This is expressed through how interested they are in news, as well as how they access news through other news media. From previous research two conclusions of relevance to explaining mobile news lives can be derived. The first conclusion is that those who are generally frequent users of news (news junkies), through one or several news media, are likely to expose themselves to using news also with other news media (Weibull, 1983). This relates to a functionalistic user-centric approach which focuses on the users and their needs and gratifications, taking into account that they may wish to make complementary use of news media (Dutta-Bergman, 2004; Flavian & Gurrea, 2009). This pattern was prevalent also in the American Pew study, in which 51 percent of mobile news consumers made use of six or more different news- and information sources or platforms every month, compared to 21 percent among other adults (Rosenstiel et.al, 2011). Meanwhile, when it comes to accessing news we must also acknowledge that there have emerged generational gaps with respect to the increasingly individualized news (and media) usage patterns of today. Groups have developed different news lives, where some are oriented towards

analogue media such as printed newspapers and television, whereas others are directed towards digital and mobile media. There are studies which, through analyses of annually conducted surveys, report that the orientation of news accessing is very important to understanding mobile news usage. A conclusion is that the use of mobile news is particularly high among those who frequently use online news sources, much higher when compared to those who frequently read print newspapers. This is partly explained by the high representation of elderly among print readers, and that frequent news site users have developed needs and competence for using interactive and digital news media. It should be acknowledged that those who frequently read free dailies were more inclined to use mobile news though. An explanation is that many frequent users of free dailies are using public transportation, and have become accustomed to updating their knowledge of the news while on the go (Westlund, 2010a). News usage is in most cases a most habitual behavior, acted out repeatedly in time and aligned to specific news platforms (e.g. reading of the morning paper by breakfast). Consequently, with the emergence of new news media, a central question regards the effect of individuals habitual orientation of news (their news life). In the light of this discussion, there are two assumptions that will be investigated. Firstly, do those with profound news habits turn their attention to news from mobile devices more than others? Secondly, what characterizes the orientation of their established news lives, and how are theses practices aligned with accessing news with the mobile? It is here expected from frequent users of online news media (digital orientation) to be the most accentuated users of news with mobile devices.

3. News Life: Findings

To give preliminary answer to the two questions forwarded above, TV, newspapers, Internet respectively mobile news life are mapped out for the young in the following. Figure 2 illustrates the prevalence of each of the four different media in the news life of young, and also how the

composite news life is gradually changed with age. Figure 2 News life with TV, print newspapers, Internet and Mobile over Age (Reach in Percent).

Comment: New life values express the share of the population that uses a certain medium for accessing news. The remaining juxtaposed share is the non-users. N (TV) = 1165, N (Newspaper) = 1117, N (Internet) = 1097, N (Mobile) = 1134 . The total population (N) is fairly equally distributed over different years of age.

The graph shows how news life expands between the age of 9 and 16 years. Expansion encompasses all four news media, both old (TV and newspapers) and new (Internet and mobile). As a general background description of the news life of this group, 25 percent of the 9 year olds report that they are not following any news at all, regardless of media. This alignment is diminishing with age, and is at the age of 16 reported by but 4 percent. These formative years are apparently the moment in life when broader news consumption is established for young. Interestingly enough, there are no signs of differences following gender at these years a difference regularly found among adult news consumers is that males consume more news (Sternvik et al., 2008). The four different media occupy different positions in young peoples

news life. TV (average=81%) is the most frequently used channel for news closely followed by newspapers (average=77%). TV and newspapers are already relatively established news sources for the youngest (70 respectively 58% for 9 year olds). Online news (average=50%), on the other hand, grows into a corresponding position with increasing age. From being used as source of news by below 1/5 of all 9 year olds, online news usage grow towards the levels of TV and newspapers, and comprehend close to 4/5 of all 16 year olds. Young peoples mobile news life is fairly limited in comparison to the news lives built around TV, newspapers, and Internet. Mobile news life (average=8%) follows a similar growth with age, from 1 percent among the youngest to 21 percent among the oldest. In relative terms this growth in mobile news life is massive and in fact more radical than that of online news life. However, this strong relative growth must be seen in the light of the low initial level from where it takes off. Two reasonable expectation would be that news usage is correlated over different media by means of an underpinning news interest, and second that the link between online and mobile news usage is stronger than the corresponding link between mobile, TV and newspapers. A preliminary check of these two assumptions shows they have both bearing for the group of young. A correlation matrix of all four news lives holds both expectations right. News life is correlated regardless of platform and the probability of news usage on additional platforms is stronger if news is already in use on another platform. Underlying this pattern is a general interest in news - an articulated news habit. While TV and newspapers are strongest correlated to each other (.436), mobile is far stronger correlated to online (.305) than to TV and newspapers, and Internet emerge as an intermediate news media strongly correlated also to TV (.346) and newspapers (.273). Emerging among the young is a news life to some extent divided into analogue/old respectively digital/new news media, with Internet news consumption situated in a intermediate position. Summing up, a final important conclusion for our upcoming explanatory mission of mobile news life is that online internet news life most probably is one factor to put into the upcoming equation.

4. Mobile News Life: an Explanatory Model

The multivariate regression model presented below (table 2) involves mobile news life as the dependent variable. To explain this variable, which has been divided into four steps (from daily, over weekly and more seldom, to never),2 the model makes use of seven independent factors derived from news life, mobile media life and mobile orientation. The first is the background variable gender as a factor identified by earlier research as guiding inclination towards news and new technology. Age is a likewise important background factor, but was excluded due to its strong correlation to other factors in the model.3 That is to say, age is indirectly in the model, although expressed through other factors. The second is online news life, as mobile news life most closely correlated part of news life. The third factor total news life embraces general interest in news, operationalized as the amount of news media use complementary to mobile news accessing. The fourth and fifth are mobile media life and the closely related Internet media life. The sixth and seventh are the two respective mobile media profiles derived from typology and the factor analysis (connected and diversionists). These have been transformed into variables and introduced into the multivariate regression.

That the dependent variable is not on apure interval scale and normally distributed is to some extent violating the basic assumptions of the CLR model (Kennedy, 2003). In order to assess the consequences of these violations the model has also been run with a dichotomous DV in binary logistic regression. As this procedure did not change the main results, CLR has been chosen for presentation of results as a more widely experienced and heuristic statistical procedure. 3 Age is excluded in order to avoid multicollinearity (Kennedy, 2003).

Table 2 Explanatory Model of Mobile News Life of the Young Generation Multivariate CLR (Unstandardized Beta, Standard Errors of Beta, Standardized Beta).
B Constant Gender -0.003 -0.046 SE B 0.049 0.025 -.054

Media Llife Mobile Media Life Internet Media Life 0.023 -0.005 0.007 0.004 .134*** -.040

Mobile Media Profile Connected Diversionists 0.083 -0.022 0.012 0.015 .204*** -.052

News Life Online news life Total news life

2

0.108 0.009

0.019 0.008

.237*** .045

Comment: R (adj.) = .16 N = 1155 *** p < .001

The multivariate regression illustrates how three specific factors (grey rows) guide mobile news life. The factors are inherent to either news life, mobile media profile or media life. Online news life is the factor of strongest effect (.237). The factor is emerging from news life and its effect is that the greater the online news use the greater the mobile news usage. Interestingly, general news interest simply does not suffice if not oriented towards the specific environment of the Internet. Mobile media profile (.204) is the second strongest predictor of mobile media life. The more connected are likewise more inclined to mobile news usage on the contrary to diversionists that represent no significant effect. Mobile media life (.134) exit third in terms of strength in effect. An elaborated mobile life in media is more likely to produce mobile news usage than do scarce

mobile media life. Important to notice is that Internet media life does not play any decisive role. A comprehensive explanatory model of mobile news consumption among young would thus be composed of Online news life, Mobile media life and a Mobile media profile distinguished by being connected. Summing up this means that mobile news life is tied to specific orientation towards online news, connectivity and is sustained by an elaborated mobile media life. Rather than general news interest and general Internet use, it is specific and more detailed orientations that have effects. The model explains 16 percent of the variance of mobile news life and makes a strong contribution to the intersecting field of research around mobile phones, news and youth.

Conclusions

Seamless solutions for always-on connections are now diffusing rapidly through miniaturized mobilities such as mobile devices. Digital and mobile media have gained a pervasive omnipresence in the media lives among young, as witnessed here from the descriptive statistics illustrating at what pace young develop their mobile- and Internet media lives as teenagers. Meanwhile, as of 2010 only eight percent of the young Swedish generation studied had developed a mobile media life that involved accessing news. Consequently, at this stage in history and life, mobile news accessing was still fairly limited in scope. This result is striking, in the light of previous research constructing young as early adopters, even as digital natives and generation digital. In fact, they had little orientation in their mobile practices that conformed to the advanced users. This demonstrates that the young generation is more heterogeneous than what simplistic constructions of young as homogeneously digitally oriented typically indicate. This is not to say that young are not keen on using their mobile device at all. On the contrary, there are affordances tied to the mobile device such as individualization, mobility and pervasiveness that makes it the most important medium to the teenagers of this study (13-16 years). While only a limited group of the young were characterized as connected, a key finding from our factor

analysis was that there were no traditionalists, literally speaking. Instead, these young were primarily diversionists. Through their adolescence they seem to grow into more advanced usage, and as other studies from Sweden show, the uptake of mobile news accessing increases among 16-49 year olds (Westlund, 2010c). Another key finding regards that these formative years are apparently the moment in life when broader news consumption is established for young. The produced news life tied to TV, print newspaper, Internet and mobile constitutes an efficient blue print of news accessing of the young generation. Considering the current broader uptake of mobile news among the adults considered, the clevage found 2010 between mobile news life and Internet news life is not necessarly a state of condition replicated in the future. Rather than solely mirroring failure of mobile news today, this clevage should be seen as a clear-cut illustration of the future potential of mobile news. Interesting to follow in future research is thus how youngs mobile news life develops in parallel to increased diffusion of advanced of mobile devices and leveraged capacity of mobile networks. Media life is increasingly mobile for the young generation. However, mobile news life is not an internalized and natural part of mobile media life, yet. Clearly, the multivariate regression model, which explains 16 percent of the variance in youngs mobile news life, constitutes the papers most important finding. A consistent result is that rather than general news orientation and general media life (mobile and Internet life), it is the particular orientation towards the digital- and mobile habitat that explain youngs mobile news life. This result should be conceived of as that young emancipate towards individualized media lives seamlessly integrated with digital- and mobile media.

References

Baumann, Z. (2000). Liquid Modernity, Polity Press Bjur, J. (2009). Transforming audiences, Doctoral Thesis, Department of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg Bjur, J & Westlund, O. (2011). A Two-folded Typology of Media Life, Paper to be presented at Nordmedia 2011, Akureyri, Iceland, August 13-15. Buckingham, D. (2008). Youth, identity and digital media, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts Church, K., Smyth, B., Cotter, P and Bradley, K.. (2007). Mobile information access: a study of emerging search behaviour on the mobile internet. ACM Trans. Web 1(1), May. Available at: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1232722.1232726 ComScore M:Metrics. (2008b). Mobile social networking driving growth of the mobile Internet in Europe. Available at: http://www.comscore.com Comscore. (2010). Comparative Report on Mobile Usage in Japan, United States and Europe, Retrieved 2010-10-28 from www.comscore.com Deuze, M. (2009). Media industries, work and life, European Journal of Communication, 24(4), pp.114. Deuze, M. (2011a). Media life, Media Culture & Society, Vol. 33 (1), pp. 137-148 Deuze, M. (2011b). Media life, Polity Press (Forthcoming) Deuze, M., Blank, P & Speers, L. (2010). Media life, In: S, Papathanassopoulos (Ed.), Media Perspectives for the 21st Century, London: Routledge, pp.181-195. Dimmick, J., Feaster, J.C and Hoplamazian, G.J. (2010). News in the interstice: the niches of mobile media in space and time, New Media & Society, OnlineFirst Dutta-Bergman, M. (2004). Complementarity in consumption of news types across traditional and new media. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Vol. 48 (1), pp. 4161. Elliott, A and Urry, J. (2010). Mobile Lives. London: Routledge.

Flavian, C., & Gurrea, R. (2009). Digital versus traditional newspapers: Influences on perceived substitutability. International Journal of Market Research, 51(5), 635675. Fox, S, Zickuhr, K och Smith, A. (2009). Twitter and status updating, fall 2009, Pew Internet Project, Washington DC Giddens, A. (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press. Gmez-Barroso, J.L.,Compa, R., Feijo, C., Bacigalupo, M., Westlund, O., Ramos, S., Jaokar, A., lvarez, F., De Waele., Mateos-Barrado, G & Concepcin Garca-Jimnez, M. (2010). Prospects of Mobile Search, European Commission, JRC Scientific and Technical Reports, Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), EUR 24148 EN 2010 Goggin, G. (2009). Adapting the mobile phone: the iPhone and its consumption, Continuum, 23:2 , pp. 231-244. Goggin, G. (2010). The intimate turn of mobile news, in G. Meikle & G. Redden (eds) News online: transformations and continuities, London, Macmillan Horrigan, J. (2009). Wireless Internet use. Washington: Pew Internet. Available from http://pewInternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2009/Wireless-Internet-Use.pdf Ito, M., Okabe, M., & Matsuda, M. (2005). Personal, portable, pedestrian: Mobile phones in Japanese life. Cambridge: MIT Press. Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: where old and new media collide. New York: New York University Press. Kennedy, P. (2003) A Guide to Econometrics. (Fifth edition). Cambridge (MA): MIT Press. Ling, R and Sundsy, P.R. (2009). The iPhone and mobile access to the internet. Paper presented at the ICA pre-conference on mobile communication, Chicago, IL, 2021 May. Mitomo, H. (2007). Flat rate preference in mobile phone usage: a behavioural economics approach. Paper presented at RIDE seminar at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, May.

Montogomery, K.C. (2009). Generation Digital - Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet, MIT Press NTT DoCoMo. (2007). Comparison of General Outlook for Mobile Societies in China and Japan (Global Questionnaire). Tokyo: Mobile Society Research Institute Ofcom. (2008). The international communications market 2008. Research document, 20 November. Available at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/icmr08/ OReilly, T (2007) What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software. Communications & Strategies, Vol. 65, pp. 17-37. Park, T., Shenoy, R. and Salvendy, G, (2008). Effective advertising on mobile phones: a literature review and presentation of results from 53 case studies. Behaviour & Information Technology, 27 (5), 355-373. Pascu, C. (2008). Towards convergence of social computing with mobile A thought piece on mobile trends and futures, Paper presented at the 19th European Regional ITS Conference. Rome, 18-20 September. Pingdom. (2010). Mobile OS usage splits the world (chart),

http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/11/30/mobile-os-usage-splits-the-worldchart/http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/11/30 (Accessed: 2011-02-23) Prensky, M. (2006). Dont bother me, mom Im learning!, St- Paul, MN. Paragon House Rosenstiel, T., Mitchell, A., Rainie, L. and Purcell, K. (2011). Mobile news & paying online, Pew Research Centers Project For Excellence in Journalism and Pew Research Centers Internet and American Life Project, in partnership with the Knight Foundation, U.S. Savage, S., Collins-Mayo, S; Mayo, B., and Cray, G. (2006). Making sense of generation Y, Church House Publishing, London Schrder, K. C. and Larsen, B. S. (2010). The shifting cross-media news landscape, Journalism Studies, Vol. 11(4), pp. 524-534

Sternvik; J., Wadbring, I., & Weibull, L (2008) Newspaper in a Changing Media World. Swedish Trends. The Newspaper Research Programme. Dept. of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Gothenburg. Tapscott, D. (1998). Growing up digital: the rise of the net generation,New York, McGraw-Hill Wilken, R and Sinclair, J. (2009). Waiting for the kiss of life: mobile media and advertising, Convergence, Vol. 15 (4), 427-445. Wilson, J. (2006). 3G to Web 2.0? Can mobile telephony become an architecture of participation? Convergence, Vol. 12 (2): 229242. Weibull, L. (1983). Tidningslsning i Sverige. Stockholm, Publica. Westlund, O (2007) "The adoption of mobile media by young adults in Sweden", In Gerard Goggin & Larissa Hjorth (eds), Mobile Media 2007, The University of Sydney Westlund, O. (2008). From mobile phone to mobile device; news consumption on the go, Canadian Journal of Communication, Special issue on: Wireless technologies, mobile practices, Vol 33, 443-463 Westlund, O. (2010a). Convergent Mobile News Media: Tranqulility Awaiting Eruption (Multimedios mviles convergentes: Tranquilidad en espera de erupcin?), Palabra Clave, Volume 13:1, pp. 99-110 Westlund, O. (2010b). New(s) functions for the mobile, New Media and Society, Vol. 12:1, pp. 91-108 Westlund, O. (2010c). Mobile Connected Swedes (De mobilt uppkopplade svenskarna), in S Holmberg & L Weibull Nilsson (eds) Nordic lights (Nordiskt ljus), The SOM-institute, University of Gothenburg Westlund, O. (2011a). Traditional Media Creating Mobile Media, Paper to be presented at the ICA conference in Boston, United States, May 26-30, 2011 Westlund, O. (2011b). A Mobile Media Typology: Shielders & Cravers, Paper to be at the "Seamlessly Mobile" ICA Pre-Conference in Boston, United States, May 25-26, 2011

Westlund,

&

Bjur,

J.

(2011).

Media

Life

in

Transition

Patterns

of

Cross-media Use among Young, Paper to be presented at the IAMCR conference in Istanbul, Turkey, July 13-17, 2011. Westlund O & Bohlin, E. (2008). Explaining Mobile Internet Adoption and Use: Results from a National Survey in Sweden, Paper presented at the 17th Biennial ITS Conference, Montreal, Canada, June 24-27, 2008 Westlund, O, Gmez-Barroso, J-L , Compa, R and Feijo, C. (2011). "Exploring the Logic of Mobile Search", Behaviour & Information Technology, (iFirst) World Association of Newspapers. (2007).World Digital Media Trends. Special Report. Paris