Books

Katz, J., Aakhus, M. (2005). Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance. New York, NY: Cambridge University.

Katz, a professor of communications and director at the Center for Mobile Communication Studies, and Aakhus, professor of Communications at Rutgers University, offer a comprehensive background on rapidly advancing mobile technology across the globe. Much of the book is a composite of papers from a 1999 communication workshop at Rutgers University addressing the social aspects of mobile communication. Katz and Aakhus include an international perspective on cell phone technology with studies from ten cultures around the world with a wide range of demographic levels. They discuss how cell phone technology has changed the way we do business from a social and scientific perspective, with contributions from some of the most notable researchers in the field. Building upon a strong foundation of research on telecommunications, Perpetual Contact is a great starting point for researchers and journalists who are interested in a global perspective of mobile communication.

Horst, H., Miller, D. (2006). The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Communication. New York,

NY: Berg Publishing.

Horst who earned her PhD in Anthropology with an emphasis on material culture from the University of London, and Miller, cofounder of Opus Research who helped define the Conversational Access Technologies marketplace, create a detailed ethnography on the impact of cell phones on our everyday lives and discuss the role they play in our communication. They discuss how cell phones establish and maintain relationships in areas from religion to love and how it has become a tool used for social networking. Horst and Miller also focus on the role the cell phone plays in lower income societies and how they have become a critical tool of communication in these societies as well. This information would be critical to a researcher or journalists who want to know more about how our daily, personal lives are influenced by the technology of the cell phone.

Goggin, G. (2006). Cell Phone Culture: Mobile Technology in Everyday Life. New York, NY:

Gerard Goggin.

In his book, Cell Phone Culture: Mobile Technology in Everyday Life, Goggin, an Australian Research fellow and Professor of Digital Communication at the University of South Wales, writes on the premise that he has created the first comprehensive introduction to cell phone history and theory. He discusses the cultural implications of the cell phone from a historical and global perspective, and touches on the importance and relevance of ‘cell phone theory’ in modern day times. Goggin also focuses on the link between the media and cell phones and how cell phone consumption is affecting media and cultural studies today. The book offers a clear overview of a common cultural object and its modern implications, which would be useful to journalists and researchers looking to tie the information to contemporary issues of communication.