Experts

Professor Ted Welser, Sociology and Anthropology department, Ohio University. Welser@ohio.edu

Ted Welser is an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Ohio University who earned his PhD at the University of Washington in 2006. He specializes in the areas of computer-mediated interaction, methods, social networks, social psychology and theory. He has written for various journals including the Journal of Social Structure and the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. Similar to communication through the cell phone, computer-mediated communication studies centers on rapidly developing social behavior that is being shaped by a recent technological development. After having studied mediated communication extensively, Professor Ted Welser is well informed on the way communication has evolved since the introduction of the cell phone, and for this reason he is an asset to a journalist or researcher looking to gain information on communication theory.

Professor Jing Wang, Head of Foreign Language and Literatures, Chinese Cultural Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Jing@mit.edu

Jing Wang received her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the founder and organizer of MIT critical policy studies in China, and a participating member of the MIT Laboratory for Branding Cultures. She has published several books such as High Culture Fever, Popular Culture and the Chinese State, and Brand New China: Advertising, Media, and Commercial Culture. She participated in a forum at MIT on cell phone culture in November of 2005 on cell phone branding and youth culture in China alongside James Katz. Wang is a critical source of knowledge for journalists and researchers who are seeking information on cell phone technology and its development in China.

Professor Paul Levinson, Communication and Media Studies, Fordham University. Levinson.Paul@gmail.com

Levinson received his MA in media studies from New School for Social Research, and his PhD in media ecology from New York University. He is published in both fiction and non-fiction, and some of his non-fiction works include Cellphone: The Story of the World’s Most Mobile Medium and How It has Transformed Everything!, Mind at Large: Knowing in the Technological Age, and Electronic Chronicles: Coluns of the Changes in our Time. Levinson, is a commentator on media, popular culture, and science fiction, and has been interviewed over 500 times on local, national, and international television and radio shows. He co-founded Connected Education, and is presently Chair of the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University. A journalist or researcher would benefit from speaking with Levinson, who has spent practically his entire career speaking to the public about media and popular culture.

Sadie Plant, Director of the Cybermetic Culture Research Unit at University of Warwick/UK.

Plant received her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Manchester in 1989, and later taught at the University of Birmingham’s department of Cultural Studies. She then went on to found the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at Warwick University. She has written reports including “On the Mobile: The Effects of Mobile Telephones on Social and Individual Life,” which includes research on the rituals associated with mobile phones, the way in which men and women display particular habits through mediated technology, and cross cultural observations. She has also written a book titled Zeros and Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture. Plant offers a European perspective on mobile technology and has studied intellectual trends from French philosophers such as Jean Baudrillard and Jean-François Lyotard. Plant would be a useful source of information to journalists and researchers because not only does she offer a European perspective on the advancements in mobile technology, but she also offers a feminist perspective which is relatively hard to come by in research field mostly dominated by males.

Rich Ling, Professor of communication studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Sociologist at Telenor’s research institute located near Oslo, Norway. www.richardling.com

Ling received his PhD in sociology from the University of Colorado Boulder, and soon after taught at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. He has been a partner in a consulting firm which focused on the studies of energy, technology and society. He has worked at Telanor R&D and has been active in researching issues associated with information technology and society, particularly focusing on mobile telephony. He has written several books, including The Mobile Connection: The Cell Phone’s Impact on Society, and the not yet published New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile Communication is Reshaping Social Cohesion. He is also the associate editor of “The Information Society”, and has been interviewed on The Discovery Channel, NPR, and The New York Times. Ling is a good source of information for journalists and researchers who are looking for a cross cultural perspective, and since he has been interviewed for several credited media outlets, is experienced in public communication.