Paper presented at the CECC International Conference on (New) Audience Practices, Catholic University Portugal, April 3-4, 2014, Lisbon, Portugal.

1. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
Mobile Media Practices:
The Transforming Role of the Smartphone
in Everyday Shopping Contexts
Katja Kaufmann, MA
Austrian Academy of the Sciences, Vienna
Prof. Dr. Carsten Winter
Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media

2. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
A Changing Everyday Life
• Relationship of users and media technology has
fundamentally changed in recent years
(Campbell & Ling, 2009)
• Use of media has changed from reception to co-creation
(Campbell & Ling, 2009; Green & Jenkins, 2011) and mass self-
communication (Castells, 2009)
• Smartphones have become taken for granted (Ling, 2012)
• Mobile connectivity changes everyday life practices
(Goggin, 2011; Moores, 2012)

3. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
Mobile Shopping Study
How do people use their
smartphones in everyday
shopping contexts?
How do they experience
mobile shopping?
Jason Howie / flickr.com

4. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
Study Design
• Qualitative one-to-one interviews
• 8 smartphone power users, who use
the device in shopping contexts
• Period of time: 10 July - 01 August 2012
• Interview length: 67 minutes
• Qualitative content analysis

5. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
Mobile Shopping Practices
Enquiry Buying
CommemorationFeedback
Sometimes I just send a photo and ask:
What do you want me to buy – the
product on the right or the one
on the left? (Male, 22 years)
In foreign cities, it‘s very helpful
to have a look at my smartphone: Where
is a good restaurant? Where is the next
cash point? (Female, 29 years)
In the evening, I use to shop with my
smartphone as a sideline while lying on
my bed watching TV. (Female, 19 years)
I write it on the smartphone‘s shopping
list, because I will have it with me for
sure. A sheet of paper is always gone
when I need it. (Male, 33 years)

6. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
New Dynamics in Shopping Contexts
Smartphones…
… give immediate access to feedback by friends,
customer reviews and market knowledge
 Users make purchase decisions faster,
more efficiently, more independently
… allow permanent comparability and checkability
 Increasing transparency and shifting balances of power,
especially in brick-and-mortar stores
… allow anywhere anytime access to shopping contexts
 Users elude traditional points of contact like the sales room
with its restrictions and rules
Mr.TinDC / flickr.com

7. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
Audience Research
Under Mobile Conditions
• Mobile devices as intimate, personalized enablers of
media practices
Growing need to understand what happens between
the user and his/her mobile device
Researching practices is key to understanding media
use today (Couldry, 2011)

8. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
Mobile Media at the Pope Election: 2005 vs. 2013

9. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
Mobile Audience Practices: Example
Enquiry Buying
CommemorationFeedback
This concert was so cool, I HAVE to share
the video with my friends at once!
Let‘s see: Have any of my friends
ckecked-in as well at this concert?
The concert was a fantastic experience.
Wait, I‘ll show you some pics on my
phone.
Wow, the frontman‘s shoes are perfect
for me: Where can I buy them?

10. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
Audience Research
Under Mobile Conditions
• How is “audience” to be conceptualized today if each user can
also be a sender and an audience member to each other?
• What is the role of personal mobile media in constituting
audiences?
• To what extent are mobile media to be understood as part of
“the audience”?
• What theories, tools and methods do we need to research
audiences under these convergent, complex, and
contradictory new media conditions?

11. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
Contact
Katja Kaufmann, MA
Institute for Comparative Media
and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences and
Alpen-Adria-University of Klagenfurt
Postgasse 7/4/1
1010 Vienna, Austria
Katja.Kaufmann@oeaw.ac.at
www.oeaw.ac.at/cmc
Prof. Dr. Carsten Winter
Department of Journalism
and Communication Research
Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media
Expo Plaza 12
30539 Hanover, Germany
Carsten.Winter@ijk.hmtm-hannover.de
www.ijk.hmt-hannover.de

12. Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Austrian Academy of Sciences | University of Klagenfurt
(New) Audience Practices
Lisbon, 3-4 April 2014
References
Campbell, S. W. & Ling, R. (2009). Effecs of Mobile Communication. In: J. Bryant &
Mary Beth Oliver (eds.). Media Effects. Advances in Theory and Research (3rd ed.),
592-606. New York, NY: Routledge.
Castells, M. (2009). Communication Power. Oxford: University Press.
Couldry, N. (2004). Theorising Media As Practice. Social Semiotics, 14(2), 115-132.
Couldry, N. (2011). The Necessary Future of the Audience… and How to Research
It. In V. Nightingale (ed.). The Handbook of Media Audiences, 213-229. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishing.
Goggin, G. (2011). Going Mobile. In V. Nightingale (ed.). The Handbook of Media
Audiences, 128-146. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Green, J. & Jenkinks, H. (2011). Spreadable Media. How Audiences Create Value
and Meaning in a Networked Economy. In V. Nightingale (ed.). The Handbook of
Media Audiences, 107-127. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Ling, R. (2012). Taken for Grantedness. The Embedding of Mobile Communication
Into Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Moores, S. (2012). Media, Place & Mobility. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.