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March 09, 2008

Käsikirjoitus esitarkastuksessa - Thesis in pre-examination

Hurray! I submitted my thesis manuscript Connecting photos: A qualitative study of cameraphone photo use for pre-examination on March 4th. I hope to receive comments by the end of May.

It's about time I gave a summary. A very short one without the jargon. The thesis is a cultural study of cameraphone photo use. I interviewed sixteen Finnish cameraphone users of 17-53 years of age and examined what they thought of cameraphones, cameraphone photos, and using them as part of their other photographic and communicative practices. I did not study what was in the photos, but approached them as data files, tracking their use.

I found that using cameraphone photos became defined as something else but domestic photography, although some conventions of domestic photography persisted. I also found that people used their photos not only on the phones but also on computers and the internet. It was not only significant which photos were shared with whom, but particular groups also gathered around particular communication applications (instead of everyone using the same, freely available channels from picture messaging to instant messaging.) However, the technical side of using photos was not unproblematic for everyone. Transferring photos brought up questions of gender related to digital domestic photography and ICT use.

Based on the results, my thesis concludes that people's digital media use should not be understood only through focusing on individual devices (as has been customary in cameraphone research, for example), but also through examining how people use their media content: how the content is made meaningful side by side to other media contents; how the files are circulated and used across devices; and what technical, social, and cultural issues facilitate or complicate the circulation and use.

Once the thesis is published (most likely autumn 2008), it will be freely available in the internet, and I'll include a full academic abstract here soon.

Posted by hrantavu at 09:29 PM