The mobile phone and the internet have become much more than new communication tools for a whole generation of young people.
And University of Queensland researcher Dr Gerard Goggin, is hoping to find out why.
“Young people are extraordinary users of these technologies,” Dr Goggin said.
“But despite popular conceptions of mobiles and the internet being widely used by young people, very little research had been done in the area.
“There is a big gap in our knowledge of how they use technology and how it fits into their culture.”
Dr Goggin’s research is being funded thanks to a $60,000 grant as part of the 2004 UQ Foundation Research Excellence Awards. Dr Goggin is one of 10 early-career researchers to win an award for innovative and unique work.
Using focus groups, online forums and in-depth interviews both in metropolitan areas and rural regions, this pioneering study will target those aged between 12 and 20 and build up a picture of how influential these technologies are.
“So primarily we will look at the what, the why, the where and the how and at what these technologies mean for young people, ” he said.
“Then we’ll pick up on the relationship between technology and culture.”
He said part of the project’s aims were to compare results from both regional and city settings to see what differences crop up.
“Do mobiles and the internet give them a sense of being part of a group and their contemporaries?” he said.
“And are they using it to cope with social transformations such as in regional areas where there is economic decline?
“And we will also look at issue of young people feeling left out because they don’t have a mobile and don’t feel connected.
He said the research would have wide reaching outcomes outside of the academic world.
“We want to make policy makers and the wider community aware of how young people are interacting and using these tools.”
“It will give a deeper insight than market research that is undertaken by the telcos, by having independent research that informs debate and the agenda.”
Dr Goggin is an Australian Research Fellow with UQ’s Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies and is working on an Australian Research Council funded five-year project on mobile phone culture and regulation.
He has a new book out on the internet’s rise and rise in Australia and he is also writing a cultural history of the technology. He has also published widely on telecommunications and new media.
Media: For more information contact Dr Gerard Goggin (telephone 07 3365 7185, 0428 668 824 or email g.goggin@uq.edu.au) or Andrew Dunne at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2802). Videos and still photos are available at www.uq.edu.au/news/researchweek
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