The role of the mobile phone in modern society

With mobile phone technology advancing rapidly, the critical role of citizens in today’s society has changed dramatically. People are becoming more involved through the mere fact that they are able to connect to a plethora of platforms using an array of media at the drop of a penny.
Citizen journalism, a term phrased for a society able to capture breaking news and distribute it immediately has seen many organisations embrace this new form of reporting. Arab news corporation, Al Jazeera has started incorporating mobile reporting into their repertoire of services.
With the quality of the mobile phone’s camera, the ability to connect through 3G, GPRS and Wi-Fi and location based services such as GPS capabilities, accurate portrayals of global happenings can now be distributed to the news corporations in an instant.
During the recent Mumbai terrorist attacks, one such citizen managed to capture a burning Taj Mahal and uploaded the images to his personal blog via his mobile phone.
From the New York Times: “At the peak of the violence, more than one message per second with the word “Mumbai” in it was being posted onto Twitter, a short-message service that has evolved from an oddity to a full-fledged news platform in just two years.”
“Some people transmitted video from inside the Taj hotel to news networks via cellphones. And reporters used cellphones to send text messages to hotel guests who had set up barricades in their rooms.”
In a time where the mobile phone continues to serve as value added device, an enormous advance from simply making phone calls and texting merely ten years ago, the role of marketing and communications are changing.
The mobile phone forms a critical part of everyday life now and companies should realize the potential this device poses to them.

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