Friday, March 6, 2009
The Most Popular Screen
Six in 10 people around the world now have cell phone subscriptions, signaling that mobile phones are the communications technology of choice, particularly in poor countries, according to a U.N. report published Monday. By the end of last year there were an estimated 4.1 billion subscriptions globally, compared with about 1 billion in 2002, the International Telecommunication Union said.
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2 comments:
Clyde,
This subject came up in a discussion group I was facilitating today. Our topic was media usage among indigenous groups. I was sitting with experts from many Latin American countries who currently work with various media ministries - radio, audio recording, television, etc.
The observation was made that cel phones have largely penetrated even somewhat remote jungle areas, making communication possible in new ways. Where it was once only possible to tell stories via shortwave radio, it may now be possible to deploy stories via mobile devices, even in areas and cultures where we might imagine technology is very primitive.
Of course, there are still many people who are virtually untouched by such technology, but their numbers are dwindling rapidly - for better or worse.
Clyde,
We were talking about this statistic last week at our Amazon Consultation in Orlando. I was facilitating a discussion of Media in Indigenous Missions and we were brainstorming technologies and storytelling methodologies for use in the Amazon basin.
Mobile technology is rapidly spreading, even in the jungle. So there is potential to use it, alongside traditional things like audio recordings (now mp3 players) and radio.
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