News in their Pockets

If cities are the future, then the four cities covered in News in Their Pockets are the cutting edge of the future. Ran Wei's and Ven-hwei Lo's rich exploration of how citizens in tech-saturated megalopolises use mobile connectivity for news should leave no doubt where the rest of the world will be in the coming years. It is a disorienting time, and we are in luck that they have offered themselves as trail guides to the world to come. -- Lee Rainie, Director of Internet and Technology Research, Pew Research Center, Washington, DC Mobile telephony has brought news to the palms of everyone. With a comparative design using two waves of large-scale survey data, this book is a systematic study of mobile news consumption among college students in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei and Singapore. It is a key reference for anyone interested in understanding how and why mobile news is consumed, and its consequences. Wei and Lo should also be lauded for shedding new light on the interplay between new information technology and social contexts in shaping its use and the production of informed and engaged citizens in this digital age. -- Joseph M. Chan, Emeritus Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong With smooth, tasteful, and exuberant writing, News in Their Pockets represents a timely and much-needed outlook over the convergence of news and the mobile revolution in Asia. Readers will hone their understanding about the motivations, perceptions, uses, and democratic effects of the ever-evolving world of news gone mobile. -- Homero Gil de Zuniga, Medienwandel Professor, Department of Communication, University of Vienna