New Media - Cellphones

In case you missed it, there are now seven mass media: print, music recordings, movies, radio, TV, computer-based internet and mobile phones. The mobile phone, although at number seven, has a huge advantage over the others and that is it can actually participate in all of them.

According to Anja Merret in the Mail and Guardian, you can

read a newspaper or book on one’s mobile, listen to music, watch movies, follow a radio program, watch TV or YouTube. And of course you can browse the internet.

Obviously, watching TV on a mobile is not (yet) the same as watching shows on television. The same applies to browsing the internet. But we're clearly getting there.

And where cellphones further stand out from the crowd is both their immediacy (we sleep next to them) and their total interactiveness (we create our own content and forward stuff on.) When marketers begin to understand the advantages and limitations of the humble cellphone and learn to play to its strengths, there's going to be a revolution in the way we receive audio-visual content. And that of course means more opportunities......