| From: |
Lisa Campbell Salazar [ profile ] |
| Subject: |
TakingITMobile: Youth, Mobile Phones and Social Change
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| Sent: |
Aug 5th, 2010 - 11:44:31 |
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Dear TakingITMobile Working Group Members,
Thank you all for your participation in the TakingITMobile study. As you may have seen from the blog, the results are now out! TakingITMobile participants (n = 565) paint a picture of the diversity of mobile youth activism around the world. It was found that the majority of youth reported using their mobile phones to generate Citizen Media to share their message globally, mobilize protests, fundraise, educate their peers and spread solidarity. TakingITMobile participants were passionate about a number of global issues, including the Environment (39%), Human Rights (36%), Poverty (28%), Health (24%), Peace (23.8%), HIV/AIDS (22.4%) and Violence (11.6%). While the most common mobile feature was Voice Calls (75%), TakingITMobile participants used a variety of mobile phone features, including Text Messages (46%), Web Browsing (38%), Social Media (27%), News (26%) and Photography (22%).
It was also discovered that youth who own smart phones are more likely to use their phones for activism (81%) than youth who dont (71%). As well, females are much less likely (70%) to use their phones for activism than males. Youth ages 25-29 show higher levels of activism (84%) than youth in their teens (67%), early 20s (75%) and 30s (75%). GDP per capita was an influencing factor on both monthly costs, monthly average number of minutes used, number of SMS used and internet data used. Overall it was found that participants from countries with high GDP per capita received cheaper services, with the exception of very high income nations such as Canada and the United States. A number of barriers were identified for mobile youth activists, including cost of services (32%) cost of mobile phones (10%) as well as network coverage (9%) were the biggest barriers to accessing mobile phones.
If you are interested in further exploring how youth activists are using their mobile phones for social change you can download the full report on the working group. As a participatory action research study, TakingITMobile aims to disseminate the results back to the community in order to share best practices in mobile activism and inspire others to take action. In conjunction with TakingITGlobal, we are hoping to produce a Mobile Guide to Action that can serve as a compass for youth activists interested in using their mobile phone for social change. As well, we are hoping to partner with influential blogs in order to spread the results far and wide. If you are interested in blogging about the TakingITMobile results or helping with the Guide to Action feel free to send me an email!
Thanks for your support,
Lisa Campbell Salazar
Master of Environmental Studies,
2010 Candidate
York University
www.mobilerevolutions.org
lisa (at) mobilerevolutions.org
Skype: qqqnppp
(647) 201-7436
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