New research suggests the use of mobile phones varies dramatically from country to country. Age, financial resources, and the length of time you’ve used a devise, also play a role in differing usage patterns. Users are creative too when it comes to cost, with many having more than one service to make use of carriers’ special cheap text or talk periods.

In this episode of theMediaPod, Ross Monaghan talks with Naomi Baron, Professor of Linguistics at American University, Washington, DC. She’s the author of Always on: language in an online and mobile world, which explores the linguistic and social impact of fixed and mobile communication.

Professor Baron is currently investigating the cross cultural context of mobile phone use.

With emerging technology making mobile phones multimedia devices, Professor Baron warns at just because these services are available, doesn’t mean that all users are making, or will make, use of them. Cost of using these services is often the issue.

For more information about mobile phones see:

The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association

The Australian Media & Communications Authority

Telstra

Technorati Tags: mobile phones, Deakin University, American University, culture, Naomi Baron, public relations

Deakin University PR student Melissa Wallace delves into the virtual online world SecondLife:

When presented with a challenge or a new experience I’m not one to shy away. That’s why when I and a few of my university friends were approached by our PR lecturers and Belinda Wong from Red Cross about establishing a Red Cross PR campaign on Second Life (see picture right), I jumped at the chance. Having never heard of this new social media before made for an interesting and unique assignment.

Lots of questions and issues arose from this experience. How can the PR industry benefit from the use of new social media? What are the positive and negative aspects of new social media? How can Second Life
and MySpace be used to reach a target audience?
The following podcast looks at the implications that Second Life has on the PR industry. I spoke to Jane McDaid, from Thinkhouse PR in Dublin, Ireland, about how she has found establishing her company on Second Life, as well as running it in real life. I also spoke with two PR lecturers from Deakin University with very different opinions on the use of Second Life as a PR tool.

Technorati Tags: Second Life, Red Cross, Deakin, Thinkhouse PR, MySpace, public relations

Did you know that in Australia radio programmes are available in a range of languages? From Arabic to Ukrainian and passing through French, Spanish and Russian you can tune in to the latest news on SBS Radio. There are two key newsrooms in Sydney and Melbourne, where multilingual journalists work on programmes aimed at their communities.
Colleen Murrell went along to SBS Melbourne and spoke with Magica Fossati (above) to find out what is happening in Italian radio.

Technorati Tags: SBS, SBS Radio, Italy, Magica Fossati,