Abstract

Using a discursive analysis and cultural studies model, this thesis explores how we are understanding, rationalizing, resisting and embracing the cellphone by telling stories about how people use it. "Cellulore" is an original descriptive phrase used in this thesis to describe the stories people share and the popular media publish and broadcast about strange, odd, boorish and even dangerous or potentially deadly activities related to cellphone use. In the "utopic" and "dystopic" stories of cellulore, there are cautious, dismissive, and indecisive opinions about the meaning and value of the cellphone in our everyday lives. The aim of this thesis is to reveal how five taken-for-granted processes have promulgated the cellphone, supported unequal access to it, and helped to make the object meaningful in different ways to different social groups. Production, consumption, representation, identification, and regulation are the five processes. I propose that cellulore is the moment of articulation which binds these processes in relation to the cellphone. Together they have resulted in the cellphone acquiring a new register of meaning and value not associated with related communication technology like the landline telephone or with other portable technologies like the beeper or Walkman ® . Cellphone use is provoking a redefinition of "mobile privatisation" as users speak private conversations aloud in public spaces instead of private spaces. Cellulore serves the function of helping us to understand, negotiate, and contribute to the changes affecting distances and distinctions between public and private spaces, between social groups, and between individuals.