I Just Called to Say it's Private: Privacy in the Context of Mobile Phone Conversations

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Communication and Technology Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This research investigates interdependencies of privacy, context, and social interaction within mobile phone communication. The goal of our study is to analyze how terms of privacy are interactively negotiated in cases of mobile phone calls in the presence of others. In contrast to previous studies, our focus lies on the embedding of phone calls into social situations. This does not only entail the phone call itself and what happens meanwhile, but also interaction before (prequel) as well as after (sequel) the telephone conversation. Within a grounded theory approach, we combine theories about telephone conversation with Irwin Altman’s (1975) privacy concept and study privacy behavior with the help of conversation analysis and participant observation. First results show mechanisms people deploy to outbalance different privacy levels. We aim at creating a model that concludes and relates our findings illustrating the complexity of privacy negotiation.

Authors

• Bianka Pagel, University of Mannheim

• Silvie-Kristin Wemper, U of Mannheim

• Eva Schmitt, U of Mannheim

• Marielle Christine Klein, University of Mannheim