Mobile Phones’ Role following China’s 2008 Earthquake

Abstract

On May 12, 2008, an earthquake of 8.0 magnitude struck two-thirds of China from an epicenter in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province. This chapter incorporates culture in a framework to examine mobile phone use in a natural disaster. It explores the mutual interaction between Chinese culture and Chinese mobile phone use that sought information and aimed to reduce uncertainty about families, relatives, and friends after the earthquake. After the quake, the driving force of information sharing and reducing uncertainty in a crisis, led people to use mobile phones in ways that were not normal in everyday life. In the communication after the natural crisis, the function of mobile phones was expanded in the juncture of social, technological, and cultural necessity. The key in the social construction approach of communication technology is social interaction that constructs the uses and effects of communication technology.

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