ABSTRACT
Locative media depend on the media knowing where the device is, geographically, in order to customise content. It is increasingly incorporated into the design of apps and is ‘hidden under the hood’ so to speak, gathering and analysing data about the device’s whereabouts. More innovation in locative media comes from advertising, entertainment and PR than from news organisations. In an early study of a branch of scholarship that has gone down the route of addiction, Oulasvirta, Rattenbury, Ma and Raita described smartphones as habit-forming. Habits are also prompted by situational or emotional cues – such as waiting for a bus (situational) or feeling bored or socially neglected (emotional). Smartphones are designed to give swift access to rewards – the action of pulling down the screen to refresh content is like pulling the handle on a fruit-machine or slot-machine and waiting as the wheel spins before delivering fresh (and hopefully rewarding) content.
