This article was downloaded by: [78.97.205.

89]
On: 05 September 2011, At: 06:49
Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954
Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,
UK

Information, Communication &

Society
Publication details, including instructions for authors
and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rics20

HIDDEN MEDIA
Niloofar Niknam
a

Journalism, Media and Communication, Stockholm

University, Professorsslingan 41, Stockholm, 11417,
Sweden
Available online: 09 Sep 2010

To cite this article: Niloofar Niknam (2010): HIDDEN MEDIA, Information,

Communication & Society, 13:8, 1172-1190
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691181003639874

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/termsand-conditions
This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes.
Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan,
sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is
expressly forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any
representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to
date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be
independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable
for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages
whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection
with or arising out of the use of this material.

Niloofar Niknam
HIDDEN MEDIA
The mobile phone in an Iranian cultural
context with a focus on Bluetooth

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

messaging

Exchanging Bluetooth messages via mobile phones, in a short period of time, have
become a popular way of communication among the Iranian youth. A quick look at
the content of Bluetooth messages shows that they vary from pure entertaining videos
to serious religious or political audio files, or even pornographic images. However,
Bluetooth messaging in this research is considered as a medium of interpersonal communication, which serves several functions for youngsters. Approximately 120 young
people between the age of 17 and 30 living in different areas of Tehran were
surveyed regarding their consumption of this technology, their attitude towards it
and their gender-based behaviours in using the technology. The results show that
Bluetooth is a leisure technology which is seen both as a threat to, and promise
for, youth in the society. It helps young people get access to different contents,
express their needs and represent their own culture.
Keywords mobile technology; youth; Bluetooth messaging; identity;
social networking
(Received 7 January 2010; final version received 19 January 2010)

Introduction
The mobile phone has become an integral part of our everyday life. Glotz et al.
(2005, p. 11) believe that the mobile phone plays a number of sophisticated roles
in social interaction and everyday life. This small technological device, of course,
has different functions in different socio-cultural contexts. In the Iranian society,
the mobile phone has achieved the status of an important, ubiquitous and highly
regarded medium which serves multiple functions. The focus of this research is
Information, Communication & Society Vol. 13, No. 8, December 2010, pp. 1172 1190
ISSN 1369-118X print/ISSN 1468-4462 online # 2010 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/13691181003639874

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

HIDDEN MEDIA

on one of the most notable functions that has turned to a social phenomenon and has
brought different controversies to the society: Bluetooth messaging.
It is fair to say that thus far scholarly studies of mobile phones have been
dominated by a focus on European and North American examples and assumptions. Work on social aspects of mobile phones in other parts of the world
especially Asia is now emerging (Goggin 2006, p. 13).
Kavoori and Chadha (2006) also consider the mobile phone at the periphery
of contemporary discourse about media and culture. Most studies cover the main
functions of mobile phones such as text messaging, and new facilities such as
MMS, mobile Internet, G3 networks, etc. in different cultural contexts.
However, Bluetooth technology seems quite absent in scholarly works of the
mobile phone. Perhaps one of the reasons this phenomenon in countries such
as Iran has not received the attention it is merited is due to the focus and location
of mobile scholars in the first world, or as Goggin (2006, p. 75) puts it on the
other side of global divide, so that their communication and media patterns and
choices have not been explored yet. Another reason is simply because such a
phenomenon does not exist in the cultural context of most countries of the
world. This research will try to explore different social and cultural dimensions
of the consumption of this technology.

Research issues and hypotheses

This research aims to address three main issues concerning the use of Bluetooth
technology. First of all, what are the foremost reasons that this technology has
gained a pervasive popularity? Secondly, how do the young people consider
this technology and its relative consequences? And thirdly, with a focus on the
use of this technology, how does the use of this technology vary by gender?
(Research issue) RIa: Bluetooth, like any other technology, is affected by
specific cultural elements; therefore, cultural traits determine the very circumstances of using this technology and its popularity.
(Hypothesis) Ha1: With increasing level of education, social status and age,
people enjoy Bluetooth less.
Bluetooth is popular because it fulfils the desire of youngsters to get different
contents in multimedia forms. Most of these contents are restricted in other
forms of the mainstream media. Although the Internet can offer people different
contents such as jokes, porn, political and religious issues, a great deal of information is censored by the authorities.
Ha2: People who have better access to the Internet have less desire to get
Bluetooth messages.
The popularity of Bluetooth might be owed to the personal sphere it offers
to young people, a privacy in which they can access, store and exchange prohibited contents without the curious and controlling eyes of adults. Gordon (2006)

1173

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

1174

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY

also remarks different ways a mobile phone may be personalized, such as pictures, ring tones, fascias, styles, wall paper themes, textual and visual messages,
etc.
Ha3: If the mobile phone offers young people a private sphere where they
can store all sorts of Bluetooth messages including the so-called forbidden contents, then the youngsters are not comfortable in letting the adults, such as
parents, have access to their Bluetooth inbox.
RIb: Once we explore the reasons for the widespread use of Bluetooth messages, we need to investigate youths attitude regarding this technology.
Hb1: Bluetooth messaging consequences might be considered in a spectrum
of positive to negative attitudes, whether it is a threat to social norms or a shortcut to a modern society.
Youth living in Tehran seem to have a strong liberal viewpoint towards
freedom of speech, and do not accept surveillance of the exchanging contents.
Hb2: The level of respect for freedom of speech by Tehranian youth has a
positive correlation with their social and educational backgrounds.
Tiny cameras in mobile phones have raised different issues in the whole
world with regard to their invasion of peoples privacy. This invasion, as
stated before, is more drastic in Iran. Bluetooth messaging is the easiest and
the most popular way of distributing home videos.
Hb3: If Bluetooth is actually violating peoples privacy, then the youth in our
survey should also acknowledge this invasion.
RIc: In Iranian culture, where males and females are kept segregated in
different spheres such as schools and recreation centres, pools, etc., technology
might be used as an opportunity to fill this gap between the sexes. Bluetooth is
no different. Therefore, we can assume that Bluetooth messaging has built new
bridges between the two sexes. Exchanging Bluetooth messages in public places
and to unknown recipients which is called Bluejacking1 is an example. On the
other hand, following Hartleys (1999) conception of Interpersonal
Communication theory, we can assume that exchanging files merely take
place between the members of a particular group who already know each
other.
Hc1: If Bluetooth messaging is a tool for young people to contact the
opposite sex, then the main subject of unknown recipients messages is some
sorts of friendship request.
Hc2: Since males are usually more interested in new technologies, boys in
this research will show more desire for Bluetooth messaging.
Hc3: While girls prefer leisure contents, boys are interested in political and
pornographic videos more than girls.
Hc4: If different sexes take sexual differences into consideration in
exchanging Bluetooth messages, then they are more conservative in sending
some contents such as sexual and pornographic videos to the recipient of
opposite sex.

HIDDEN MEDIA

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

The integration of mobile phones with youth identity

Before entering the discussion about Bluetooth messaging via mobile phones, we
should clarify how mobile devices have become embedded in contemporary
society and culture, wherein different users belonging to different cultures
have created distinct usages for the same technological interface. It seems that
the basic meaning of mobile phones as a ubiquitous telephony has moved to
many other intentional and unintentional consequences.
The role of cultures in forming different usages of the mobile phone technology has been remarked by many scholars (for instance, see Katz & Aakhus 2002;
Campbell 2006; Goggin 2006; Wilska & Pedrozo 2007; Barnes 2008; etc.).
Regardless of the cultural differences, new generations growing up with mobile
phones tend to adopt this technology and its several functions better in the building
of their identities in comparison with those of older generations. At the same time,
new technologies change the lifestyles of young people more than those of other
age groups (see, for instance, Goggin 2006; Wilska & Pedrozo 2007; Barnes
2008). Here, I briefly point to the main roles of mobile phones, and relatively
Bluetooth technology, in shaping and reproducing young peoples culture and
identities.
First of all, the mobile phone allows young people to create and negotiate
their gendered and social class-based identities.
As it seems, any means of communication is used by young users to demonstrate their values and to define themselves according to these values. Mehdi
Montazer Ghaem (2009)2, the professor of media studies at Tehran University
posits that Bluetooth and other tools of communication are used to represent
young peoples needs and values:
Youth find Bluetooth and other forms of representation as a means of generational representations. Whenever they want to change their definitions,
values, behaviours; and whenever they need some kinds of representational
means in order to instigate and disseminate what they believe to the general
(adult) society, Bluetooth acts as an important means of communication.
At the same time, mobile phones can give young people a sense of social confidence
by their shape, model and price. In Tehran, owning a high tech, new model, you
can walk proudly about, having your mobile phone attached to you everywhere.
More than giving a sense of confidence, mobile phones among young people are
used as a device to attract other peoples attention. Walking around in a public
place in Tehran, you can hardly hear a typical Nokia or Sony Ericsson ring tone,
instead a variety of sound tracks merge together. The sounds vary from a recent
Britney Spears song, to traditional local music and even to a mournful melody
from the Quran. I would consider these different melodies as a signal singing

1175

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

1176

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY

the song of different social communities; or they simply allow youth to become
the centre of attention (Hoflich 2005, p. 124). Imagine yourself in one of the long
queues in a bank of the capital city of Tehran and suddenly you hear a loud Mozarts
symphony. You look at the people who are also trying to locate the sound, and then
somewhere in the queue a young worker with a destitute appearance, happy to
attract all these curious looks, takes out his expensive phone from the pocket,
and you join other people to snicker at the paradoxical situation of the boys
appearance comparing with his pricy phone and his musical taste. The interesting
point is that the ring tones are often loud; it seems people enjoy sharing the ring
tones with others or as Silva (2006, p. 24) suggests, many people place the mobile
phone in the centre of attention of a group, even though overhearing private talks
in public spaces is indeed disturbing for many people.
Another issue is the growing personalization of mobile phones for youngsters. Beyond the simple ownership of the mobile phone, the device is increasingly becoming a reflection of ones personality via the use of icons, ringing
sounds, covers, video inbox, etc.
The mobile phone has other functions for young people. It also helps them to
establish themselves as individuals who are independent from adults by using this
technology. Ling (2001, p. 1) considers mobile phones as a technology that
allows one a communication channel free from the supervision of ones
parents, the opportunity for individualization and the ability to engage in
social networking with ones peers. Mobile phones bring freedom for teenagers
from the parents surveillance. It is true that many parents give their children
mobile devices in order to monitor their activities, or to make them available
at all times. Nevertheless, one can always lie about ones physical location,
and choose whether or not to answer a call depending on the number displayed
on the screen (Silva 2006, p. 33).
The last point worth making is the ability of mobile phones to create a need
for young people to keep up with the latest technological developments. In some
cultures like Iranian, the demand for being updated with the latest technologies is
even higher; indeed the technology is a channel through which a young person is
connected to the rest of the world. As a modern young person, it is very important to be aware of the latest jokes, photos and videos of your own social class in
the youth communities. When you are among your friends, and you have not seen
the latest videos of political events in the country or have not heard about the latest
jokes, you would probably feel excluded and not on the same level.
One can summarize all the issues mentioned briefly in Figure 1.

Bluetooth stands against media limitations

In Iran, television is controlled by the state. Although the law prohibits the
ownership and sale of satellite dishes, Persian-speaking TV channels remain

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

HIDDEN MEDIA

FIGURE 1

Mobile phone functions for young users.

ubiquitous. At the same time, Internet growth in Iran has been phenomenal and
among the fastest in the world. There are reportedly several hundred thousand
Persian-language weblogs, and the number is increasing daily (Khiabany 2008,
p. 29; Semati 2008, p. 3). Despite this increasing growth of the Internet,
Iranian users faced a huge filtering in recent years. It is worth mentioning that
www.youtube.com,3 where most popular videos are accessible, has been
blocked in Iran many times. I believe this homepage has the capacity to challenge
the popularity of Bluetooth messages.
A short review of the media in the country and their struggle to open a free
space over time can explain the unprecedented growth of mobile phones and its
ability to function as a unique medium through Bluetooth or short messaging.
It seems that hardly any of these limitations have been applied to the content
of mobile phones. As a result, people have found that Bluetooth and text messaging are two unique alternative ways of communication in order to exchange
news, information, and so-called forbidden content or, a way to escape
from political oppression.

1177

1178

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY

Ramezani (2008) believes that the mobile phone has become the tool for a
virtual social network whose currency is anything from political news to love
letters, philosophy and the latest jokes, even pornography. Today, the mobile
phone for Iranians is not limited to Bluetooth messaging among youth. It has simplified the communications, business transactions, the access to the Internet and
entertainments such as games, etc.

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

Bluetooth in the midst of youth culture

According to the last national census of the year 2006, 42 million of the total
70.5 million inhabitants or over 60 per cent of the population of Iran is under
the age of 30. Talking about Iranian youth culture, one should always be
cautious as to which social or cultural class one refers to. Iran consists of
multiple ethnicities and minorities, all with their unique cultures, traditions
and lifestyles.
Accordingly, mobile phones social meanings and functions, and in our case
Bluetooths usages, vary from one social group to another. This research tried to
include different social groups of youth living in Tehran.

Tehranian youth in a survey: data and method

The questionnaires were distributed among over 120 people between the age of
17 and 30 in different parts of Tehran within 15 days from 15 30 January 2009.
This distribution aimed to cover different groups of young people in the capital
city, in view of the fact that different parts of the city represent different social
classes. For instance, the north of Tehran is considered as a high-class area where
rich and cultured people live, while the southern areas and suburbs are known
for their lower-class inhabitants, especially those coming from other cities and
start a low-quality life there. All these locations and their indications could be
a matter of debate, though.
The style of most questions was open-ended, as well as some attitude questions (following Bradburn et al.s (2004) perception) which are listed below.
These statements were answered in a spectrum of seven options ranging from
total agreements to total disagreements:
(1) Exchanging private videos (the videos taken from common people in different
locations) is violating others privacies.
(2) We live in an Islamic country; do you think applying censorships and limitations to the media by the authorities is a way to protect religious values?
(3) New technologies such as Bluetooth have become a way of breaking the
norms and traditions.

HIDDEN MEDIA

(4) Exchanging Bluetooth messages via mobile phones is a new phenomenon

which will hasten social changes towards a modern society.
(5) Bluetooth messages are popular everywhere (in different societies) because
of their easy access and ubiquity.
(6) Bluetooth messages are more popular in the countries in which other forms
of media are restricted.
(7) Bluetooth messages have spread taboo and forbidden contents in the society
more than any other forms of media.

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

The respondents were also offered a multiple response table with different
Bluetooth themes in the columns and different forms in the rows of the table.
In the next section, the logic for this categorization is explained.

Mapping Bluetooth messages

To offer the respondents a proper categorization of contents and forms of
Bluetooth messages, approximately 90 Bluetooth messages were collected from
different sources, including friends and different groups of respondents.
Apart from a few images, the main form of collected Bluetooth messages is
moving images or audio files. The videos are from a few seconds to 12 13
minutes long. More than 30 files out of 90 files were some sort of entertaining
videos reflecting comic stories or interesting commercial advertisements produced outside the country (for instance, comic videos of children, animals, or
half time show videos, car and shampoo ads, or circus performances). A few
files were audio musical files. Digging into the remaining files (on over 50
files), different themes appeared. The variation of the content of messages
makes any classification difficult. Some videos are explicitly representing some
political issues, such as goofs of politicians or the president. Religious videos
vary from a speech of a clergyman to a voice imitation of an official. Pornographic videos have their own specific themes. Amidst the remaining files, all
of them somehow connote to some sort of social issue. Apart from videos of
famous people like football players or movie stars, the other files are mainly
representing young people in different social contexts. Youth gathering is one
of these contexts. A gathering of rappers dancing in the street; a gathering of
school girls singing together or playing catwalk models in the school; a gathering
of friends playing the guitar, or dancing on the mountain or streets, a gathering of
soldiers dancing in a hilarious way while spending their mandatory military
service are some examples. Since the main idea of these Bluetooth files is to
represent something social but combined with cultural elements, in this article
they are called socio-cultural theme.
According to Montazer Ghaem4, the main reason for the popularity of these
videos is due to the misrepresentation or underrepresentation of some localities

1179

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

1180

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY

of social and personal life or the intersection of them, which is not accessible in
the mass media. He believes young people need to know what is happening inside
closed places, such as girls high schools, army barracks, university dorms,
private parties, etc. Young people are curious to know how the life looks like
in such places, how people behave and socialize. On the other hand, the
general culture is not in favour of representing the inside picture of personal
life.
Although the categories overlap each other in many cases, especially in political and religious files, still one theme in most of the cases dominates other
themes. I found two different kinds of joking social, religious or political
issues. One is to make a parody of someone or an event, like making cartoons
of politicians, humiliating low class peoples dance, imitating someones voice,
etc. On the other hand, some videos represent a real event but the actual
message of the video or audio file is to offer a critical point of view of the event.
To detail the categorization, each main theme was divided into the videos
about ordinary people, famous people, videos coming from outside the
country, audio and other visual files, as the rows of the table.

Results
Preliminary data analysis
The survey data were entered into SPSS for analysis. One hundred and twentythree people aged between 17 and 30 participated in this survey; three of them
did not have Bluetooth at their disposal, and so their responses were excluded
from statistics. The remaining number, which includes 120 questionnaires,
breaks surprisingly down to exactly 60 female and 60 males. The mode of the
age is 23 and the mode of education is four years of university studies equal
to bachelor degree in Iran. They mainly considered themselves middle class
(56 people) or upper-middle class (48 people), though the chosen living areas
by the respondents covers all the geographical zones in Tehran. Eight people
declared that they live in a city other than Tehran (five people live in a suburb
city close to Tehran and the other three coming from other cities).
More than half of the young people in the survey change their mobile phones
at least once a year, while only 13.3 per cent have never changed their mobile
phones. Once again, we see how the mobile phone is regarded as a social
status device among them (Katz and Aakhus 2002; Skog 2002). A bivariate
correlation revealed a negative correlation between the frequency of changing
mobile phones and the social class of the respondents (r 20.24, p 0.008).
It is interesting that 65 per cent of them have been using their Bluetooth for
three years or more. An important aspect of this survey is to grasp the main contents young people are interested in by a multiple response table which was

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

HIDDEN MEDIA

described earlier. From the six main themes, political subjects were chosen the
most. Half of the respondents marked at least one of the rows in this category
(accordingly the result is more than 100 per cent). Among the political subjects,
political videos representing both ordinary and famous people in Iran were at the
top of all categories. Socio-cultural Bluetooth themes are the second ranked
category. The third category, pure entertainment follows with 72 checked.
The religious theme is ranked fourth, with both serious and comic videos about
ordinary people in Iran at the top. Twenty-two respondents chose sexual videos
among the last five files they have received. The sexual videos from famous
people in Iran were at the top of this category. Finally, informative/knowledge
files that were at the bottom of this table received only 11 per cent of all
choices. The number of comic (jokes) video or audio files is surprising with
more than 70 per cent of all (Figure 2).
Asking about favourable places, 36 per cent of youth in this research preferred private places for Bluetooth messaging, while four per cent preferred
public places and 10 per cent have their Bluetooth on everywhere, and the
rest keep the Bluetooth off or had it on where needed. They also mentioned
which public places have the highest probability for Bluejacking. Among given
public places (transportation vehicles such as bus, subway, taxi, etc./cafe
shops and restaurants/streets/recreational and sport centres such as cinemas,
sport gyms, parks/official places such as offices or work places/educational
places such as schools, universities, teaching institutions), 50 per cent chose
the first category, transportation vehicles. Apart from educational places that
ranked second with 26 per cent, all other places received less than 10 per
cent of total votes.
When they were asked to determine when they have their Bluetooth on, 69
per cent admitted that they turn on their Bluetooth only when it is needed. This
shows that Bluetooth messaging amongst the youth is more an intentional act
with a desire to do it with people they know, than to be anonymous. This
claim is strongly supported by 77 per cent of youth saying no to Bluejacking
with unknown people.

FIGURE 2

Popular Bluetooth theme frequencies (they had the chance to pick more than

one category).

1181

1182

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

Research issues and hypotheses test

RI a: Apart from three people, everyone in the survey had Bluetooth at their
disposal. An average respondent had received 5 10 Bluetooth messages
within the last two weeks prior to filling out the questionnaire. Of all 70.8
per cent respondents uttered that they sometimes talk about the interesting
Bluetooth messages in their social meetings; 17.5 per cent often and 5.8 per cent
always talk about messages. Only 2.5 per cent never talk about the messages.
Ha1: Bivariate correlation shows that there is a strong negative correlation
(r 20.40, p , 0.001) between the number of exchanged messages and the
level of education, while we cannot see this meaningful relation between
the number of exchanged messages and social status of the person (r 0.12,
p 0.20). One can argue that the social class variable is not vastly distributed
and it is more focused on two middle and upper-middle class values; therefore,
it is not very representative. Age and the number of received Bluetooth messages also have a statistical relationship at the 0.05 level.
Ha2: There is a limited negative relationship (r 20.22, p 0.02)
between access to the Internet and the number of exchanged messages. It
means that people who have better access to the Internet have less desire for
exchanging Bluetooth than those who do not have this access. It is worth mentioning that 94.2 per cent of respondents have had Internet access.
Ha3: More than half of the responders (55 per cent) do not like other people
such as their parents to have access to their Bluetooth inbox due to its private
contents. They mainly pointed to their privacies or immoral contents as the
reason for this reluctance.
RI b: The general viewpoints of young people in this survey show that they
assume Bluetooth messaging in Iran is as huge in the other parts of the world.
No one totally denied the popularity of this technology in other nations
85.8 per cent strongly or somehow believed that Bluetooth messaging is
popular everywhere (in different societies) because of its easy access and ubiquity.
Yet interestingly, 89.2 per cent also believed that this technology is big in the
societies in which other forms of media are censored (no one opposed this
idea and 11.7 remained neutral). So the majority of respondents believe that
Bluetooth messaging is big everywhere, but it is more popular among those
living in more closed cultures.
Hb1: New technologies such as Bluetooth have become a way to break the
norms and traditions 43.3 per cent of respondents acknowledged this idea,
while 36.6 per cent opposed and 19.2 per cent expressed no idea. The variation
of data prevents us from proposing a confident assessment regarding the youngsters viewpoint towards Bluetooth messaging. However, one can argue that
more respondents consider Bluetooth as a technology by which norms and
values are threatened. Interestingly, the majority of people in this research

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

HIDDEN MEDIA

(77.5 per cent) considered Bluetooth as a technology which has threatened or

broken social norms more than any other technology. Exchanging Bluetooth
messages via the mobile phone is also a new phenomenon which will hasten
social changes towards a modern society. Only 20 per cent disagreed to this
statement.
Hb2: This research also aimed to examine the respondents view point concerning the freedom of speech, and the necessity of applying censorship to the
Bluetooth messages by the authorities. An estimate of 29.2 per cent totally disagreed with the necessity of censorship, while the number of totally agreed was
5.8 per cent. In total, 57.5 per cent opposed censorship, 19.7 per cent agreed;
and the rest, 6.7 per cent chose neither side. Despite the fact that social status
and living area in Tehran show no correlation with the level they support
freedom of speech, respondents with higher educational background strongly
believe in free access of Bluetooth messages. Data analysis shows that there is
a strong positive relationship between considering Bluetooth as a threat and
having faith in censorship of messages (r 0.450, p , 0.01).
Hb3: People considered private videos of ordinary people as a way of violating their privacies. Only 7.5 per cent stated some disagreements, which means
(with the exception of 6.7 per cent who chose neither side) the rest, 85.8 per
cent, admitted the threat of Bluetooth videos to others privacies (Figure 3).
RI c: Hc1: The findings of this research show that the majority of young
people (77.5 per cent) claim that they never receive Bluetooth from
unknown people; 21.7 per cent sometimes receive and 0.8 per cent
always receive unknown messages. A striking point is that among those
who Bluejack with unknown people, they mainly believe that unknown messages include some unexpected contents such as porn. Only 2.5 per cent
assume that the subject of unknown messages is related to some sort of friendship request (the other highlighted subjects are music, comic files and political
issues). The probability of getting a Bluetooth file when you have your Bluetooth
on in public is more than 50 per cent. Moreover, an independent-sample t-test
shows a significant difference between sexes in the desire for Bluejacking with

FIGURE 3

Young peoples attitudes towards Bluetooth technology.

1183

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

1184

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY

unknown people. In addition, males are more eager than females (t

20.2.08, df 118, p 0.03).
Hc2: Boys with a weak significance have received more Bluetooth messages
in the specified period of time (p 0.045). An independent-sample t-test indicates that the difference between sexes in the number of receiving Bluetooth
messages has a limited significance (t 22.022, df 108, p 0.045).
However, the number of exchanged messages cannot be used as the only
factor presenting the desire of males to use this technology. One should also
take into account the duration they have had access to Bluetooth. Comparing
the means of two sexes, we see that males were first to use the technology;
female users have had access to this technology within last two years, but
males within the last three years.
Hc3: The findings of the multiple response table are described earlier. If we
add gender value to this table, we will see differences in the contents of received
Bluetooth files. Surprisingly, females dominate most of the categories. They
marked more areas in the table regarding political, socio-cultural, religious
and informative themes. Sexual files are the only theme boys expressed more
desire for.
Hc4: Among all the respondents, 50.9 per cent admitted that they take
gender into consideration when they want to exchange Bluetooth with
someone. A total of 45.8 per cent claimed to have no gender-based consideration
and 3.3 per cent did not answer this question.
It is worth mentioning that though friends are more desirable people for
exchanging Bluetooth messages for both sexes, girls enjoy Bluetooth messaging
with family members more than boys (Figure 4).

FIGURE 4
messaging.

Gender differences regarding favourable social network for Bluetooth

HIDDEN MEDIA

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

Summary and interpretation of findings

Young people who participated in this survey seem to be educated, having access
to the Internet and interest in changing their mobile phones occasionally. They
consider the mobile phone as a social status device.
The results reveal a striking point: more than serving any serious or informative goals, Bluetooth is used to entertain young people, a leisure means of
interpersonal communication by which Iranian youngsters are connected to
their friends and enjoy humorous videos representing serious political and
social issues. In all categories, jokes are prevalent.
An assumption explained the popularity of Bluetooth messaging as it offers
uncensored, multimedia contents comparing with other forms of media, which
are either in limited mainstream format (such as TV or radio or press) or are
controlled or censored (such as the Internet). Although the use of the Internet
and the number of received messages are negatively correlated, the level of
significance is not highly reliable.
Another reason for the popularity of Bluetooth messaging was suggested as it
fulfils the needs of youths to create their own private zone. A general lack of a
private sphere provokes youths to store and access the so-called forbidden
contents on their phones. This assumption was proved by the majority of
respondents declaring that they have some sort of contents in their phones
that keep them from letting adults access the phones.
The first layer of this research tried to address those cultural and social
elements by which Bluetooth has gained popularity. In the second step, one
needs to evaluate the main consequences of such a phenomenon from youths
point of view. The majority of respondents in this survey think that Bluetooth
messaging is a worldwide phenomenon, and more interestingly they admitted
that in closed cultures this phenomenon might be greater. Although they are
oblivious to the unpopularity of Bluetooth messaging outside of their country,
they are indeed aware that their restricted culture is one of the prominent
causes behind Bluetooths popularity.
Considering Bluetooth messaging as a way to break norms and values, young
people in this survey do not think alike, though almost half of them somehow
admitted to the idea. On the other hand, the majority believed that Bluetooth
has threatened the norms and values more than any other technology. Here,
they explicitly acknowledge the panic that this technology has brought to the
society. Another aspect of this panic is due to the increasing invasion of
private spheres by mobile cameras.
Youths attitude towards Bluetooth is not merely a matter of panic. Once
again, the majority of young people in this survey believed that Bluetooth messaging is a promise for a modern society. This fact prevents us from proposing any
definite conclusion, since Bluetooth messaging is seen as a coin with two opposite

1185

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

1186

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY

sides. Moreover, young people expressed different opinions regarding the

censorship of Bluetooth messages. Since this research did not include the respondents personal reasons, the statistics cannot reveal a confident judgement of
young peoples point of view regarding freedom of speech, yet those who
believe in censorship of Bluetooth messages are mainly those who consider
Bluetooth a big threat to norms and values. However, people with a higher
educational background, regardless of their social class, age or gender strongly
opposed the censorship of Bluetooth messages.
Remarkably, amidst all these outcomes, the consumption of this technology
differs by gender. As previously stated, young people hardly find a convenient
public sphere where they can fearlessly contact the opposite sex, but via Bluejacking they can anonymously get in touch with them. The interest of people
for Bluejacking with unknown people refuses this claim. Only 22.5 per cent
of young people, who are mainly boys, Bluejack with strangers, even though
the possibility for receiving Bluetooth messages from unknown people (if one
keeps the Bluetooth on in public) is high. This fact supports Hartleys (1999)
Interpersonal Communication theory by which he assumes that any communication between two people is influenced by the relationship which exists
between them (p. 87).
The result suggests that males (with a small difference) enjoy Bluetooth messaging more than females, and most of them accessed this technology almost one
year earlier than females. The result also implies that the theme of received
messages differ by gender. Although both sexes enjoy political and socio-cultural
issues, girls show more desire for exchanging both informative and entertaining
messages, and boys enjoy sexual themes more than girls. Another dimension of
gender-based usages of this technology is that half of the participants have some
sort of gender consideration when they want to exchange Bluetooth with the
opposite sex. The last point regarding the gender differences is that girls
desire for Bluetooth messaging seems to be more limited to smaller networks
such as family members, comparing with boys who enjoy Bluetooth messaging
with broader networks such as friends of friends and even strangers.

Conclusion
The main objectives of this study were to grasp the foremost reasons for
Bluetooths popularity, to explore the usages of Bluetooth technology for
young people and the impact of this technology on the society from youths
point of view and also examine gender-based consumption of this technology.
As we observed, the mobile phone in just the last decade has affected the
ways people communicate in different parts of the world. Young people who
are more open and affected by new technologies have deeply adopted this
communicational device to their own culture. New technological equipments

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

HIDDEN MEDIA

of mobile phones have caused fundamental changes in traditional ways of

communication. Bluetooth is one of these additional technologies. Given a
short review on Bluetooth messages, the dominant themes of these messages
were presented. Many of the popular messages are simply representing different
lifestyles of young people in different social contexts, such as girls schools, army
barracks or celebrities private parties, which according to Montazer Ghaem4
are misrepresented or underrepresented in the mass media.
The result of this study shows that although political and socio-cultural video
and audio files are the most popular themes, the main goal these messages serves
is merely an entertaining one. It seems that Bluetooth, more than being a serious
informative medium, is a way for young people to socialize as well as watching
recent social and political events in a comic form. Bluetooth messages have also
penetrated young peoples daily conversations. According to the survey statistics,
the majority of the respondents strongly believe that Bluetooth messages violate
peoples privacies. Perhaps the panic of private videos is one of the reasons that
almost one-third of the respondents somehow agreed with the censorship of
Bluetooth messages. Slightly over half of our respondents also believe that
Bluetooth messages are threatening norms and values. Although they believe
that Bluetooth messaging is a worldwide phenomenon, they acknowledged
that it is more popular in a closed culture. We also explored gender-based
differences in the way the technology has been observed and used.
We can claim that Bluetooth is functioning as a hidden medium among young
people living in Tehran, to help them get access to different contents, express
their needs and represent their own culture.

Delimitations and suggestions for further studies

In closing, some inevitable and unplanned limitations should be addressed. First
of all, the sample society of this research is not representative. Tehrans population is over 12 million and as mentioned earlier, the majority of the population
consists of young people. A proper research might include approximately 1,000
youngsters. Another limitation of this research is the age range of participants.
As it seems that Bluetooth messaging is more popular among school-age
pupils; therefore, for more reliable results, one could target teenagers
between 15 and 20 years old.
As the essence of each survey is limited to flat and quantitative results, this
research is also limited to the survey findings and therefore, cannot cover all the
dimensions of this phenomenon. One can broaden the research field to more
qualitative methods such as analysing Bluetooth contents or to deep interviews.
Another limitation of this research is that the education and social class variables
are not well-spread. Perhaps the classification of social class value imposed negative impression for those who are under middle class to identify themselves

1187

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

1188

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY

under the average. To solve the problem, one can ask people about their salaries
and then sort the amount of their salaries into the social classes relatively. One
can also blame this research for not including personal opinions of young people
in the attitude-based questions.
I would suggest that for further studies in this field, one needs to go through
the actual society to find some video makers, or those who are the main distributers of popular messages and conduct some interviews with them. Perhaps,
their reasoning will reveal other unseen aspects of this phenomenon.
Apart from Bluetooth messaging, other usages of the mobile phone can be
the subject of further research. As mentioned earlier, Iranian society is almost
absent in the worldwide studies of the mobile phone, while mobile technology
with its variable meanings and usages is challenging youth culture and social
practices.

Notes
1 Bluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or laptop computers.
The term is used to refer to an anonymous practice of sending Bluetooth to
others.
2 Personal interview.
3 YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload and share
video clips, and view them in the MPEG-4 format. Wikipedia.
4 Personal interview at the Faculty of Social Science, Tehran University,
January 2009.

References
Barnes, B. S. (2008) Understanding social media from the media ecological perspective (cha 2), in Mediated Interpersonal Communication, eds E. A. Konijn,
Sonja Utz, Martin Tanis & Susan B. Barnes, Routledge, New York, pp. 1433.
Bradburn, N., Sudman, S. & Wansink, B. (2004) Asking Questions: The Definitive Guide
to Questionnaire Design For Market Research, Political Polls, and Social and Health
Questionnaires, Jossey-Bass, San Fransisco.
Campbell, H. (2006) Texting the faith: religious users and cell phone culture, in
The Cell Phone Reader: The Essays in Social Transformation, eds A. Kavoori & K.
Chadha, Peter Lang Publishing, New York, pp. 139154.
Glotz, P., Bertschi, S. & Locke, C. (eds) (2005) Thumb Culture The Meaning of
Mobile Phones for Society, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick.
Goggin, G. (2006) Cell Phone Culture: Mobile Technology in Everyday Life, Routledge,
New York.

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

HIDDEN MEDIA

Gordon, J. (2006) The cell phone: an artefact of popular culture and a tool of public
sphere, in The Cell Phone Reader: The Essays in Social Transformation, eds A.
Kavoori & K. Chadha, Peter Lang Publishing, New York, pp. 4560.
Hartley, P. (1999) Interpersonal Communication, 2nd edn, Routledge, London.
Hoflich, J. (2005) The mobile phone and the dynamic between the public and
private communication: results of an international exploratory study, in
Thumb Culture: The Meaning of Mobile Phones for Society, eds P. Glotz, B.
Stefan & C. Locke, Transaction Publishers, London, pp. 123136.
Katz, J. E. & Aakhus, M. (eds) (2002) Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private
Talk, Public Performance, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Kavoori, A. & Chadha, K. (eds) (2006) The cell phone as a cultural technology:
lessons from the Indian case, in The Cell Phone Reader: The Essays in Social Transformation, Peter Lang Publishing, New York, pp. 227238.
Khiabany, Gh. (2008) The Iranian press, state and civil society, in Media, Culture
and Society in Iran: Living with Globalization and the Islamic State, ed. M. Semati,
Routledge, London and New York, pp. 1736.
Ling, R. (2001) Adolescent Girls and Young Adult Men: Two Sub-cultures of the Mobile
Telephone, Telenor [Online]. Available at: http://www.telenor.com/rd/
pub/rep01/R34_2001.pdf (31 December 2009).
Ramezani, A. M. (2008) Seriously Wireless Iran, Podcast, www.miyaneh.com
[Online]. Available at: http://www.mianeh.net/en/articles/?aid=111 (6
October 2008).
Semati, M. (eds.) (2008) Media, Culture and Society in Iran: Living with Globalization
and the Islamic State, Routledge, London and New York.
Silva, A. D. (2006) Interfaces of hybrid space, in The Cell Phone Reader: The Essays in
Social Transformation, eds A. Kavoori & K. Chadha, Peter Lang Publishing,
New York, pp. 1944.
Skog, B. (2002) Mobiles and the Norwegian teen: identity, gender, and class, in
Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance, eds J.
Katz & M. Aakhus, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 255273.
Wilska, T. & Pedrozo, S. (2007) New Technology and Young Peoples Consumer Identities:
A Comparative Study between Finland and Brazil, Young, Vol. 15 [Online].
Available at: http://you.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/15/4/343 (May
2009).

1189

Downloaded by [78.97.205.89] at 06:49 05 September 2011

1190

INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY

Niloofar Niknam started working as a reporter at the Young Journalist Club

(YJC) in Tehran at the age of 16. She received her BA in Communication and
Media Studies from Tehran University. Her final article was focused on the
Stereotypical representation of women on State-run Television series. She continued her education in a master program in Media and Communication
studies (MA) at Stockholm University. Living in a different society, she got
more engaged with the very notions of gender- and cultural-identity. Her final
thesis was an investigation on the roles of Bluetooth technology in everyday
life of Iranian youth, which was presented in the international conference of
Change and Stability: State, Religion and Politics in the Modern Middle East
and North Africa, Krakow, Poland. The main objective of her research is
based on the role and impact of digital media and new technologies in the building of youth identity, as she believes that new communicational technologies
such as mobile phone devices have been challenging the concept of mass
media as well as providing an unprecedented opportunity for young people to
express themselves. Address: Journalism, Media and Communication, Stockholm
University, Professorsslingan 41, Stockholm 11417, Sweden. [email:
nillooofar@yahoo.com]