Seventh International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Mobile media is intricately interwoven into the public and private lives of migrant workers because it brings together multiple, previously divergent functions. A wide array of activities made available by the media technologies in smart phones- audio and video content, GPS, and internet facilities- is useful for migrants to plot their course through the unregulated labour markets in urban spaces. The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent migrant exodus in India reveals a startling range of diversification of mobile media usage and consumption among migrant labourers. This paper charts out the many ways in which the pandemic forced them to find more urgent, meaningful uses for mobile-led media applications, turning them into producers of their own symbolic space. The study, in attempting to understand how migrant workers use various Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) facilities to represent their own voices, issues and concerns, also examines how they navigate/negotiate hostile media channels in crisis situations. Drawing on reports that assessed the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on internal migrant workers and ethnographic interviews, the paper reiterates the importance of educating migrant workers on the access and correct usage of valuable mobile media applications.