Communication Research Method

Question: Examine the interview transcript (Subject 2) provided on Cloud. It is an actual interview conducted with a mobile phone, in the research project: Excessive mobile phone bills, young people and the relevant corporate social responsibility of the telecommunications industry in Australia. Analyse the qualitative data and report on the five (5) main themes of opinions expressed by the interview subject. Remember the themes have to be mutually exclusive (no overlapping of content between different themes). (You may find more than five (5) themes embedded in the data, but discuss only the five main ones for this assignment, based on how many opinions had been expressed on each theme.) Answer: 1. Title of Theme Irresponsible behaviour concerning the use of mobiles: Summary Careless attitudes regarding proper use of mobiles are apparent among a lot of phone users especially the youngsters. There are times when obscure terms and conditions may create some problems, but mostly the problem lies with the incautious use of mobiles. The customers use their phones a lot and exceeding the terms mentioned in their plans. The probable reasons for this could be that they are out of the city, make calls and text without keeping in mind the limitations of the plans that they have signed up for, and end up spending much more money on the facilities that are available on their plan. So, it ultimately comes down to their careless behaviour towards the phone usage. Direct Quote And not everybody is a responsible phone user, of course. Um, sometimes obscure terms and conditions can be a part of the problem, but I still think essentially the problem is simply usage. There are sometimes examples of bills that are not related to usage, where there have been errors and things like that that have caused large bills 2. Title of Theme Fraudulent companies also responsible for racking up customers mobile phone bills: Summary The customers fall into the trap laid by the fraudulent companies. For instance, the customers could get a text from the company saying that they can download the ringtone of their choice from a huge enticing list offered to them. As soon as they do that, they get subscribed to that service for a long time, charging them a lot of money. These messages never come from the big companies; they are privately owned who send luring texts to the customers to trick them into subscriptions. These subscriptions get automatically billed and are difficult for the companies to keep a track on them. The companies, however, try their best to provide services which can find out who are the ones responsible so that the problem could be solved. Direct Quote Theyre never, well theyre certainly not from the major companies. They are privately owned and operated companies that send you a text message which turns out to be a subscription. But its worded in such a fashion that its not easily understood by the participant 3. Title of Theme Pre-paid plans are a solution to the problem of excessive mobile phone bills: Summary The young people who are not careful enough spend on calls according to the plans, should not be allowed the scope to do so. This is possible when they are provided Pre-paid plans instead of post-paid ones. The conception regarding high priced mobile sets that come with prepaid plans is wrong. Even the call rates are almost the same as that of the post-paid plans. They might not exactly be the same but are usually very close. And even if it is a bit higher, the user is never prone to the risk of spending more that that is available on his plan. The problem of excessive phone bills will never be the issue with pre-paid plans. The youngsters, who are under the age of sixteen, should not be allowed to sign up for the post-paid plans by their parents. Direct Quote Um, the situations where weve had that happen, theyve easily been resolved as a general rule. In my opinion that young people, or people in the situation where theyre high phone usage, they simply shouldnt be in a position to use more than theyre allotted. So for example, they should be on pre-paid... 4. Title of Theme Issues with international travelling and what can be done: Summary A lot of issues are brought to the issue of the mobile phone companies regarding excessive bills during international travelling. In this case, they are advised to use their mobile phones to a minimum rate so that their bills are not racked up. One more solution to this could be to turn off their mobile phones when they are in a foreign country unless they need to make a call. When other services of the mobile phone needs to be used, like the MP3 player or the mobile camera, it can be opened after turning on the Flight mode.. Direct Quote Thats all I do. I leave my phone turned off unless I need to make a call, but I also use it for other features as well. Like Ive got my MP3 player on there, and my digital camera is part of my phone, so I turn it on in what they call flight mode. If you turn on in flight mode, it doesnt actually connect to the network so you cant receive or make calls, but you can still use the other features of the handset... 5. Title of Theme Other Solutions for the customers to monitor their mobile phone bills: Summary Apart from opting for a pre-paid plan, there are other ways in which the customers can monitor their spending on calls and other services anytime they want and that too, free of cost. One such solution is through a service provided by mobile phone companies in which they can dial a number to receive message about their account balance anytime and any day of the month. The phone company also provide an online service with the help of which people can log on to their id anytime of the day and can track any number of calls that they made and how much did they cost them. This will help them keep a record of how much their bill is due and how much is their bill going to be. Direct Quote Yep. Um, well we have two different ways that you can monitor your spending, anytime you want, free of charge. Weve got a service through the mobile phone, which you can dial to get your account balance at any time of the month. Its a free service and people can check that whenever they want. Alternatively, weve also got what they call MyVodafone, which is an online service. 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