Richard Ling (Rich Ling) is a communications scholar who focuses on mobile communication. He was the Shaw Foundation Professor of Media Technology at

Nanyang Technological University The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a national research university in Singapore. It is the second oldest autonomous university in the country and is considered as one of the most prestigious universities in the world by various inte ...

, Singapore (2013-2021). He has also lived and worked in Norway. He has studied the social consequences of mobile communication, text messaging and

mobile telephony Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Telephony is supposed to specifically point to a voice-only service or connection, though sometimes the li ...

. He has examined the use of mobile communication for what he calls micro-coordination, used by

teens Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the ...

, and use in generational situations, as a form of social cohesion. Most recently he has studied this in the context of large databases and also in developing countries. He has published extensively in this area and is widely cited. He was named a Fellow of the International Communication Association in 2016. He was named editor of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication in 2017.

Biography

Rich Ling is a fourth-generation Coloradoan who grew up near Brighton, Colorado. He earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In c ...

, in 1984. He has taught at the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

in Laramie at IT University of Copenhagen and most recently at

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. He has also been a researcher for the Norwegian telecommunications company

Telenor Telenor ASA ( or ) is a Norwegian majority state-owned multinational telecommunications company headquartered at Fornebu in Bærum, close to Oslo. It is one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications companies with operations worldwide, ...

. Ling has lived in Scandinavia, specifically Norway, for more than two decades. He worked at the Gruppen for Ressursstudier ("the resource study group") established by

Jørgen Randers Jørgen Randers (born 22 May 1945) is a Norwegian academic, professor emeritus of climate strategy at the BI Norwegian Business School, and practitioner in the field of future studies.

and has been a partner in the consulting firm Ressurskonsult, focusing on interactions between energy, technology, and society. He was a member of the

R&D team where he continues to have a connection. He has also been the Pohs visiting professor of Communication Studies at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in Ann Arbor, where he continues to have an adjunct position. In 2012, Ling was a founder of the journal, ''Mobile Media and Communication'', published by

Sage Sage or SAGE may refer to: Plants * ''Salvia officinalis'', common sage, a small evergreen subshrub used as a culinary herb ** Lamiaceae, a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint or deadnettle or sage family ** ''Salvia'', a large ...

. He currently co-edits the journal. He is also a founding co-editor of the Oxford University Press series on mobile communication. He was also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Ling moved to Singapore in 2014, where he held an endowed chair in the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at

. He headed a research team that focuses on mobile communication in

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Work

Ling is known for his work on the social consequences of mobile communication. His notion of micro-coordination (see: "Hyper-coordination via Mobile Phones in Norway" written with Birgitte Yttri) describes what is likely one of the major social consequences of the diffusion of mobile communication into society. He has also described how mobile communication increases social cohesion in small groups and how it has become structured into society. His book ''Taken for Grantedness'' (MIT Press 2012) examines how mobile communication has become a structured part of society with a position that can be compared in some ways to that of mechanical timekeeping. This book has been the subject of a review in journal ''Science''. Prior to this he published the book ''New Tech, New Ties'' (MIT 2008) that won the 2009 Goffman Award from the Media Ecology Association. He is also the author of a book on the social consequences of mobile telephony titled ''The Mobile Connection'' (Morgan Kaufmann) and along with Jonathan Donner he has written the book ''Mobile Phones and Mobile Communication''. Ling is a founding co-editor of the

journal ''Mobile Media and Communication'' (along with Veronika Karnowski, Thilo von Pape and Steve Jones). In 2017 he was named Editor-in-Chief of the

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication The ''Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication'' JCMC is a quarterly open access peer-reviewed academic journal that covers the interdisciplinary field of computer-mediated communication. It was established in 1994 and is published by Oxford Un ...

. He is also a founding editor (along with Gerard Goggin and Leopoldina Fortunati) of the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

series on mobile communication. He has been the co-editor, along with Scott Campbell, of the ''Mobile Communication Research'' Series. He is an associate editor for journals ''The Information Society'', the ''Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication'', the ''Journal of Communication'' as well as ''Information Technology and International Development''. Ling has received recognition as an outstanding scholar from the International Communication Association (The 2010 CROF Award),

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, and the

Research Award in 2009. He has been interviewed on The

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...

and Norwegian TV as well as for periodicals such as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'', the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'', ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'', ''Época'' (Brazil), ''Wired'', Toronto's ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', Norwegian publications such as ''

Aftenposten ( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...

'', ''VG'', and ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newsp ...

'' and Danish publications such as '' Politiken''.

References

External links

Ling's Research Gate page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ling, Richard Living people 1954 births People from Brighton, Colorado Nanyang Technological University faculty