Go just about anywhere and you'll find someone talking on a cellphone or sending a text message. But how effective could the latest generation of these devices  -- video cellphones -- be in communicating messages?

That's the question John Adams, visiting professor of communication, and Josh Huling '05 asked last summer. "We wanted to determine if video cellphones would be an effective mass communications tool," said Huling, a communication major. "Given the constraints of this relatively new medium in terms of its small screen size and low resolution, could we use it to send an effective message'"

Thanks to a grant from the Media Studies Summer Program at Vassar College, Huling set out armed with a video cellphone and worked with Adams to create 54 "vidblinks," 15-second videos that used everyday items such as stop signs, flower pots and ceiling fans to communicate a message within the theme of "war."

"Because we had such a short amount of time to communicate each message, we chose common objects and attached a meaning to them that would give people something to think about," Huling added.

One vidblink begins with a close-up of a gasoline can. The camera slowly pans out, ending with a voice asking, "How much blood does it take to fill your tank'" In another, a man appears to be shouting but with no audio to accompany him. The camera pans to a stop sign with the word "WAR" taped at the bottom. The voice is heard saying, "Can you hear me now' Good."

Adams and Huling e-mailed the vidblinks to 150 people and, with the help of Janet Simons, instructional technology specialist, created a survey for measuring the effectiveness of the messages. One interesting finding was the number of people who forwarded a vidblink to other people online. "Because sharing something sent electronically is so quick and easy, it was impossible for us to determine exactly how many people eventually received them [vidblinks]," Huling said.

In October, the two researchers traveled to Spain to present their project "Video Cellphones, War & Vidblinks: Exploring the Rhetorical Constraints of Time & Place" at the annual International Workshop on Presence at Polytechnic University of Valencia. Their findings will also be published in an upcoming edition of the webzine intelligent agent.

Sample Vidblinks Video Clips

To view these video clips, you will need QuickTime Player, which is available as a free download from the Apple Web site.