Sequential organisation of text messages and mobile phone calls in interconnected communication sequences.

This paper investigates how text messages and mobile phone calls interrelate as parts of continuous communication sequences. Based on the recorded mobile communication of 14-year-olds in Denmark, the paper will show that text messages and mobile phone calls are parts of coherent communication sequences, and are organised in a limited number of relations. In itself, the change from text message to conversation requires no interactional efforts from the participants. However, through the opening and the presentation of agendas, the parties show that they are fully aware of their previous communication and of what they are doing here and now. Changes of mode are also related to the different communicative possibilities the text message and the phone call offer: text messages and calls have distinct formal qualities that govern their uses, and participants in a given sequence move between the two modes, exploiting the potential of each as they ascribe meaning to the written and spoken media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]