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As a constantly connected environment via the Internet and mobile technology, the mobile village reconstructed the means by which content reaches a mass audience. To successfully navigate this environment, audiences must adjust to the new dynamics imposed by mobile technologies. This article examines mass media technologies and practices in an attempt to assess the practical impact of the mobile village within the production, distribution and consumption of media and information. Journalism is now judged less by the news it provides than by the process by which it is produced. Many proclaim the death of radio as traditional broadcast formats become antiquated, however, thanks to increased hardware mobility and bandwidth speeds, podcasts and music streaming services continue to draw listeners. Lastly, television, long a medium fixed in domestic space and oriented around synchronous mass consumption, now streams on demand to mobile devices via wireless Internet connections.

This 485-newspaper study investigated the substantive differences in the media agenda in reports of the 2012 Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act (‘Obamacare’), as represented by newspaper front page articles, with emphasis on differences in coverage between red and blue states. Newspapers in blue states used positive headlines more often and negative headlines less than did newspapers in red states.