The social spaces of hearing apps: problems, partners and intermediaries

Abstract

This article offers an analysis of the development of three hearing and communication apps, drawing on interviews with people involved in their production. While a central figure in the media studies literature on apps is the self-managing individual health consumer, this article argues that physical and social environments and relationships within them are central to the way the hearing apps are produced, circulated and used. Often emerging from commercial start-ups, hearing apps become aligned with – or indeed stand in for – various kinds of governmental initiatives, not only in health but also in education and economic development. Partnerships between government, research and commercial organisations and the need to work through app intermediaries to find their end users shaped the way apps create recognisable ‘problems’ to address. This problematising function of apps and its impact on the uptake and use of apps are the key areas for future research.

Commodifying Diversity in the Marketing of a Digital Hearing Start-Up

“…In press interviews, start-up staff have suggested, for instance, that reframing hearing technologies as "lifestyle products" is a route to removing the stigma associated with hearing loss (Disability World 2016). Along similar lines, the start-up's head of business development in an interview emphasized the company's cause or vision as "a world where hearing loss is not a barrier anymore" (Matthews et al 2019). This language resonates with the social model of disability, with its focus not on individual health conditions but on the social, architectural, and economic barriers to equality.…”

Introduction: The Will to App: digitising public health

“…The authors imagine biopolitical strategies 'beyond the figure of the individual made responsible for their own health' and argue that apps circulate through structuring environments and social relationships. Apps are negotiated, linked and exist in relationship to the many other mechanisms (or mobilised objects) for the biopolitical management of health (Rabinow and Rose in Matthews et al, 2019). Apps are shaped by tensions and negotiations over responsibilities and funding streams, language and inclusion, and policy frameworks, as well as the collaborative relationships within and across which they are produced.…”

“…In the initial phase of app development, more energy may be expended on developing a product meeting organisational needs, as opposed to understanding how it will reach intended users, and perhaps it will be taken up by non-intended users (Matthews et al, 2019). This 'build it and they will come' mind-set is a symptom of the Will to App, also discussed by Paul Byron in his paper that engages with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and other sexuality and gender diverse (LGBTIQ+) young people about a potential mental health app tailored to their needs.…”