Digital exhaust and mobile communication scholarship: Pursuing the Ling connection

Abstract

Rich Ling was among the first media scholars to recognize the vast scientific potential of behavioral data stemming from mobile and Internet use. His engagement with such data, that is, digital exhaust, extends back to the early 2000s, when he was a researcher with an international mobile network provider. Open-minded and with a strong curiosity drive, Ling joined forces with the company’s data scientists. This started an interdisciplinary dialogue that over the years has generated social insights that otherwise would have been hard to obtain. Yet, such collaborations are still rare. This article argues that the future of mobile communication scholarship lies in pursuing this strand in Ling’s legacy. Cross-fertilization of ideas between the social sciences and data analytics is likely to generate knowledge of high societal relevance. The article accounts for the history of such collaborations with special attention to Ling’s engagement, and points to opportunities for the coming decades.