Communicating behind the scenes: A primer on radio frequency identification (RFID)

Abstract

Mobile media researchers have increasingly focused on smartphones as locative media. However, our field has not devoted as much attention to another mobile technology used to track far more people and things than smartphones: radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. RFID tags are used to track products and people, and they are an increasingly important part of the infrastructure of the Internet of Things. This article argues that mobile media scholars have much to contribute to scholarly analyses of RFID. I make that argument by first giving background on RFID as a mobile technology. I then identify and discuss four areas of research related to RFID tags—Big Data, surveillance, space and place, and nonhuman agency—that are particularly relevant to mobile media scholars.