One instance of media selection is when I chose to text message my friends rather than call them on the phone. I decided to run up to Pyramid Mall for errands and since I knew that most of my friends don’t have cars I wanted to see if any of them wanted to tag along. Because I didn’t want to waste time getting to the mall, which would occur if I called my friends due to what I want to call ‘social politeness’ (“How are you?”, “How’s your day?”), I decided to use text messages. Rather than getting caught up in conversations with each person I merely sent out a quick message asking if they wanted to go to the mall with me and telling them when I would be leaving.
I made my media selection based on my concern about efficiency and because of this the Media Richness Theory supports my decision. The Media Richness Theory is about finding the “optimal match between equivocality of a communication task and the richness of the medium” (Lecture, 9/6/07). Based on this you would for example choose a lean media for a task that is less equivocal. Basically, the Media Richness Theory portrays the idea that people make our media choices all about efficiency. This is true in my example. I chose to text message, a media with fewer cues, because in my situation fewer cues were more optimal. Because I based my decision on efficiency and not clarity or ambiguity the Impression Management Model does not support my selection.
Another example of media selection is when I used the telephone to ask my parents to ship me things like clothes and school supplies that I had forgotten at home. Because I didn’t want there to be any confusion as to what I wanted or for them to have trouble finding everything I decided to call them on the telephone. The telephone is considered to be a rich channel and or a medium with more cues available than say email. I wanted these extra cues to make sure that I was very clear about my wants and directions.
While sending an email would have been more efficient than using the telephone, I decided that clarity was more important than efficiency. My decision is supported by the Impression Management Model. In this model O’Sullivan states that people may want to be clear sometimes and ambiguous at other times, and they might not necessarily care about efficiency. People also choose their medium based on its richness and how it would affect their clarity or ambiguity. In my case I settled on using the telephone because it is a richer medium and would increase my clarity. Because my media selection wasn’t based on efficiency the Media Richness Theory does not support my choice.
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2 comments:
I completely identify with the choices you made concerning your social situations. Sometimes tasks just need to get accomplished, and taking part in all the civilities of a richer medium just holds you back. The media richness theory holds true for such an event when your primary goal is efficiency. When a task is extremely straight forward and unequivocal, a medium with a multiplicity of cues is unnecessary. A lean medium is perfect for getting the job done efficiently. On the other hand, there are an abundance of equivocal tasks you face daily, which require a rich medium. In these scenarios, clarity and self expression are often superior to efficiency, which fits the description of O'Sullivan's model. It is interesting to think of all the different ways of communicating, and how every choice we make, even if subconsciously, is for a reason.
Great post Lauren – I can totally relate to what you experienced with your communication choices. What I found most interesting about your post was the fact that you chose clarity over efficiency for some of your communication needs. I’m not sure that this actually contradicts the Media Richness Theory, but it seems significant to note that sometimes efficiency is not the most important part of communication. Using a text message for asking friends to go to the mall is a good choice because it’s both efficient and clear and cuts out the “social politeness” that you mentioned, however when you were faced with the choice between efficiency and clarity, you went for the latter. Personally, I find the impression management theory fascinating because it is so relevant in our everyday lives as you clearly found. You did a great job analyzing your choices and relating them to the models and theories we have learned.
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