Media richness theory

Media Richness Theory, sometimes referred to as information richness theory or MRT, is a framework used to describe a communication medium's ability to reproduce the information sent over it. It was introduced by Richard L. Daft and Robert H. Lengel in 1986 as an extension of Social Information Processing theory. MRT is used to rank and evaluate the richness of certain communication media, such as phone calls, video conferencing, and email. For example, a phone call cannot reproduce visual social cues such as gestures which makes it a less rich communication media than video conferencing, which affords the transmission of gestures and body language. Based on contingency theory and information processing theory, MRT explains that richer, personal communication mediums are generally more effective for communicating of equivocal issues than leaner, less rich media.

Background

Media Richness Theory was introduced in 1986 by Richard L. Daft and Robert H. Lengel. Leaning on information processing theory for its theoretical foundation, MRT was originally developed to describe and evaluate communication media within organizations. In presenting Media Richness Theory, Daft and Lengel sought to help organizations cope with communication challenges, such as unclear or confusing messages, or conflicting interpretations of messages. Since its introduction, Media Richness Theory has been a widely studied communication theory and has been extended beyond its original application in corporate communication.

Other communication scholars have tested the theory in order to improve it, and more recently Media Richness Theory has been retroactively adapted to include new media communication mediums, such as improved video and online conferencing. Although Media Richness Theory relates to media use, rather than media choice, empirical studies of the theory have often studied what medium a manager would choose to communicate over, and not the effects of media use.

Since its introduction, Media Richness Theory has been applied to contexts outside of organizational and business communication (See "Application" section).

Theory

Information richness is defined by Daft and Lengel as "the ability of information to change understanding within a time interval".

Media Richness Theory states that all communication media vary in their ability to enable users to communicate and to change understanding. The degree of this ability is known as a medium's "richness." MRT places all communication media on a continuous scale based on their ability to adequately communicate a complex message. Media that can efficiently overcome different frames of reference and clarify ambiguous issues are considered to be richer whereas communications media that require more time to convey understanding are deemed less rich.

A primary driver in selecting a communication medium for a particular message is to reduce the equivocality, or possible misinterpretations, of a message. If a message is equivocal, it is unclear and thus more difficult for the receiver to decode. The more equivocal a message, the more cues and data needed to interpret it correctly. For example, a simple message intended to arrange a meeting time and place could be communicated in a short email, but a more detailed message about a person's work performance and expectations would be better communicated through face-to-face interaction.

The theory includes a framework with axes going from low to high equivocality and low to high uncertainty. Low equivocality and low uncertainty represents a clear, well-defined situation; high equivocality and high uncertainty indicates ambiguous events that need clarification by managers. Daft and Lengel also stress that message clarity may be compromised when multiple departments are communicating with each other, as departments may be trained in different skill sets or have conflicting communication norms.

Determining media richness

In their 1988 article regarding Media Richness Theory, Daft and Lengel state, "The more learning that can be pumped through a medium, the richer the medium." Media richness is a function of characteristics including the following:

• Ability to handle multiple information cues simultaneously
• Ability to facilitate rapid feedback
• Ability to establish a personal focus
• Ability to utilize natural language

Selecting an appropriate medium

Media Richness Theory predicts that managers will choose the mode of communication based on aligning the equivocality of the message to the richness of the medium. In other words, communication channels will be selected based on how communicative they are. However, often other factors, such as the resources available to the communicator, come into play. Daft and Lengel's prediction assumes that managers are most concentrated on task efficiency (that is, achieving the communicative goal as efficiently as possible) and does not take into consideration other factors, such as relationship growth and maintenance. Subsequent researchers have pointed out that attitudes towards a medium may not accurately predict a person's likelihood of using that medium over others, as media usage is not always voluntary. If an organization's norms and resources support one medium, it may be difficult for a manager to choose another form to communicate his or her message.

Social presence refers to the degree to which a medium permits communicators to experience others as being psychologically present or the degree to which a medium is perceived to convey the actual presence of the communicating participants. Tasks that involve interpersonal skills, such as resolving disagreements or negotiation, demand high social presence, whereas tasks such as exchanging routine information require less social presence. Therefore, face-to-face media like group meetings are more appropriate for performing tasks that require high social presence; media such as email and written letters are more appropriate for tasks that require low social presence.

Communicators also consider how personal a message is when determining the appropriate media for communication. In general, richer mediums are more personal as they include nonverbal and verbal cues, body language, inflection, and gestures that signal a person's reaction to a message. Rich media can promote a closer relationship between a manager and subordinate. The sentiment of the message may also have an influence on the medium chosen. Managers may want to communicate negative messages in person or via a richer media, even if the equivocality of the message is not high, in order to facilitate better relationships with subordinates. On the other hand, sending a negative message over a leaner medium would weaken the immediate blame on the message sender and prevent them from observing the reaction of the receiver.

Concurrency

In April 1993, Valacich et al. suggested that in light of new media, concurrency be included as an additional characteristic to determine a medium's richness. They define environmental concurrency to represent "the communication capacity of the environment to support distinct communication episodes, without detracting from any other episodes that may be occurring simultaneously between the same or different individuals." Furthermore, they explain that while this idea of concurrency could be applied to the media described in Daft and Lengel's original theories, new media provide a greater opportunity for concurrency than ever before.

Application

Explanatory diagram.

Media Richness Theory implies that a sender should select a medium of appropriate richness to communicate the desired message or fulfill a specific task. Senders that use less-rich communication media must consider the limitations of that medium in the dimensions of feedback, multiple cues, message tailoring, and emotions. Take for example the relative difficulty of determining whether a modern text message is serious or sarcastic in tone. The leanness of the text prevents the transmission of tone and facial expression which would otherwise be useful in detecting the sarcasm.

Organizational and business communications

Media Richness Theory was originally conceived in an organizational communication setting to better understand interaction within companies. MRT is used to determine the "best" medium for an individual or organization to communicate a message. For example, organizations may find that important decisions need to be discussed in face-to-face interactions; using email would not be an adequate channel.

From an organizational perspective, high level personnel may require verbal media to help solve many of their problems. Entry level positions with clear, unambiguous tasks may be fulfilled with written media forms. From an individual perspective, though, people prefer oral communication because the abundant communicative cues afford more accurate and efficient interpretation of the message.

An information-processing perspective of organizations also highlights the important role of communication. This perspective suggests that organizations gather information from their environment, process this information, and then act on it. As environmental complexity, turbulence, and information load increase, organizational communication increases. The organization’s effectiveness in processing information becomes paramount when the business environment is complex and wrought with rapid change.

Today, companies use technologies such as video conferencing, which enable participants to see each other even when in separate locations. This technology affords organizations the opportunity to have richer communication than via traditional conference calls which only provide audio queues to the participants involved.

Media Sensitivity and Job Performance

Daft and Lengel also assert that not all executives or managers in organizations demonstrate the same skill in making effective media choices for communications. High performing executives or managers tend to be more "sensitive" to richness requirements in media selection than low performing managers. In other words, competent executives select rich media for non-routine messages and lean media for routine messages.

From the consensus and satisfaction perspectives, groups with a communication medium which is too lean for their task seem to experience more difficulties than groups with a communication medium which is too rich for their task. Additionally, face-to-face groups achieved higher consensus change, higher decision satisfaction and higher decision scheme satisfaction than dispersed groups.

Job Seeking and Recruitment

In a job recruitment context, face-to-face interactions with company representatives, such as at career fairs, should be perceived by applicants as rich media. Career fairs allow instant feedback in the form of questions and answers and permit multiple cues including verbal messages and body gestures and can be tailored to each job seeker's interests and questions.

In comparison, static messages like reading information on a company's website or browsing an electronic bulletin board can be defined as leaner media since they are not customized to the individual needs of job seekers; they are asynchronous in their feedback and, since they are primarily text-based, there are no opportunities for verbal inflections or body gestures. This interaction between job seekers and potential employers affects how candidates process information about the organization. The interactions a candidate has with a potential employer via lean and rich media shape a job seeker's beliefs.

Extended application in new media

While Media Richness Theory's application to new media has been contested (see "Criticism"), it is still used heuristically as a basis for studies examining new media.

Websites and Hypertext

Websites can vary in their richness. In a study examining representations of the former Yugoslavia on the World Wide Web, Jackson and Purcell proposed that hypertext plays a role in determining the richness of individual websites. They developed a framework of criteria in which the use of hypertext on a website can be evaluated in terms of media richness characteristics as set forth by Daft and Lengel in their original theoretical literature. Furthermore, in their 2004 article, Simon and Peppas examined product websites' richness in terms of multimedia use. They classified "rich media sites" as those that included text, pictures, sounds and video clips, while the "lean media sites" contained only text. In their study, they created four sites (two rich and two lean) to describe two products (one simple, one complex). They found that most users, regardless of the complexity of the product, preferred the websites that provided richer media.

Instant messaging

Results from a study conducted by Anandarajan et al. on Generation Y's use of instant messaging conclude that "the more users recognize IM as a rich communication medium, the more likely they believe this medium is useful for socialization." Additionally, in order to better understand teenagers' use of MSN (later called Microsoft Messenger service), Sheer examined the impact of both media richness and communication control. Among other findings, Sheer's study demonstrated that "rich features, such as webcam and MSN Spaces seemingly facilitated the increase of acquaintances, new friends, opposite-sex friends, and, thus, the total number of friends."

Distance Education and E-books

In evaluating students' satisfaction with distance courses, Sheppherd and Martz concluded that a course's use of media rich technology impacted how students evaluated the quality of the course. Courses that utilized tools such as "discussion forums, document sharing areas, and web casting" were viewed more favorably. Lai and Chang in 2011 used media richness as a variable in their study examining user attitudes towards e-books, stating that the potential for rich media content like embedded hyperlinks and other multimedia additions, offered users a different reading experience than a printed book.

E-books and e-learning are becoming recurrent tools in the academic landscape. One of the key characteristics of e-learning is its capability to integrate different media, such as text, picture, audio, animation and video to create multimedia instructional material. Media selection in e-learning can be a critical issue because of the increased costs of developing non-textual e-learning materials. Learners can benefit from the use of richer media in courses that contain equivocal and complex content; however, learners achieve no significant benefit in either learner score or learner satisfaction from the use of richer media in courses containing low equivocal (numeric) content.

E-mail

In recent years, as the general population has become more e-mail savvy, the lines have blurred somewhat between face-to-face and e-mail communication. E-mail is now thought of as a verbal tool, with its capacity to enable immediate feedback, leverage natural language, and embed emotion via acronyms and emoticons.

However, there is a downside of e-mail: volume overload. Emails often have large unnecessary quantities of information which is non-job essential and/or spam. Filtering through this junk does require additional time. The time required to manage email can cause an information overload. With excess email, people may feel that they will miss information due to the sheer volume on content they receive. Some individuals may find this volume to be a barrier to swift responses to emails.

Online Shopping

The perceived richness of an online store must be considered when analyzing online buying content. The consumer's web experience, income and trust in the online store have a significant positive effect on the consumer's intent of making online purchases. A consumer's Web experience has a significant positive effect on the perceived richness of the online store, whereas the perceived risk related to the use of the online store has a significant negative effect on the consumer's trust in an attitude towards the online store. According to Media Richness Theory, an online store will be more efficient for analyzable tasks and a bricks-and-mortar store for unanalyzable tasks.

This knowledge will allow companies to efficiently adapt the way they use their online store, and how they deploy their multi-channel strategies in order to better meet consumers’ needs. Therefore, online retailers need to understand the nature of the consumer’s task in the shopping process and how the consumer perceives an online store's richness.

Criticism

Scope of the Theory

Media Richness Theory has been criticized by what many researchers saw as its deterministic nature. Markus argues that social pressures can influence media use much more strongly than richness, and in ways that are inconsistent with MRT's key tenets. It has also been noted that Media Richness Theory should not assume that the feelings towards using a richer media in a situation are completely opposite to using a leaner media. In fact, media choice is complex and in general even if a rich media is considered to be the "best" to communicate a message, a leaner media may still be able to communicate the message. In addition, for some tasks, the type of media used will make no difference to the accuracy of the communicated message.

In selecting a medium for message transmission, an individual will also consider his or her comfort with the possible options. If an individual is uncomfortable or unfamiliar with using an email system to distribute a message, and view learning to send an email as more time consuming and inefficient than simply having a group meeting, he or she may choose a richer medium instead of a more efficient medium. This behavior outcome, through irrational, is certainly a reflection upon the previously established experience.

Cultural and Social limitations

Ngwenyama and Lee show that cultural and social background influence media choice by individuals in ways that are incompatible with predictions based on Media Richness Theory; their paper received the Paper of the Year Award in the journal MIS Quarterly. Ngwenyama and Lee are not alone in their critiques regarding the limitations of Media Richness Theory, particularly in regards to cultural and individual characteristics. In 2009, Gerritsen's study concluded that in business contexts, culture does play a role in determining the receiver's preference of medium, perhaps in terms of the specific culture's threshold for uncertainty avoidance.

Additionally, Dennis, Kinney, and Hung found that in terms of the actual performance of equivocal tasks, the richness of a medium has the most notable effect on teams composed entirely of females. On the other hand, "matching richness to task equivocality did not improve decision quality, time, consensus, or communication satisfaction for all-male or mixed-gender teams." Individually speaking, Barkhi demonstrated that communication mode and cognitive style can play a role in media preference and selection, suggesting that even in situations with identical messages and intentions, the "best" media selection can vary from person to person.

Application to New media

Additionally, because Media Richness Theory was developed before widespread use of the internet, which also introduced media like email, chat rooms, instant messaging, and more, some have questioned its ability to accurately predict what new media users may choose. Several studies have been conducted that examine media choice when given options considered to be "new media", such as voice mail and email. El-Shinnaway and Markus hypothesized that, based on Media Richness Theory, individuals would choose to communicate messages over the more rich medium of voice mail than via email, but found that even when sending more equivocal messages, the leaner medium of email was used. Also, it has been indicated that given the expanded capabilities of new media, Media Richness Theory's unidimensional approach to categorizing different communication media in no longer sufficient to capture all the dimensions in which media types can vary.

Related theories

Media Naturalness Theory

Several new theories have been developed based on Daft and Lengel's original framework. Kock argued that some of the hypotheses of Media Richness Theory lack a scientific basis, and proposed an alternative theory - media naturalness theory - building on findings in the field of human evolution. Media naturalness theory hypothesizes that because face-to-face communication is the most "natural" method of communication, we should want our other communication methods to resemble face-to-face communication as closely as possible. While Media Richness Theory places mediums on a scale that range from low to high in richness and places face-to-face communication at the top of the scale, media naturalness theory thinks of face-to-face communication as the middle in a scale, and states that the further away one gets from face-to-face (either more or less rich), the more cognitive processing is required to comprehend a message.

Media Synchronicity Theory

To help explain media richness and its application to new media, Media Synchronicity Theory was proposed. Synchronicity describes the ability of a medium to create the sense that all participants are concurrently engaged in the communication event. Media with high degrees of synchronicity, such as face-to-face meetings, offer participants the opportunity to communicate in real time, immediately observe the reactions and responses of others, and easily determine whether co-participants are fully engaged in the conversation.

Media Synchronicity Theory also states that each medium has a set of abilities and that every communication interaction is composed of two processes: conveyance and convergence. These abilities include: transmission velocity, parallelism, symbol sets, rehearsability, and reaccessability. Media richness is also related to adaptive structuration theory and social information processing theory, which explain the context around a communication that might have an impact on media choice.

Channel Expansion Theory

Channel expansion theory was proposed by Carlson and Zmud (1999) to explain the inconsistencies found in several empirical studies. In these studies, the results showed that managers would employ "leaner" media for tasks of high equivocality. Channel expansion theory suggested that individual's media choice has a lot to do with individual's experience with the medium itself, with the communicator and also with the topic. Thus it is possible that an individual’s experience with using a certain lean medium, will prompt that individual to use it for equivocal tasks

However, the theory does not suggest that knowledge-building experiences will necessarily equalize differences in richness, whether objective or perceptually-based, across different media. Put in another way, knowledge-building experiences may be positively related to perceptions of the richness of email, but this does not necessarily mean that email will be viewed as richer than another medium, such as face-to-face interaction

See also

• Communication theory
• Emotions in virtual communication
• Hyperpersonal Model
• Media Naturalness Theory
• Multicommunicating
• Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE)
• Social information processing theory
• Social presence theory
• Telecommuting
• Theories of technology

Further reading

• Daft, R.L. & Lengel, R.H. (1984). Information richness: a new approach to managerial behavior and organizational design. In: Cummings, L.L. & Staw, B.M. (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior 6, (191-233). Homewood, IL: JAI Press.
• Daft, R.L., Lengel, R.H., & Trevino, L.K. (1987). Message equivocality, media selection, and manager performance: Implications for information systems. MIS Quarterly, September, 355-366.
• Lengel, R.H. & Daft, R.L. (1988). The Selection of Communication Media as an Executive Skill. Academy of Management Executive, 2(3), 225-232.
• Suh, K.S. (1999). Impact of communication medium on task performance and satisfaction: an examination of media-richness theory. Information & Management, 35, 295-312.
• Trevino, L.K., Lengel, R.K. & Daft, R.L. (1987). Media Symbolism, Media Richness and media Choice in Organizations. Communication Research, 14(5), 553-574.
• Trevino, L., Lengel, R., Bodensteiner, W., Gerloff, E. & Muir, N. (1990). The richness imperative and cognitive style: The role of individual differences in media choice behavior. Management Communication Quarterly, 4(2).

External links

• Universiteit Twente Article - Media Richness