User:Yurrp/MediaNaturalnessUpdate

New sandbox for future work on MNT.

Will be updating MNT article to include section on media naturalness reduction and compensatory channel expansion (Kock & Garza, 2011) as well as the media compensation theory (Hantula, Kock, D'Arcy, & Derosa, 2011).

Media reduction and compensatory channel expansion

Kock and Garza (2011) research whether taking a college course on-line, as opposed to in-person, will negatively impact students’ actual and perceived learning experiences due to differences in the respective media richness and media naturalness afforded by the two different approaches studied.  The findings show that the online cohort performed statistically as well as the in-person portion of the study sample.  The authors suggest that the study’s findings support Carlson and Zmud’s channel expansion theory (1999), which asserts that humans are capable of adapting to new communication media (Kock & Garza, 2011).  Kock & Garza (2011) also argue that a portion of their findings support Kock’s (2004) earlier, since-disputed claim that people are not evolutionarily equipped to communicate through computer mediated communication (CMC) as well as when they are communicating through richer media such as face-to-face communication. For example, DeClerck and Holtzman dispute an overriding need for visual and auditory cues when they say that “experienced users are able to accurately convey their intended message via digitally-mediated communication, despite the lack of available verbal and non-verbal cues” (2018, p. 116).  DeClerk and Holtzman also suggest that text messaging may be more focused than face-to-face communication because it is not cluttered by additional verbal and non-verbal cues that can otherwise tie up “cognitive resources” (2018, p. 111).

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Media compensation theory

In this article, Hantula, Kock, D'Arcy, and DeRosa (2011) propose a new theory that is based on Kock’s (2004) media naturalness theory called the media compensation theory.  The authors explain that the media compensation theory has been developed to address “two paradoxes: (1) Virtual communication, work, collaboration, and teams are largely successful (sometimes even more so than face-to-face) despite much theory and conventional wisdom to the contrary; and, (2) The human species evolved in small groups using communications modalities in constrained areas, yet use electronic communication media to allow large groups to work together effectively across time and space” (Hantual, Kock, D’Arcy, & DeRosa, 2011, p. 358).  In this article, the authors grapple with how humans “who have not changed much in many millennia” are able to successfully embrace and employ lean media, such as texting, considering their assumption that human evolution has progressed down a path toward, and adeptness for, face-to-face communication. In turn, they argue that “written communication has [only] been around for less than 0.2%” (2011, p. 341) of human history, and that the human “brain is designed primarily for face-to-face communication (2011, p. 343).

Revision of lead section

[original lead with notes in brackets, bold, & italics]

Media naturalness theory was developed by Ned Kock.[no citation] This theory is sometimes referred to as the psychobiological model.[no citation] It has been used to understand human behavior toward technology in various contexts, such as: education, knowledge transfer, communication in virtual environments, e-negotiation, business process improvement, trust and leadership in virtual teamwork, online learning, maintenance of distributed relationships, performance in experimental tasks using various media, and modular production.[no citation & seems like original work, better to discuss in body of article] Media naturalness theory can be considered a Darwinian theory of behavior toward certain types of communication media. [no citation & seems like orginal work-rewording needed] Its development is also consistent with ideas from the field of evolutionary psychology.[no citation & original work]

The theory builds on human evolution ideas and has been proposed as an alternative to media richness theory.[no citation, seems like original work, & is not accurate] Media naturalness theory argues that since our Stone Age hominid ancestors have communicated primarily face-to-face, evolutionary pressures have led to the development of a brain that is consequently designed for that form of communication.[no citation] Other forms of communication are too recent and unlikely to have posed evolutionary pressures that could have shaped our brain in their direction.[no citation] Using communication media that suppress key elements found in face-to-face communication, as many [should be "all"] electronic communication media do, thus ends up posing cognitive obstacles to communication. [no citation] This is particularly the case in the context of complex tasks (e.g., business process redesign, new product development, online learning), because such tasks seem to require more intense communication over extended periods of time than simple tasks.[no citation]

[proposed draft lead]

Media naturalness theory is also known as the psychobiological model. The theory was developed by Ned Kock and attempts to apply Darwinian evolutionary principles to suggest which types of computer-mediated communication will best fit people's "biological communication apparatus". Media naturalness theory argues that evolutionary pressures have made face-to-face communication the "richest" form of communication as defined by the media richness theory. Because less "rich" electronic forms of communication, like email and texting, have not existed long enough to elicit an evolutionary response from humans, Kock argues that people will continue to prefer face-to-face interactions. And, in the absence of face-to-face communication, people will choose the closest electronic facsimiles, such as video calls on a smartphone.

[Kock's self-described "paradoxes"]

Some of Ned Kock's related work addresses questions related to his media naturalness theory. For example, in 2011 Kock and Vanessa Garza compared educational experiences for students in traditional classroom environments with those of online students for the same course. Kock and Garza found that the online students in their study were able to perform as well as the in person cohort consistent with Carlson and Zmud's channel expansion theory. However, Kock and Garza (2011) also argue that the online cohort initially required more time to get up to speed, and that this finding supports the media naturalness theory's contention that humans evolved to communicate face-to-face.

Media Naturalness Theory

Ned Kock
2004
Example alt text Evolutionary theory for computer-mediated communication