March 11th, 2010
Again, I am merely touching on this theory due to the fact that I am this week discussing Junghyun Kim’s 2003 article in which he discusses this and other media theories. Soon, I will elaborate on this theory, including the subsequent Media Synchronicity and Media Naturalness theories.
Media richness theory, proposed by Daft and Lengel in 1984, essentially states that task performance increases when the task needs are matched to the medium’s richness. Additionally, the theory suggests that individuals predictably favor the use of specific communication media to perform certain tasks. Specifically, that rich media are a more likely to be found appropriate for “equivocal” communication, which occurs more in complex tasks. Daft and Lengel define the richness of media as the ability of information to change understanding within a time interval. The theory argues that the richness of media differs between media types, with face-to-face communication being richer than communicating via email, for example. Read the rest of this entry »
March 9th, 2010
This theory is foundational to my own research, with my current working dissertation title being: “The Online Video Conversation: Social Presence in the Asynchronous Online Classroom.” I will detail this much further later. However, I am now giving this overview, since I am discussing Junghyun Kim’s 2003 article this/last week, and he addresses this theory therein.
Basically, developed by John Short, Ederyn Williams, and Bruce Christie in 1976, social presence theory measures communication media based on the degree of awareness of the other person in a communication interaction. In most cases, the higher the social presence level, the better the understanding of both speaker and message. The level is altered with the removal or addition of each communication modality, such as speech, non-verbal cues, and immediacy of exchange or feedback. Read the rest of this entry »
March 7th, 2010
This is another theory that I am discussing based on its mention in Junghyun Kim’s 2003 article.
As Kim notes, this approach (Walther, Anderson, Park 1994) argues that the “[L]ack of Nonverbal cues in CMC makes it difficult (or at least more difficult) for people to interact with each other, as compared to FtF communication.” (Kim 6). However, this approach is problematic, Read the rest of this entry »
March 4th, 2010
Kim, Junghyun. “Interpersonal Interaction in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) : Exploratory Qualitative Research based on Critical Review of the Existing Theories” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Marriott Hotel, San Diego, CA, May 27, 2003. <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p112010_index.html>
Kim’s 2003 paper discusses interpersonal communication in the use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), in this case Instant Messenger (IM), by reviewing existing theories on the topic, particularly those that compare Face-to-Face (FtF) communication with CMC. Because this exploratory qualitative study examined IM, which is purely textual, it serves as an excellent source to help me juxtapose FtF, CMC, and the OVC.
Level of Interpersonal Communication
Kim divides the theories into three levels of interpersonal communication within CMC: Read the rest of this entry »
February 7th, 2010
Fernback, Jan. “Legends on the Net: An Examination of Computer-Mediated Communication as a Locus of Oral Culture.” New Media & Society 5 1 (2003): 29-45.
“The potential of the internet as an(sic) medium of orality is worth of scholarly reflection.” (pg. 30.).
This statement is unquestionably accurate. However, real-time textual chat modes–a medium the author selects as the data source for her scholarly reflection–do not constitute a form of orality. As I have argued a number of times, while such communication forms are highly conversational, they cannot be considered oral communication, since they are not oral. To claim such is to break with the structure that Walter Ong (who Fernback cites heavily in this article) put forth to explain the ways that orality and literacy interact and differ. I will acknowledge the root of her study, however, that the Internet is a place where cultural folklore can be passed on, a process that was traditionally transferred orally.
Fernback’s largely addresses the changes that can occur when a communication type traditionally delivered through one conversational mode is now remediated through a different communication mode. Read the rest of this entry »
