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= Media complementarity theory = Media complementarity theory, created by Mohan J. Dutta-Bergman in 2004, is a communication theory that focuses on relationship between traditional and new media in current media landscape. The main idea of MCT is that users who seek out specific information in one medium are more likely to expose themselves to similar content in other media, which implies "a congruence between the consumption of online and traditional media within a specific content domain.”

Dutta-Bergman critiques treating media types as “homogeneous entities” with different audience having the same experiences in media consumption, emphasizing the different effects of content, context and receiver characteristics. Building upon theories of selective exposure, niche and involvement, MCT has been applied in many different fields in later researches, such as information seeking in health, finance, food safety and campaign, etc.

Definition
Media complementarity theory suggests that media types share complementarity relationships in the domain of specific content areas.

Competition-based Displacement Theory
The emergence and increasing popularity of Internet lead to a growing academic interest in current media landscape. The question that “how does the Internet affect the way consumers read, view or listen to the traditional media outlets is at the heart of an ongoing debate between two streams of media scholarship.”

Opposite to the Media complementarity theory, scholars of competition-based displacement theory attribute the decrease of traditional media consumption, such as the newspapers, television and radio to the advert of Internet, because they assume that the amount of time available for the consumption of various types of media is limited. Therefore, the relationship of different media in the competition of audience and advertising dollars is symmetrical, which means that an increase in one inevitably leads to a decrease in the other.

Similar processes of functional displacement have occurred several times in the past, because every new medium intend to displace the old one which serves the same functions or offers the same gratifications. Limited resources of time and revenue result in the competitive pattern between different media. In order to avoid being displaced or reduce the competition to tolerable levels, traditional media have to alter the niche of their forms.

Selective Exposure Theory
Selective exposure theory provides a clear explanation of the relationship between underlying motivations and media choice. Even though users use different media to satisfy different needs, individuals intent to orient their attention to specific media information based on personal interest, which functions as an enduring and consistent motivation in media choice. For example, an avid fan of sports not only reads the sports section of the newspaper, but also listens to the sports radio, looking through the related websites or subscribing the cable channel of sports. Individuals make active choice in various media types to exposure themselves in particular content area that are supportive of their predispositions.

Niche Theory
The principles of competition and coexistence of niche theory are used to clarify the development of functional niche of media industries. Different media types have different modality, such as the audio, visual or the combination, which can satisfy different needs and gratifications of audience. The specific functions and uses served by a specific medium will drive individual making selections in media types. When the media forms overlap, competition occurs for limited resources. Correspondingly, lower overlap of modality will lead to a state of complementarity in media landscape. Just as traditional media can not provide multiple interpersonal interaction served by Internet, Internet also can not wipe out the value of old media, and the “value judgement of media content can only be assessed by the audience.”

Involvement Theory
Involvement theory supports the existence of congruence between audience orientation and media exposures. Individuals are motivated to gather, process and evaluate information on specific information content for their own gratifications, because “the audience is active and its media use is goal oriented”. The more interested they are in certain content, the higher level of involvement in information seeking there will be. Accordingly, a complementarity pattern of media use can be expected during the process of satisfying individual demand.