User:Pixie233/Media richness theory

Article body
To help explain media richness and its application to new media, media synchronicity theory was proposed. Media richness theory is also related adaptive structuration theory and social information processing theory, in which instead of focusing on object physical attributions of the media, shift towards social construction of the media. Media synchronicity theory, however, is a theory of communication performance that does not investigate why people choose which media to use.

Media synchronicity theory states that every communication interaction is composed of two processes: conveyance and convergence. The processes are necessary for completing tasks. Conveyance is about the transmission of new information, while convergence is about reaching an agreement. For tasks that require convergence, media with high degrees of synchronicity, such as face-to-face meetings and video conferences, offer participants the opportunity to communicate in real-time, immediately observe the reactions and responses of others, and develop interpersonal reactions to reach an agreement through discussion. For tasks that require conveyance, media with low degrees of synchronicity such as e-mail and SMS texts allows participants to receive information regardless of geographical dispersion and time zone and have more time to process new information without the necessity to debate with others. Media synchronicity theory states that each medium has a set of abilities, which is similar to the objective physical characteristics referred to in media richness theory. These abilities include transmission velocity, parallelism, symbol sets, rehearsability, and reaccessability. The transmission velocity of a message refers to how quickly the recipient receives it from the sender; parellelism refers to the number of messages that can be conveyed at the same time; symbol sets are the number of ways that recipients can interpret the message, such as verbal and visual cues; rehearsability is the extent to which the sender can revise and edit messages before sending out, and reprocessibility is the degree to which recipients can retrieve and re-interpret messages. According to the theory, choosing a medium with capabilities that match information transmission and processing requirements can make communication more effective.

Applications
The applications of media synchronicity theory include negotiations, virtual team collaborations, and communication during disasters. During negotiations, if both communicators are familiar with each other and know about the subprocesses to complete tasks, then the need for synchronicity will be lower. Negotiations can be more effective if the group has discussed the requirement through media with low synchronicity before synchronous meetings, as the group can remove uncertainties before reaching convergence. The reheasability of the media also has a positive impact on satisfaction. Positive messages transmitted through asynchronous text-based electronically mediated negotiations (TBEM) yields higher negotiator satisfaction than face-to-face negotiations (FTF). Virtual collaborations are considered to be activities that require convergence, and groups with 3D space that provide rooms for synchronous discussion have higher task performances than groups using text-based chat. However, if a mobile-enabling discussion is also provided during the collaborations, its high parallelism and reprocessibility can improve user experience and task performance.

During natural disasters, the purpose of risk communication is to educate people about the situation, so conveyance processes are required. A medium with relatively low synchronicity is preferred. Crisis communication, on the other hand, has the purpose of sharing individuals' understandings which requires convergence. A medium with relatively high synchronicity is preferred. A single social platform can have different sets of capabilities depending on features, and people can manipulate symbol sets such as hashtags and the number of words in a post, to maximize the effectiveness of communication. Synchronous Channels are helpful for urgent situations especially in more vulnerable areas, while asynchronous Channels are usefuly for governments and utility service providers in their attempts to amplify their crisis management messages and expand the reach of information related to evacuation and recovery.