This past weekend I attended a leadership conference for my sorority in Indiana. While I managed to survive four days in the woods with about 200 girls, my travels home proved far more challenging than I had anticipated. Two layovers, three very small planes, and (of course) some lost luggage is a bit less than an easy traveling experience. Needless to say, upon traveling home to Ithaca I sent several text messages and made several phone calls.
As soon as my plane landed at the Ithaca airport I text messaged my ride: "we landed- early apparently. no rush though." When talking about rides I like to keep it short and to the point. No need for the "Hi how are you" filler, when we both just need to communicate when and where.
On the other hand, later in the evening when I was calling the airport to inquire as to where my luggage was located, I decided to take a very direct route and call as opposed to email. While both means of communication can effectively get ones point across I wanted to use a synchronous medium through which my tone of voice could be heard.
Both instances of communication are fitting with the Media Richness Theory. In my first situation of text messaging, I used a lean medium to transmit a less equivocal message. Ultimately, in order to most efficiently communicate the needed message (when to pick me up), a text message was best suited for the job. In the second situation in which I called about my lost luggage, I chose a richer medium since I was communicating a more equivocal message. Aside from the simple question of where my luggage was, I was also communicating my frustration with the airline through my tone of voice. In this case, calling via telephone was the most suitable medium for communicating information as well as emotion.
My comments:
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/09/3-creepiest-experience-ever.html
&
http://comm245brown.blogspot.com/2007/09/assingment-3-old-man-and-young-girl.html
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3 comments:
Marli,
Your experience does seem to fit within Media Richness Theory. While in the first task you were communicating a very unequivocal message, in the second task you were communicating a more equivocal message, as it also dealt with emotions such as frustration.
It would have been interesting if you had talked about how the second task fits into with Impression Management Model. It seems to me that it fits into the "accuse" category as you were trying to convey to the airline that you were angry with them (negative valence and locus is away from the self). According to this theory, you would be fairly likely to choose a mediated form of communication in order to create a "buffer" between you and the airline; therefore, your experience contradicts the model. Perhaps the reason there was no need for a buffer in this instance was because you had no emotional attachment to the airline and therefore had no need to distance yourself from their perhaps negative reaction. In addition, because you are the customer, you they have an obligation to treat you positively and with respect. Perhaps this leads to the conclusion that the Impression Management Model depends on the assumption that you care about the person you are talking to and have some sort of interpersonal relationship with them.
Danielle Rosenthal
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