3 My Media Selection

Saturday night I had an Office Season 3 marathon with my friend. To watch, however, I had to ask my suitemate to put his TV in the common room. My suitemates and I discussed the television/cable situation before, so, while my suitemate had already agreed to donate his TV to the common room, I didn’t want to seem cold, or give the impression that I was rushing him into giving it up. I wanted to come off sincere and genuine.

Since he lives next to me, and talking face-to-face, instant messaging, and using the phone all take the same amount of time, it came down to how complex I anticipated our discussion being. I wanted to explain that his TV was bigger than my friend’s, and thus, we wanted to watch in the suite.

Later, to let my friend know the plan, I instant messaged him to say that my suitemate agreed to let me move the TV. Since I was doing other work, I didn’t want to use face-to-face communication or the phone because these would undoubtedly have taken more time. Obligatory “Hey, how are you” greetings and discussing things other than plans for the night would have prevented me from getting all my work done. I wanted to say more than “Office, my place, 9:00,” however, so I chose not to text him. I found this middle ground in IM. I was allowed to send quick messages that we got permission to use the TV, and that once I got it set up and made sure my DVD player worked, I would give him a call. I was not drawn into a prolonged conversation - an advantage to IMing.

My observations of media choices this Saturday support the Media Richness Theory. When the conversation was going to be more equivocal and complex, such as explaining why I wanted to move the TV and asking permission, I chose the richest medium there is: face-to-face. When some simple facts about plans needed to be relayed I chose a less rich medium in instant messaging. Since the plans were not as simple as just time and place, however, I chose IM over the even less rich text messaging.

The communication I observed this weekend doesn’t apply to O’Sullivan’s model because neither asking for permission nor relaying time/place information fall under the categories of boost, praise, confess, or accuse. Thus, it was really only possible to assess my communication in relation to Media Richness, and my behavior supported this theory.