Media Richness Perceptions as Impressions of Interpersonal Communication Competence Within the Relational Competence Framework
Abstract: The study of media richness and its relationship with media selection has undergone change throughout is existence and has produced varying results. Initially, media richness for various media was thought to be static across users. The level of media richness of a medium was thought to dictate a degree of desirability for the use of such a medium in communication situations depending upon the equivocality of those situations. Later research demonstrated that media richness is not a static feature but more of a perception of a user. Both early and later research have strengths that aren't shared. Given that throughout the research of media richness, the focus has always been on making a proper media decision based on the needs of a situation, the relational interpersonal communication competence framework offers a means by which the strengths of the early and later research of media richness may be combined. By means of an online questionnaire, interpersonal competence was shown to have a relationship with both early and later media richness research. Suggestions for future research involving media richness, interpersonal competence, and media selection are included.