Media Naturalness Theory - Main Predictions

Main Predictions

Media naturalness effects on cognitive effort, communication ambiguity, and physiological arousal. Media naturalness theory’s main prediction is that, other things being equal, a decrease in the degree of naturalness of a communication medium leads to the following effects in connection with communication interactions in complex tasks: (a) an increase in cognitive effort, (b) an increase in communication ambiguity, and (c) a decrease in physiological arousal.

Naturalness of electronic communication media. Electronic communication media often suppress key face-to-face communication elements, with the goal of creating other advantages. For example, Web-based bulletin boards and discussion groups enable asynchronous (or time-disconnected) communication, but at the same time make it difficult to have the same level of feedback immediacy found in face-to-face communication. That often leads to frustration from users who expect immediate feedback on their postings.

The high importance of speech. Media naturalness theory predicts that the degree to which an electronic communication medium supports an individual’s ability to convey and listen to speech is particularly significant in determining its naturalness. The theory predicts, through its speech imperative proposition, that speech enablement influences naturalness significantly more than a medium’s degree of support for the use of facial expressions and body language.

Compensatory adaptation. According to media naturalness theory, electronic communication media users can adapt their behavior in such a way as to overcome some of the limitations of those media. That is, individuals who choose to use electronic communication media to accomplish complex collaborative tasks may compensate for the cognitive obstacles associated with the lack of naturalness of the media. One of the ways in which this can be achieved through email is by users composing messages that are redundant and particularly well organized, compared to face-to-face communication. This often contributes to improving the effectiveness of communication, sometimes even beyond that of the face-to-face medium.