RATIONAL AND SOCIAL THEORIES AS COMPLEMENTARY EXPLANATIONS OF COMMUNICATION MEDIA CHOICES - 2 POLICY-CAPTURING STUDIES

Recent media choice research has focused on attempts to determine what theory best explains people's choices of communication media. Two wit hin-subject policy-capturing studies support the notion that media ric hness and social influence theories are complementary rather than comp eting and that the relative importance of choice factors depends on th e medium. A comparison of policy-capturing and survey findings points to policy capturing as a useful research methodology. Results also sug gest that rational and social factors should be included in comprehens ive models of media choice that address both traditional and new media .