COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA PREFERENCE - AN INVESTIGATION OF THE DIMENSIONALITY OF PERCEIVED TASK EQUIVOCALITY AND MEDIA RICHNESS

Computer-mediated communication is the foundation of networking and el ectronic communities. As the use of new communication technologies con tinues to proliferate throughout organizations, new modes of interacti on between individuals and groups emerge, presenting alternative media choices. How individuals choose between these modes has stimulated mu ch research into theoretical perspectives of media choice within netwo rked and electronic communities. Media Richness Theory is one of these theoretical perspectives. The research presented in this paper invest igates the underlying factors of Media Richness Theory, task equivocal ity and media richness. The results obtained provide evidence to sugge st that equivocality may not be unidimensional, and that the richness of media is perceived multidimensionally in terms of the information c arrying capacity of media. The findings on dimensionality of equivocal ity raise doubts as to the basic assumptions of this concept and media richness theory.