Air Force Media Use and Conformance With Media Richness Theory

<p>Communication has become a major aspect of a manager's job. When communicating they are faced with many choices of what media to use--some include face-to-face telephone e-mail or written. Managerial effectiveness can improve if managers make appropriate media choices. Thus it is important to study how Air Force managers perceive media and what kind of choices they are making based on those perceptions. Media Richness Theory suggests that media choices are affected by content reasons situational reasons and symbolic reasons. This study examined Air Force managers and found they conform highly with Media Richness Theory in their media choices. Their perceptions of media richness also closely agreed with MRT. However higher level managers did not conform better than lower level managers as MRT would suggest. This study supports Media Richness Theory and the model used to apply it. The results indicate that Air Force managers are making effective media choices. This gives implications for using newer media such as e-mail and creating policy for such media which is a paramount issue today.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>