Media Comparison

Media Comparison, which one do you need?

At this stage we are going to compare different media platforms. Each plaftorm has their own advantages and disadvantages. Carefully choosing which media to use can make your message much stronger and more effective. It can also save you cost and time.

Remember, how you choose to communicate your message can be just as important as what you communicate.

Before going into each media type, you should think about your communication environment. Will the communication be one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many?

• One-to-One : conversations, emails, letters, instant messaging, phone calls
• One-to-Many : public speech, presentations, mass email and letters
• Many-to-Many : meetings, conference calls, forums, debates, discussions

Oral Media (conversation, interviews, public presentations) (pg 95)

• Not always informal, Usually has hidden structure : Some oral communication means often seem very casual. But most business communication, even phone conversations, discussions and others have set objectives and a certain structure. Other conversations; like interviews or negotiations, can be very structured.

Advantages

• Immediate Feedback : When speaking directly with someone you can get immediate answers to your questions and quickly provide anything the other person might need. This makes oral communication the fastest way to get an answer.
• Easy Interaction : Conversation allows the discussion to grow and include other ideas that may not be directly related to your topic, but important to maintain a good business relationship. Interaction also allows better discussions which leads to better problem solving.
• Rich non-verbal messages : Human beings communicate by more than just using words. Our facial features, gestures, tone of voice, speed, pauses all say something. In face-to-face or phone conversations, there is a lot more information you get from someone.
• Allow easy expression of emotion : It is much easier to show urgency, anger, happiness using oral communication (through non-verbal means) rather than through writing.

Disadvantages

• Only those there can participate (unless teleconference) : Conversations restrict the number of people who can be involved. If there are too many people, the discussion doesn't become effective. If you want to spread your message to many people, this may not be the way to do it.
• No record of conversation : There is no way to prove or check what happened during an oral conversation. This is especially dangerous in a business context, when promises may be made orally. Hence usually most oral conversations are followed up by emails or letters, to reinforce and record what was discussed (and that's why the minutes of meetings are very important!)
• Reduce Control over message : You can very carefully plan an oral conversation or presentation, but because there is a lot of non-verbal information, it is easy to confuse the audience. For example, a message about someting sad delivered in a happy tone. There are more elements that can affect the medium and presenter (you!) which can also result in unplanned things being said.
• Cannot edit or revise message : You can very carefully plan an oral conversation or presentation, but you only get one chance to deliver it. During the conversation/presentation, many things can go wrong and you won't be able to stop and re-edit what you said.

The oral Best when you need to express emotions, encourage interaction or observe response of the person you are communicating with. It is not good when you need to keep record of interaction, when you need to get many people involved or when you are emotionally upset.

Written Media

Written Media (letters, memos, reports, proposals) (pg 96)

Advantages

• Allow planning and control : Written media allows you to finely shape and control how your audience will receive your message. This is useful if your message is complex and needs to be delivered in a very specific order, or if you're afraid of losing control in an oral presentation.
• Permanent verifiable record : Very important in a business context! Sometimes projects last a few months and years and you need to check past communication messages and interaction.
• Reach spread out audience : A written message is much easier to deliver to many many people. A letter or brochure can be delivered to hundreds of people in the same day.
• Used to avoid immediate reaction : If you feel your audience might have a negative emotional reaction, or if you feel you might be too emotional, then writing is the best. It allows you to calm down and focus on your message, and prevents your audience from immediately reacting, thereby also allowing them to calm down.
• Reduce unwanted emotional expression : If a message needs to be neutral of emotion, then writing is much better than speaking. Oral communication if full of non-verbal messages that might confuse your message.

Disadvantages

• Not help speedy feedback : It takes a long time to process and respond through written communication.
• No rich non-verbal cues : The message is constrained to what you write. It is harder (though not impossible) to express emotion, mood, urgency and other emotive components.
• Often more time and more resources to create and distribute : Writing and planning takes a lot more time than just speaking, and some types of written media - like presentations, reports, brochures - can take weeks and months to prepare.
• Often needs special skills to create : Some written messages - like powerpoint presentations, brochuers - need special skills and resources to create.

Electronic Media

Electronic Media (Telephone calls, Voice Mail, Instant Messaging, Teleconference, Videoconference, videos, electronic documents, email, faxes, websites) (pg 97)

Electronic media is mostly the combination of Oral and Written media. Since it is the newest form of media, it often combines the advantages of both Oral and Written, while reducing the disadvantages. Often a good alternative or complement to Oral/Written media, could be Electronic Oral/Written media - for example a phone call instead of a conversation, and email instead of a letter.

However it is important to not take electronic media for granted. Just because it is email, does not mean it is official business communication. Lots of business have crashed and lost a lot of media because of something they promised/discussed in an email and was used against them later.

Advantages

• Deliver messages with great speed : An email takes less than a second to deliver, vs days and weeks for a letter. This allows interactivity and also a written verifiable record of the communication.
• Reach audiences far away : It is much easier, faster and cheaper to reach people through phone, email, sms etc who live far far away!
• Allow media rich multimedia : Electronic media allow for sounds, audio, video and animation all in the same document, allow your message to be more rich.
• Increase accessibility and communication : The ease of electronic communication - like email, phone, sms - encourages people to communicate with each other. It fits nicely between some other media and can be used when either Oral or Written media might be inappropriate or costly. For example, it may be difficult or uncomfortable to speak to your boss and writing a letter could be too formal - an email would be just perfect.

Disadvantage

• Accidentally create conflict : Electronic media depends on reliable technology. Technology glitches therefore can sometimes create conflict - for example a poor phone connection or instant messaging service that keeps crashing, can lead to frustration or the wrong message being understood.
• Easy to overuse : Since it's so cheap and accessible, people often overuse electronic communication, thus reducing some the benefits of other media (for example, having less conversations which is also useful to build friendly relationships). People might also become dependent on that media and suffer when there is no internet access!
• Often lack privacy : It is harder to control who recieves your electronic message. Email if often duplicated (on the office server for example) and is easy to share. Faxes usually arrive at a shared office fax machine. A conversation or letter is far more confidential.
• Reduce productivity : Because electronic media features heavily in your personal life, it is harder to keep office time to only office work. It is unlikely that you will recieve many letters that will distract you at work, but very possible that you will recieve many emails from your friends.

Factors for Choosing

Factors to Consider When Choosing Medium of Communication

Here are some factors and questions you should ask to help you decide which is the best media for your message.

• Media Richness – Media is more rich if you can communicate more information in more different ways, for example if that media includes non-verbal communication, interactivity and different types of media (audio, video, haptic). So face to face interaction and video conferencing are very rich media and text-messaging or pamphlets are not rich.
• Of course, the more rich a media is the more time, effort and cost in involved.
• Message Formality – Different media types have different tones for formality. A letter is a lot more formal than a memo, a presentation is more formal than a conversation, a meeting is more formal than a discussion. Choose an increasing level of formality if your audience prefers it, the situation demands it or if you want to make a serious point.
• So if you want give an employee some advice, a conversation is casual and informal, but a letter is serious.
• Media Limitations – Each media has its own limitation, for example geography, time, technology. A conversation is a great way to solve a problem or express complex information, but the person must be in the same place and time. If there are not in the same place, you can use a phone call, but what if the person is in a different time zone? Then maybe you can use a voice message.
• Sender Intentions – Your choice of media will send a message to your audience about your intentions and your desired effect. So if you want to emphasize Privacy, Urgency, Formality, Emotion or other things, you should use different kinds of media. For example if I want to invite you an event, I can send you a text message (very casual, shows the event is casual), or I can send you an official letter (makes the event seem more formal), or I can make a video that invites you (more fun and creative, the event should also be that way).
• Urgency and Cost - These two criteria are balanced against each other. If I have an urgent message, I can spend more money, but if the message is not urgent, then I should save my money.
• Audience Preferences – What audiences prefer depends heavily on the cultural context and the situation when the media is being delivered. Older audiences may prefer more formal media or a more personal touch. In Asian societies, it is more polite to speak personally to someone and sometimes email may be rude.