Explain the media deficit approach and how media richness and social presence theories support its claims

What will be an ideal response?


Students need to understand and explain how a lack of closeness (social presence) and a lack of information (media richness) make mediated communication less helpful than face-to-face communication.

The media deficit approach argues that mediated communication is deficient when compared to face-to-face interaction. This approach argues that because CMC is filtered (lacks nonverbal cues), it does not allow people to feel close or get as much information from CMC.

Social presence theory states that face-to-face communication is higher in social presence, or closeness, than CMC. Thus, mediated communication is not as good as face-to-face communication because people cannot feel as "close" through computers.

Media richness theory describes the potential information-carrying capacity of a communication medium. Face-to-face is the richest medium, and all CMC media are less rich than face to face. Thus, mediated communication does not contain as much information as face-to-face interaction.

Communication & Mass Media

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