Advice for politicians based on Media Richness Theory

Posted on by Dingyue Zhang

Overall, the core idea of Media Richness Theory (MRT) is the richer and more personal communication mediums are, the more effective the communication will be; in contrast, the leaner and less rich media can decrease the effectiveness of media (Daft and Langel, 1983).

To make the most effective use of this theory, there are ways the candidates in president election can use on social media.

1) Explore more social media platforms

There are more than 10 social media platforms with over 200 million users in the world and different platform have different groups of audiences. (Leading social networks worldwide as of January 2016, ranked by number of active users (in millions), 2016)

One medium’s richness, which means its ability to enable users to communicate and to change understanding is limited. Exploring more platforms can both reach more audiences since everyone has their own top lists in terms of social media, and can complement each other.

For example, Twitter allows users to interact with candidates, Hillary retweeted this tweet.

Facebook is the best platform for automated videos.

2) Make the most use of one platform

Different users have different habits and although some people have 10 social media Apps on their phone, the most frequent used ones are no more than three.

Like for middle-aged people, they may use Facebook mostly and for college students, Snapchat and Yikyak are popular now.

According to MRT, face-to-face is the most effective communication way because it enables body language, facial expression and immediate feedback. (Daft and Langel, 1983) How to make the most use of the platforms and avoid the disadvantages? Except using videos, which is too long sometimes to attract audiences’ attention, GIF might be a good option.

This tweet of Rubio uses his expression and gesture to show his attitude, which is more convincing than just text.

The final goal of using the social media for the candidates is getting more supporters. The more platforms they use, the deeper they dig under each platform, and the more possible they will win this election.

References:

Richard L. Daft & Robert H. Langel. (1983). Information Richness: A New Approach to Managerial Behavior and Organization Design. College City, TX: Department of Management, Texas A & M University

Alan R. Dennis. (1999) Rethinking media richness: Towards a theory of media synchronicity. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.108.7118&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Statista.com (2016).Leading social networks worldwide as of January 2016, ranked by number of active users (in millions). Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/

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