RATIONAL AND SOCIAL THEORIES AS COMPLEMENTARY EXPLANATIONS OF COMMUNICATION MEDIA CHOICES: TWO POLICY-CAPTURING STUDIES.

Recent media choice research has focused on attempts to determine what theory best explains people's choices of communication media. Two within-subject policy-capturing studies support the notion that media richness and social influence theories are complementary rather than competing and that the relative importance of choice factors depends on the medium. A comparison of policy-capturing and survey findings points to policy capturing as a useful research methodology. Results also suggest that rational and social factors should he included in comprehensive models of media choice that address both traditional and new media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]