Media choice is tested two ways: the BASK's closed list of media, and Daft and Lengel's definition of richness that tells you which one to pick.
The eight communications media
Phone; e-mail; face-to-face; report; presentation; social media; town hall meetings; video conference.
- Instant messaging is not on the list. Neither are memo, bulletin board, webinar, podcast, newsletter or intranet post. Any option containing one of those is out.
Information richness
Daft and Lengel define information richness as the ability of information to change understanding within a time interval.
- Not bandwidth or volume of data per unit of time. Not archivability or record value. Not the number of sensory channels engaged, which is a correlate, not the definition.
- Rich transactions are those that overcome different frames of reference or clarify ambiguous issues to change understanding in a timely manner. Reach, documentation value and quantity of factual detail are all different properties.
Matching medium to message
Richness earns its cost when the message is ambiguous or contested, not when it is routine.
- A restructuring changing reporting lines for 200 employees, with rumors spreading and employees disagreeing about what it means, is high-ambiguity. Use a rich medium: town hall meetings or face-to-face sessions. A detailed all-staff e-mail or an intranet report with a questions mailbox is lean and one-way, and leaves the competing interpretations standing. Waiting until reporting lines are final lets the rumors run and fails the indicator to present needed information on a regular basis.
- Confirming routine benefits enrollment dates to 900 employees across four sites is not ambiguous. The Delivering Messages indicator is to use an understanding of the audience to craft the content and choose the best formal or informal medium. Insisting face-to-face is always best because it is richest is the documented error. Social media is a public channel for internal administrative detail and does not ensure receipt; briefing only managers adds a relay that risks the message not being understood.
Richest is not best. Best-suited is best.