Lean versus Rich Media

With media there are several choices that can be made. All of which depend on the target audience or the
general type of learner you/they are. A good example is looking at Daft and Lengel model as "the ability
of information to change understanding within a time interval” Talking face to face is considered a
richer medium source,. Reason for this is that face-to-face is very direct. Emotion, facial expression, tone of
voice can be factors in aiding conveying the point across. “The criteria for ranking a medium's ability to
carry information can be based on the ability of the media to, relay immediate feedback, provide
feedback cues such as body language, allow the message to be created or altered specifically for
an intended recipient, and transmit the feelings or emotions of the communicators.” (Daft and
Lengel 1984).

The saying “A picture says a thousand words." is a very accurate statement itself. While it’s not as rich
as a document of text book you can look at it and understand what is going on.

With a presentation, it works exactly the same way. It is considered a leaner media however due to it
shortness, use of keywords, structuring and design It is made easy for people to take in the information. On
the other hand, if you’re a read and write learner, using a richer source of information such as an article
would be a better choice. Since I am a visual and aural learner, uses of video content adds a richer source
of learning, while still keeping it simpler to interact with it, since a video provides a lot of information,
however unlike face-to-face (video conferencing) it is easier to integrate into a form of medium such as a
blog site while still giving more interaction than a document.

Figure 1: Richer vs. Leaner sources of Media

References
Daft, R. L. and R. H. Lengel (1984). Information richness: a new approach to managerial behavior and organizational design.
Research in Organizational Behavior 6, 191-233.