How communication mediums shape the message

Abstract

Communication is an integral part of everyday life. Consumers chat with friends, search for information, and complain to customer service. Salespeople pitch products, employees answer questions, and market researchers ask them. But communication does not occur in a vacuum. Modalities (e.g., speaking or writing), channels (e.g., text, phone call, or email), and devices (e.g., smartphone or computer) are the mediums through which communicators communicate. While these mediums often seem incidental, might they impact what gets communicated? And if so, how? This paper offers a comprehensive framework for understanding how mediums shape the message. Specifically, we argue that modality, devices, and channels all shape communication through the same two key drivers: deliberation and audience salience. As a result, the mediums communicators use to communicate impact everything from the thoughtfulness and concreteness of communicated content to the degree to which it is self‐enhancing or honest. This work sheds light on the psychology of content production, provides insight into the drivers and consequences of communication, and highlights how emerging technologies may shape communication in the future.

Language Style Matching Without Interaction: Consuming Entertainment Media from Someone Unlike You is Engaging

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The topography of thought

“…Third, which types of content might be more diagnostic of success and why? Compared to writing, for example, speaking often involves less deliberation ( 46 , 47 ). But while this may lead spoken content to better reflect one's natural thought process, whether this better predicts life outcomes may depend on whether the context predicted is more reflexive or deliberative.…”

Verbal behavior and the future of social science.

“…Verbal behavior changes throughout the day, for example, environmental influences on psychological processes, including neurochemical changes, are reflected in one's language (Dzogang et al, 2018;Golder & Macy, 2011;Soderstrom & Wittebolle, 2013). Social processes-including factors such as who the person is communicating to, their interpersonal or social history (Templeton et al, 2023), and the medium of communication (e.g., face-to-face, on social media; Oba & Berger, 2023;Thompson et al, 2016)-are key to understanding a multitude of internal processes. Altogether, such an interactionist model provides a formalized framework wherein verbal behavior reveals individual mental life in a way that concurrently considers multiple levels of context, and we encourage others to build upon this foundation.…”