amylynnmccallister.weebly.com€¦ · web viewcommunication channel options have significantly...

Running head: CHANNEL SELECTION AND EMOTIONAL CONVEYANCE

Channel Selection and Reported Success of Emotional Conveyance in Interpersonal

Communication

Brittany Bowman, Amy McCallister, Leigh Patrick, and Lauren Rowson

James Madison University

Author Note

Brittany Bowman, Amy McCallister, Leigh Patrick, and Lauren Rowson are all

undergraduate students in the Communications Studies Department at James Madison

University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Correspondence regarding this research should be directed to Ms. Lauren

Rowson, c/o Dr. Tim Ball, SCOM, MSC 2106, Harrisonburg, VA 22807. Email

[email protected]

1

Channel Selection and Emotional Conveyance

Abstract

The study seeks to explore the relationship between mediated communication channels

and the successful emotional conveyance of the encoder, a topic largely underexplored in

academic literature. The research question seeks to discover which method of

communication channel best satisfies the sender of the message. Participants will be both

male and female James Madison University undergraduate students ranging from 18-24

years of age. The study will include an online survey constructed to measure the students’

feelings of successful emotional translation. Data will be analyzed using analysis of

variance (ANOVA) and Cronbach’s alpha tests. The research is intended to provide

communication professionals with data that will increase their understanding of

emotional conveyance through different mediated communication channels.

2


Channel Selection and Reported Emotional Conveyance in Interpersonal

Communications

Technology in communications has undoubtedly made huge progress in the past

two decades, but has successful communication followed this new wave of media?

Communication channels have broadened in scope, changing the way humans

communicate and relate to one another. Communication channel options have

significantly expanded due to the introduction of telephones, mobile phones, email, and

text messaging. According to Sun, Hullman, and Wang (2010), people’s motivation for

using a particular medium can come from their satisfaction with previous experiences in

their preferred media channel. The question to be addressed in the proposed research

study is whether or not there is a connection between reported successes of

emotional conveyance and newly developed mediated communication channels.

Improvements, or more accurately modifications, in communication technology

have been occurring longer than most people would assume. Baym (2009) mentions,

amongst others, several historical developments in communication: pigeon training, ink,

woodblocks, pamphlets, photography, radio waves, and the telegraph. The more recent

developments of the telephone, email, and text message have established even newer

methods of conveying emotion. Although face-to-face (F2F) communication is still

widely used, and to some is considered the most effective form of exhibiting our

emotions (Van Cleemput, 2010), technological developments have created noticeable

change in how many people communicate.

One reason this topic is significant to study is because the rapid development of

communication technology has drastically changed the role of channel selection. During

3

Tim Ball, 09/15/13,

You need to define this term.


the 1990’-s, the cost of distance phone calls dropped, and email and mobile phone

messaging became established methods of communication (Wilding, 2003). With the

ensuing popularity and availability of internet and computers, email followed the

telephone as the next widely used method of communication. The shift from telephones

to email to text messaging represents a shift from voice-based communication to text-

based communication. With the advancement in technology, one pitfall of computer-

mediated communication (CMC) is the lack of nonverbal cues and dimensions such as

facial expressions. This lack of visual cues makes conveying emotion more difficult

(Rogers, 1995). Research may provide valuable information evaluating the effects of new

technology that has caused F2F communication to become less relevant in today’s

society.

A second reason to study this topic is to further explore the different strengths and

weaknesses of the various types of communication channels and how the context of the

message is emotionally transferred. As newer technology becomes available, there will

still be some weaknesses that hold strong in older models of communication. For

example, past research has compared advantages and disadvantages between mediated

communication mediums: the telephone has auditory cues, allowing for voice

recognition, immediate feedback and response, whereas participants have to wait on

responses with email (Cortese, 2004).

On a larger scale, this study will benefit the field of communication through

further research on the effectiveness of communication channels and how the next

generation will utilize it, provided technology continues to broaden in scope. The

4


research will investigate the undergraduates’ attitudes toward current communication

channels and may provide useful information for these new communicative means.

Emotional Conveyance

The study of channel selection is not new to communication scholars. Research

on technologies within the field dates back to the invention and development of writing

(Baym, 2009). Often associated with channel selection are the selectors, that is, the

encoder and the decoder. Within this topic, focus is often placed at the receiving, or

decoding end, of the interaction. Less focus has been placed on the encoder’s perceptions

of their own communication.

The ability to convey emotion through media has been studied by communication

scholars throughout history. More recently, research has focused on what specifically

contributes to success in emotional conveyance. Schwartz and Pell (2012) studied the

combination of prosody and semantics’ on mediated communication. Prosody refers to

intonation, rhythm, and stress of a spoken message, and semantics refers to word choice.

They found that emotions were best communicated when both prosody and semantics

were present and in agreement. Schwartz and Pell’s findings do not explain why channels

that have developed and become widely popularized do not involve prosody, i.e. email

and texting.

According to Ickes and Wen (2011), thoughts and feelings are two different

things. In their research Ickes and Wen reasoned that there was a significant difference

between what people felt and what people presented as their thoughts. The proposed

research will seek to discover whether or not college aged students feel that their thoughts

and feelings alike are conveyed adequately, and if emotional congruence between thought

5


and feeling is present, which method of communication--telephone, email, text

messaging, or text messaging with emoticons--is most successful for the encoder.

Telephones

In order to gain a proper perspective of telephone use at the time when it was the

primary channel of mediated communication, some of the literature reviewed dates back

to the mid-20th century. The incorporation of the telephone into the average American

home brought with it a shift in socialization processes. According to Lansing and Heyns

(1959), the need for affiliation in interpersonal relationships correlated with local

telephone use, as does the use of the telephone for social calls. The authors also found

that the telephone was often chosen as a means of social communication in local

relationships. There is a significant lack of research, however, on how successful

telephone users felt their communication was at the time of the telephone’s initial

popularization in the United States.

The relationship between telephone and F2F communication is an area well

researched by communication scholars. Communication via telephone is the most similar

of the three methods to be explored in this study (telephone, email, SMS) when compared

to F2F communication. This increased similarity stems from the maintenance of vocal

communication in telephone conversation, which is lost in the asynchronous text-based

channels of email and SMS. Through the telephone, the sender is able to utilize vocal

inflection which can in turn be recognized by the receiver. This connects back to

Schwartz and Pell’s (2012) study on the effects of prosody, an element present in

channels that utilize vocal communication. Assuming that F2F communication is the best

6


way to convey emotions (Van Cleemput, 2010), one would assume that emotional

conveyance using telephones would not deviate far from that of F2F communication.

According to Sun, Hullman, and Wang, telephone calls and F2F communication

call for a higher level of interaction between participants than channels such as email or

SMS (2010). This high level of interaction found in synchronous communication

channels mimics that of F2F communication, although missing the visual cues associated

with F2F. D’Urso and Rains (2008) found that, compared to other media, telephones

were perceived as having a higher level of “personalness,” which they further defined as

“the extent to which a medium is warm, sociable, and sensitive…” (p. 495). Based on

D’Urso and Rains findings, this aspect of communication in conjunction with the

relationship between the communicators may have an effect on which channel of

communication is used.

Epley and Kruger (2005) found in their study that telephone communication was a

more effective channel in dispelling stereotypes and expectancies when compared to

email, due to a lower level of ambiguity in vocal communication. Although this study

again reveals some reasoning behind why one medium may be chosen over another, it

does not reveal how the sender’s emotional intentions affect their channel selection.

Email

In F2F communication, and to some extent in telephone calls, the receiver can

rely on many verbal and nonverbal cues, such as vocal inflection and tone, facial

expression, and body language. Basso and Oullier (2010) created a communication

model that ultimately defines the general process through which a communication

receiver attributes meaning to a smile including eye contact, mimicry, and the induction

7


of specific brain states. In email, these certain cues are not present. Due to the lack of

cues, message encoders must focus and pinpoint exactly what they are trying to get

across to their audience. The research to be conducted seeks to distinguish how

successful each method of communication has been in conveying emotions, from the

viewpoint of the encoder, and whether society has maintained, adjusted, or created

methods of communicating effectively.

Email is the first of this study’s selected channels to rely solely on text-based

communication. This is known as computer mediated communication (CMC) (Kalman,

Ravid, Raban, & Rafaeli, 2006). There is much debate as to whether this form of

communication is more or less effective in communicating emotions. Some argue that

people who employ CMC must make use of what they have in order to overcome the loss

of nonverbal cues (Walther, 1996). Through this reasoning communicators must

strategically use textual cues. Walther claims with the assistance of textual cues, “CMC

users can achieve relatively normal interpersonal impression or even construct impression

more favorably than they might in Face to Face interaction” (p. 365). Other language

cues can evoke a variety of personality impressions online, including extraversion (Gill &

Oberlander, 2003), power and status (Adkins & Brashers, 1995; Selfe & Meyer 1991)

and sarcasm and irony (Hancock, 2004). Kalman, Ravid, Raban, and Rafaeli (2006)

established that there was a norms-based idea that online silence is a nonverbal

chronemic cue that enhances CMC. This research amply supports that email- based

communication can be effective in creating new nonverbal cues in order to successfully

relay a message.

8


Being that an immediate response in this communication method is neither

necessary nor expected, the encoder of a message can specifically decide upon a concise

message that fully conveys their emotions. In their research, Ickes and Wen (2011)

reasoned that there is a significant difference between what people feel and what people

portray as their thoughts. Although email might give the encoder ample time to respond

adequately, it may not allow the encoder to fully express what they are feeling

emotionally. As previously referenced, Epley and Kruger (2005) found that without vocal

cues, communicators had a more difficult time detecting discrepancies in messages. This

doubt regarding the honesty of CMC interactions may influence how communicators feel

towards the efficiency of these channels in conveying emotions.

Although CMC, and more specifically email, seems to satisfy most needs of the

communicator, it has not been proven to give the same levels of satisfaction as F2F.

Previous research (Kato, Kato, & Akahori, 2007) has revealed a tendency of unpleasant

emotions to appear. Kato et al. argue that these unpleasant emotions are more likely to

occur when low levels of emotional cues are transmitted. The research of Kato et al. also

supports that low degrees of emotional cues can and do lead to misunderstandings. The

planned study seeks to discover whether emails enable better emotional display when

compared to the more dated telephone calls, or the more recent development of text

messages.

SMS/Text Message

The introduction of mobile cellular devices into mainstream society was

accompanied by the invention of the short message service (SMS), known more

commonly as text messaging or texting. Although introduced to the public in 1995,

9


society did not begin to utilize text messaging at an explosive rate until 1999 (Katz,

2002). The introduction of text messaging only three years after the invention of the

internet, and email, may be a possible reason for the delay between texting’s

introduction to society and its adoption into popular use. The implementation of

texting marks a continuance in the text-only method of communication seen in

email, but the differences between the channels may present communicators with

different emotional conveyance factors.

The transition from email to texting is marked by the use of shorter messages, and

a shorter anticipated response time. In addition, email may be reserved for more formal

interactions, such as those between acquaintances or regarding business/educational

matters (Sun et al., 2010). In another study, Kwon, Kim, and Kim (2013) found that

individuals in high-intensity relationships receiving low-intensity texts rated their

emotional experiences as negative. Their findings suggest that not only the relationship

but the content of the message affect the emotional experience associated with the

interaction. However, their study focuses on the receiver of the text, rather than the

sender. The proposed study will seek to fill this gap by gathering information from the

encoding end of communication interactions.

Emoticons and SMS

The emoticon presents another aspect of CMC that did not immediately gain wide

usage. Introduced by a Carnegie Mellon student in 1982, the original emoticon consisted

of combinations of punctuation marks or strings of characters resembling facial

expressions, “:-(” or “:-)”, for example (Ganster, Eimler, & Krämer, 2012; Krohn, 2004).

Emoticons have since diversified, and now also include smilies (graphical pictograms),

10


displaying miniature images of anything from a heart to a palm tree to a sack of money

(Ganster, et al., 2012). The use of emoticons has gained popularity with the increasing

use of mobile phones, and applications created specifically to enhance the emoticon

experience have appeared on smartphones. According to a recent study, roughly 66% of

Americans aged 18-29 own smartphones, which could point to the increasingly popular

use of emoticons and smilies (Rainie, 2012). The implementation of emoticons may make

up for the shortcomings in non-F2F communication, in that it allows emotional

conveyance through representations of facial expression.

Although the use of emoticons originated in a Carnegie Mellon University

message post, these symbols have infiltrated CMC in email, SMS, instant messaging, and

social media outlets (Krohn, 2004). The continued and increasing use of emoticons

suggests that users find the symbols effective in communicating. Ganster, et al. (2012)

point out that smilies and emoticons can serve as substitutes for the missing emotion

conveyed through nonverbal cues in F2F and some telephone communication. The

researchers further assert that smilies and emoticons can reduce ambiguity in

communication by clarifying the tone associated with the message. Pena-Sanchez also

points out that emoticons serve the purpose of specifically conveying humor or sarcasm,

which are easily lost in text-only communication channels (2008).

The literature reviewed reveals gaps in the study of channel selection and its

relationship to emotional conveyance on the part of the encoder. Research clearly

demonstrates that face-to-face communication provides the encoder with the widest

variety of tools to communicate their emotions, such as prosody and body language,

which are limited or nonexistent in mediated communication. It is still unclear how these

11


mediated communication developments have affected the encoder’s ability to properly

communicate their emotions, or if the chronological development of these channels is

connected to the effectiveness of emotional expression. This study seeks to fill in these

gaps by clarifying what the relationship is between these variables.

RQ1: Is there a relationship between newly developed mediated communication

(telephone, email, SMS/text messages, and SMS/text messages with emoticons) and the

encoder’s reported success of emotional conveyance?

Methods

The goal of this study is to determine which communication channel conveys

emotions best when factored in with specific relationships. After being approved by

James Madison University’s Institutional Review Board, the study will be conducted in

the form of a survey.

Participants

After IRB approval, participants will be taken from a stratified random sample

of James Madison University undergraduate students, and invited to partake in an online

survey for the study. We will use stratified random sample in order to obtain equal

numbers of participants from each grade level. According to the James Madison

University 2012 census, the ethnicity breakdown of the population can be described as

80.85% Caucasian, 4.20% Asians, 4.03% Hispanic, 3.98% African American, .28%

Pacific Islander and .15% American Indian/Alaska Native (James Madison University,

2013). We will assume that the population breakdown for the 2013-year will have

minimal variation. The age range will likely be from 18-24 years old (SD= 2.449). The

12

Lab Patron, 09/30/13,

Should we change this?


perceived gender breakdown will be 60% female and 40% male (James Madison

University, 2013).

An email will be produced and sent out to the entire undergraduate population at

James Madison University though the email database and from there, we will randomly

select 350 participants. Willing participants will be contributing in an online survey that

will ask for feedback regarding the use of mediated communication channels in

congruence with emotional conveyance. The online survey will include a short

questionnaire in the beginning asking questions about gender, ethnicity, age, and class

year.

Procedure

The independent variable of interest will be the selected mediated communication

channels. These include telephone, email, text messaging without emoticons, and text

messaging with emoticons. Participants will respond to a questionnaire regarding their

use of these mediated channels and which one they would prefer to achieve

communicating their desired emotion. One intervening factor that will play a role in this

independent variable will be the relationship status between the encoder (person that

sends the message) and decoder (person that receives the message). There will be four

distinct relationship types described within the survey: family, friends, professional, and

romantic.

The dependent variable of interest will be the success of the emotional

conveyance from the perspective of the encoder. Participants will indicate the success

they believe they have achieved depending on the relationship status for each of the

mediated communication channels discussed through a 5-point Likert- type scale (see

13


Appendix A). This survey was not adapted from any previous research and was solely

developed by the researchers of the proposed study.

The online survey will be designed using the Qualtrics software. The survey will

consist of basic demographic questions: age, gender, class, and ethnicity. The part of the

survey that will be directed towards the research question will comprise of a 5-point

Likert-type scale including nine questions. The same nine questions will be repeated for

each of the four mediated communication channels to understand how people perceive

these channels in regards to emotional conveyance. The final set of questions will directly

ask the participant which channel would be best when communicating with each of the

four relationship types.

Analysis

The data from the study will first be processed and calculated to gather

descriptive statistics, and from there will be analyzed using analysis of variance

(ANOVA) to determine any significant differences between the groups. The ANOVA test

will be used to predict the dependent variable of emotional conveyance from a number of

independent variables, which would be the mediated communication channels. Multiple

forms of data analysis will be used due to the difference in response measurement scales.

Along with the ANOVA test, Cronbach’s alpha will be used to analyze how closely

related the emotional conveyance is to the multiple mediated channels of communication

as a group.

Validity and Reliability

Previously mentioned in the participant section, error will be reduced first by

selecting a sampling size of at least 350 or more participants to assure that there is less

14


than 10% error in representativeness of population, which is about 20,000 students

(James Madison University, 2012). The measurements reliability will be tested using

Cronbach’s alpha.

15


References

Adkins, M., & Brashers, D. (1995). The power of language in computer mediated groups.

Management Communiation Quaterly, 8, 289-322.

Basso, F., & Oullier, O. (2010). “Smile down the phone”: Extending the effects of smiles

to vocal social interactions. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 33(6), 435-436.

doi:10.1017/S0140525X10001469

Baym, N. K. (2009). A call for grounding in the face of blurred boundaries. Journal of

Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(3), 720-723. doi:10.1111/j.1083-

6101.2009.01461.x

Cortese, J. (2004). New vs. traditional communication channels: How we relate to each

other. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1.

D'Urso, S. C., & Rains, S. A. (2008). Examining the scope of channel expansion: A test

of channel expansion theory with new and traditional communication media.

Management Communication Quarterly, 21(4), 486-507.

Epley, N., & Kruger, J. (2005). What you type isn’t what they read: The perseverance of

stereotypes and expectancies over email. Journal of Experimental Social

Psychology, 41, 414–422.

Ganster, T., Eimler, S. C., & Krämer, N. C. (2012). Same same but different!? The

differential influence of smilies and emoticons on person perception.

Cyberpsychology, Behavior & Social Networking, 15(4), 226-230.

doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0179

16


Gill, A.J., & Oberlander, J. (2003). Perception of email personality at zero acquaintance:

Extraversion takes care of itself; Neuroticism is a worry. In R. Alterman & D.

Kirsch (Eds.), Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the Cognitive

Science Society (pp. 456-461). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Hancock, J.T. (2004). Verbal irony use in computer-mediated and face-to-face

conversations. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 23, 447-463.

Ickes, W., & Wen, C. (2011). How do thoughts differ from feelings? Putting the

differences into words. Language & Cognitive Processes, 26(1), 1-23.

doi:10.1080/01690961003603046

James Madison University Office of Institutional Research. (2013). James Madison

University statistical summary 2013-2014 [Data file]. Retrieved from

http://www.jmu.edu/_images/news/2013-july-factsheet.pdf

Kalman, Y. M., Ravid, G., Raban, D. R., & Rafaeli, S. (2006). Pauses and response

latencies: A chronemic analysis of asynchronous CMC. Journal of Computer-

Mediated Communication, 12(1). Retrieved January 31, 2010, from http://jcmc.

indiana.edu/vol12/issue1/kalman.html

Kalman, Y. M., & Rafaeli, S. (2011). Online pauses and silence: Chronemic expectancy

violations in written computer-mediated communication. Communication

Research, 38(1), 54-69. doi:10.1177/0093650210378229

Kato, Y., Kato, S., & Akahori, K. (2007). Effects of emotional cues transmitted in e-mail

communication on the emotions experienced by senders and receivers. Computers

in Human Behavior, 23(4), 1894-1905. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2005.11.005

17


Krohn, F. B. (2004). A generational approach to using emoticons as nonverbal

communication. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 34(4), 321-

328

Kwon, O., Kim, C., & Kim, G. (2013). Factors affecting the intensity of emotional

expressions in mobile communications. Online Information Review, 37(1), 114-

131. doi:10.1108/14684521311311667

Reid, F. M., & Reid, D. J. (2010). The expressive and conversational affordances of

mobile messaging. Behaviour & Information Technology, 29(1), 3-22.

doi:10.1080/01449290701497079

Rogers, E. M., & Allbritton, M. M. (1995). Interaction communication technologies in

business organizations. The Journal of Business Communications, 32(2), 177-195.

Schwartz, R., & Pell, M. (2012). Emotional speech processing at the intersection of

prosody and semantics. Plos One, 7(10), e47279.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0047279

Selfe, C.L., & Meyer, P.R. (1991). Testing claims for on-line conferences. Written

Communication, 8, 163-192.

Sun, S., Hullman, G., & Wang, Y. (2010). Communicating in the multichannel age:

Interpersonal communication motivation, interaction involvement, and channel

affinity. Conference Papers -- International Communication Association, 1.

Van Cleemput, K. (2010). "I'll See You on IM, Text, or Call You": A social network

approach of adolescents' use of communication media. Bulletin of Science,

Technology & Society, 30(2), 75-85. doi:10.1177/0270467610363143

18


Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal,

and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23(1), 3-43.

Walther, J. B., Deandrea, D. C., & Tong, S. (2010). Computer-mediated communication

versus vocal communication and the attenuation of pre-interaction impressions.

Media Psychology, 13(4), 364-386. doi:10.1080/15213269.2010.524913

Wilding, R. (2006). ‘Virtual’ intimacies? Families communicating across transnational

contexts. Global Networks, 6(2), 125-142. doi:10.1111/j.1471-0374.2006.00137.x

19


Appendix A

20

Channel Selection and Emotional Conveyance 21

amylynnmccallister.weebly.com€¦ · web viewcommunication channel options have significantly...

Documents