Do mediated contexts differ in information richness? A comparison of collocated and dispersed meetings

Examines the question of whether or not media differ in the perceptions they generate among users with respect to social presence, communication effectiveness and the communication interface. The study observes these factors over a four-session period among 33 groups performing a collaborative writing task. Groups were assigned to one of three treatments: face-to-face, distributed synchronous and distributed asynchronous. No significant differences were observed between distributed and face-to-face conditions in their patterns of change over time. Results do indicate, however, that mediated contexts differed in terms of perceived social presence, communication effectiveness and the communication interface, when considered on a session-by-session basis.