According to Rice & Webster (2002), ["research and models of the adoption, diffusion, and use of new communication media in organizational settings have arisen from several research streams -- diffusion of innovations, media choice, and implementation of information systems." According to the previous writer of this Wikibook,] we can classify diffusion research and models into three categories: (1) diffusion of innovations (e.g., Rogers, 1995), (2) media choice (e.g., Daft & Lengel, 1986), and (3) implementation of information systems (e.g., Saga & Zmud, 1994). [Unfortunately, one cannot generalize all diffusion research and models with an explanation of diffusion of new communication media.] Table 11 shows that each dependent variable, according to three primary streams of diffusion studies.
That is, the ‘diffusion of innovations’ studies emphasize characteristics of an innovation and the role of communication channels in adopting the innovation, the ‘media choice’ studies focus on the interaction between individual characteristics and social influences in choosing some innovations, and the ‘implementation’ studies assume that the variables such as technology design or ease of use will affect media use (Rice & Webster, 2002, p.192).
The diffusion tradition has classified people, in terms of demographics, in explaining the variables that influence the adoption of an innovation. For that reason, some scholars often criticize
that this theory may not provide a causal explanation of why and how people adopt certain technologies. Nevertheless, when it comes to the use and choice of old and new media, diffusion theory
will be suited for explaining why some people prefer to use the old media or new media, because this theory provides some conceptual guidance for understanding the adoption of some technologies
or innovations. According to evolution of media technology, interpersonal influences or channels are important even though in the past the individual is usually the unit of analysis. Also,
critical mass becomes an important factor in adopting new media because new media are interactive tools and thus are required to many users for getting efficiency. That is, the more people use,
the more people get benefits. Markus (1987) proposed that the value of an interactive communication medium is associated with the number of other users. For example, in the case of the mp3, a
social influence such as peer pressure that interacts with young generation needs to be cool or to gain status drives young people to adopt the mp3 as an innovation. Besides, when it comes to
the emergence of interactive communication such as the new communication technologies, Rogers (1996) mentioned, a critical mass occurs when the diffusion process becomes
self-sustaining. After the critical mass point, individuals in a system perceive that “everybody else” has adopted the interactive innovation. With each successive adopter of an interactive
innovation, the new idea becomes more valuable not only for each future adopter, but also for each previous adopter
(p. 418-419). When it comes to the future of diffusion theory, we expect
that the popularity of diffusion research will increase because as in recent years, new communication technologies have increased and proliferated.
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