Text Messages: A potentially rich medium in distributed organisations

This article argues that SMS (or text messaging), a type of computer-mediated communication (CMC), can be regarded as a rich medium in distributed organisations. Theories such as media richness and social presence regard any CMC as a lean medium. However, as a result of technological advancements, these classic communication theories have become outdated. This article uses four other theories to argue against these traditional theories and suggest that organisational communicators need to consider text messaging as a rich medium in many circumstances. Social presence theory, social influence theory, social identity de-individuation theory, and the social information processing model consider additional factors such as context, time, management support, individual user attributes, and the task at hand, in assessing media richness. This article discusses further review of management support, the equivocality of the task, and the ability of SMS to aid egalitarian participation within an organisation, concluding that SMS does not replace face-to-face communication, but can be used with other traditional and non-traditional mediums within a distributed working context.