The Media Equation

Reeves and Nass have written a book on how humans interact with computers and other media:

The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places

Their equation "media = real life" means that people respond to the mediated world and the real world in the same fundamentally social and natural way. The authors explain that since the human brain has not evolved to respond to 20th-century technology it processes media as if they were real life.

To prove their equation, the authors combed through existing social science and psychology experiments that tested person-to-person responses in social interactions but changed the experiments to test person-to-computer interaction. In all cases, the results supported the media equation, demonstrating that people interact with media just as they interact with other humans.

In their conclusion, they call on engineers to heed this media equation and improve the design of computers for more effective human-to-media interaction.

In his blog, Donald Clark says that people confusing media with real life is actually a "highly useful confusion: it is what makes movies, television, radio, the web and e-learning work."

He highlights the following guidelines:

• Media equals real life
• There is no reason why online learning experiences should be any less compelling - any less 'human' in feel - than what we experience in the classroom. As long as a media technology is consistent with social and physical rules, we will accept it.
• Don't break the spell
• The spell is easily broken. If the media technology fails to conform to our human expectations - we will NOT accept it.
• Scrap learning objectives
• There is a strong argument for emotional engagement at the start of an e-learning programme and not the usual list of objectives.
• Awkward pauses
• Slight pauses, waits and unexpected events cause disturbance. Audio-video asynchrony, such as poor lip-synch or jerky low frame-rate video, will result in negative evaluations of the speaker.
• Experts matter
• With experts, respected and authoritative views can not only bring credibility to the programme, they can also increase learning and retention. A key subject matter expert, or someone with strong practical experience in the area, can be used to anchor the theory and practice.
• Quality of video no big deal
• Interestingly, they could detect no difference between those who viewed low as opposed to high fidelity images. So don’t waste your money on broadcast quality video.
• Big screens are good
• Larger wide screen format monitors have more impact than quality of image.
• Quality of audio matters
• Users are more sensitive to the quality of audio than they are to that of video. Learners expect consistently high quality at a consistent volume. Record good quality audio.
• Politeness matters
• Politeness is hardwired into our systems. People are polite to computers and expect them to be polite to them. People also respond to flattery from computers, and are hurt if they get negative feedback that is too harsh.