電子郵件與電話使用情形之比：從媒介適切性談起
The Comparison of the Usages of Electronic Mail & Telephone--- From the Viewpoint of Media Appropriateness Theory

高華琦
Kao, Hua-chi

媒介適切性理論是Rice綜合媒介豐富性與媒介社會臨場感兩個理論，針對溝通媒介在組織工作中所能提供的服務所發展出來的量表，用來預測選用不同媒介的情境。該理論說明：從媒介豐富性的標準來看，電子郵件是屬於相當貧乏的媒介(Lean media)，而電話因為能提供較多人際直接溝通的特質，所以是豐富媒介(Rich media)﹔若從社會臨場感理論來看，電子郵件比較不能提供社會臨場感，也就比較不能讓溝通雙方感受到彼此。結合以上兩理論，Rice提出﹕越豐富的媒介、越能提供社會臨場感的媒介，就越適用於複雜的工作任務情境，如此才越能釐清工作疑慮，有助於早日完成工作任務。如今吾人希望針對電話與電子郵件在私人人際溝通時的適用狀況做一印證，以為越豐富的媒介、越能提供社會臨場感的媒介仍越有助於人際間較複雜事物之處理。

本研究採問卷調查法(questionnaire survey)，以交大與台大學生為對象，依方便抽樣(Convenience sampling)的方式，調查大學生選用電話與電子郵件的情況，共計發出250份問卷，回收213份，回收率達85.2%，其中男性佔53.1%，女性佔46.9%。問卷主要分為(1)受訪者基本資料、(2)使用電子郵件/電話的對象、(3)使用電子郵件/電話的目的與內容、(4)受訪者所感知的電子郵件/電話社會臨場感、(5)受訪者所感知的電子郵件/電話媒介豐富性等五大項，以立克式量表(Likert ’s Scale)方式問答。

研究結果非但驗證了電子郵件與電話的社會臨場感及媒介豐富性不同，更檢驗出人們會因媒介使用特質、溝通情境（包含溝通對象、內容與目的）而選用不同的媒介，證實了Rice所提出的媒介適切性理論。大體而言，受訪者認為電話比電子郵件更適用於溝通複雜度高、需要雙方立即互動的事物；而溝通對象的關係若越親近，也就越傾向於使用電話來溝通。

The media appropriateness theory states that people choose certain medium according to how appropriate this medium is able to achieve their goals. Based on this theory, this study postulated that people used electronic mail(e-mail) and telephone for different purposes. More specifically, this study predicted that the choice of the appropriate medium would be affected by three variables, (1)the usage characteristics of the media; (2)the context in which the media were chosen; (3)the richness and social presence levels of the media.

250 questionnaires were distributed to the students in the universities in Taiwan, and 212 valid pieces were returned to the researcher. The results have proved the differences of the richness and of social presence levels between telephone and e-mail. In general, this study found that respondents used telephone rather than e-mail to discuss complicated issues and with people of closer, intimate relationships, since they believe telephone is more suitable than e-mail for the communications which need immediate feedbacks.

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電子郵件與電話使用情形之比：從媒介適切性談起.pdf