The Impacts of Involuntary Cues on Media Effects

In studies of media effects, differences in results are predicted based on the rationale that different media have differential ability to transmit nonverbal communication. We suggest that while this rationale has validity, it is not complete, and that several other factors must be present before media effects will be observed. In this article, we argue that the situational characteristics of technology, the voluntariness of communication, sender ability to encode messages, listener ability to decode messages, and the inherent characteristics of technology are relevant to the detection of media effects. More importantly, the penetrating role of involuntary cues in the processes involved is a key concept of this article. Coupling this key concept with the factors outlined, seven propositions are formulated.