earticle

영어

Diversity of available communication media has increased as the use of Internet and mobile technology increased rapidly. The traditional media tend to transform their roles and functionality. This change brings about the expansion of the span of media to be selected by users. In this study, we examined the characteristics of emerging communication media use based on Niche Theory. Online communication media in this study include Internet messenger, mobile phone, and e-mail. We also analyzed the relationship between the nature of task and the selection of communication media, that is, the effects of communication contexts(formal vs. informal, notification vs. request, superior vs. inferior) where by the communication partners are involved. The result of this study, mobile phone had the highest niche competitive superiority in all communication contexts, and internet messenger and e-mail made difference according to communication contexts. Also, we can notify internet messenger and e-mail have a mutual substitutive relationship by analysis of niche overlap.