A behavioral perspective on media selection

Abstract

This paper indulges a long-standing urge to present a behavioral, response-oriented view of media selection to a media audience which, in the main, is messageor stimulus-oriented. The paper begins with a description of some of the shortcomings to be found in literature on media selection, then goes on to offer a behavioral orientation to media selection. Although it represents a personal statement, the paper shares some of the views held by other practitioners and researchers in the field of instructional design. Because the purpose of this paper is not to review the literature but to present a particular point of view, other accounts of either the stimulus-oriented or the response-oriented variety are not referenced. Some of the behavioral views presented have appeared previously in partial form and in separate publications (Gropper & Glasgow, 1971; Gropper 1973, 1974, and 1975). This paper is an attempt to bring them together.