Media Equation Theory
Kwan Min Lee · The International Encyclopedia of Communication · 2008
The term “media equation” means that → Media equal real life. It implies that people (→ Audience) process technology‐mediated experiences in the same way as they would do nonmediated experiences, because an “individual's interactions with computers, television, and new media are fundamentally social and natural, just like interaction in real life” (Reeves & Nass 1996, 5). In 1996, Reeves and Nass first introduced this theory, and carefully summarized their previous media equation studies in the seminal bookThe media equation. Since the publication of this book, Nass, Reeves, and their colleagues have expanded the domain of the theory from traditional communication settings to radically different areas, from e‐commerce to human–robot interaction.