The Six Key Dimensions of Understanding Media

Regularly I visit our wonderful company library and scan some of the new magazines we subscribe to. One of my favorites is MIT Sloan Management Review. In the Winter 2008 issue I bumped into an article with the interesting title: "The Six Key Dimensions of Understanding Media" by JoAnne Yates, Wanda J. Orlikowki and Anne Jackson. I read it and reread it. I like the idea of the article. Basically it describes a model, the Genre model, to help evaluate how new communication technology is used and fits in the organization.

However, after reading it, I had this strange feeling I wasn't getting the point of the article. The article says to evaluate e.g. the use of blogs by answering the why, what, who, where, when, how, context question. Ok, that's clear. But this is logical, right? Before you start using a new tool, think first. (I know most companies don't do this.) And yes, using this model shifts in tool use over the years can become clear too. But is that 'all' to this model or am I missing something? I thought I'd post this hear so hopefully you and/or the authors can help.

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