Media Choice in the Digital Era: A Replication Study using Digital Traces

In recent years, the use of communication and collabo-ration media tools has increased manifold due to a rise in spatially distributed work. Which media tools individuals choose for their communication activities has been a research question of lasting interest. Established research focused on traditional media, for example, face-to-face, phone, or email. Moving the focus from traditional media towards digital tools requires rethinking previ-ous findings. It is unclear whether the factors influencing digital tools’ choice changed or stayed the same. This paper replicates if the traditional hypothesized relationships and constructs of me-dia choice still hold in the digital era. In response to a surge in interest, digital traces—activity logs from routine technology use—are analyzed for conceptual replication. The conceptual replication revises the boundary conditions of established media choice theory and shows that the supervisor remains a positive influence, whereas physical location becomes negligible, and the coworkers’ influence is inconclusive.