Issue Salience and its Impact on Opinion Expression in Computer-Mediated Group Work

Abstract

Research shows that individuals with high levels of communication apprehension (CA) benefit from the less threatening social environment of computer-mediated communication (Campbell & Neer, 2001), but are less willing to express their opinion than those with low levels of CA (McCroskey, 2009). However, less is known about how the salience of an issue may mediate the relationship between communication apprehension and opinion expression. The purpose of this study was to determine whether group project salience mediates the relationship between CA and opinion expression in computer-mediated group work.