IT innovations generally possess such specific characteristics as complexity, low degree of observability, and uncertainty about their expected consequences that form knowledge barrier to the diffusion of IT innovations. The practitioners have widely used mass media to disseminate IT knowledge so that imperfect information market could be complemented.

This study was to identify the cognitive effects of mass media, the persuasive effects of the testimonial to IT innovations by a person in screen advertising, and the factors mediating the persuasive effects, particularly group communication network, on the diffusion of IT innovations. Results from eleven task groups and one friendship group in Singapore and China indicated that mass media were the primary information sources of IT innovations for both awareness and how-to knowledge and that the testimonial to IT innovations in screen advertising had persuasive effects on audiences. However, the association between audiences' centrality and the persuasive effect of the testimonial to IT innovations in screen advertising was not statistically significant.