The advantages of oral channels of communication are that they:
- are fast - useful for obtaining very recent unpublished information
- are based on two-way communication and therefore promote an understanding of the real information need(s) and the communication of relevant information
- are flexible
- simplify and facilitate the transmission of information between people working in different subject areas (useful in interdisciplinary studies)
- are easy and pleasant to use
The disadvantages of oral channels of communication are that they:
- are not open to everyone - established researchers have access to good networks of contacts, but these usually take time to cultivate
- can lead to misconceptions because the information is sometimes incomplete (lack of detail etc.)
- are difficult to maintain and therefore unstable
- it can also lead to mis belief,as oral promises do not lend any where
- as a human nature one can make mistake in spelling something different which can sometimes leads to major mistake
