Revisiting Media Multiplexity: A Longitudinal Analysis of Media Use in Romantic Relationships

Samuel Hardman Taylor · Natalya N. Bazarova

55 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Communication

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Attachment and Relationship Dynamics Media and Digital Communication Digital Communication and Language

Abstract

This study investigates how people use multiple media in their romantic relationships, as well as the effects of using multiple media on relational closeness. Revisiting media multiplexity theory, we proposed multimedia frequency, multimedia disclosure, multimedia frequency variability, and multimedia disclosure variability as types of media multiplexity that vary as a function of relational closeness and geographic distance. A six-week longitudinal study tracked 151 college students’ communications across media with their romantic partners. Results suggest that relational closeness is independently associated with each type of media multiplexity. Geographic distance moderated this relationship, such that geographically-close couples engaged in more multimedia frequency than long-distance couples, but the inverse was found for multimedia disclosure. Lagged analysis suggested a curvilinear relationship between multimedia disclosure and relational closeness in the following week. Results advance knowledge about how people integrate multiple media into their relationships and the effects of communication technologies on romantic intimacy.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 55 citations exist upstream.

References

1973The Strength of Weak Ties 1998Intimacy as an interpersonal process: The importance of self-disclosure, partner disclosure, and perceived partner responsiveness in interpersonal exchanges.2017A Large-Scale Test of the Goldilocks Hypothesis 2014Self-Disclosure in Social Media: Extending the Functional Approach to Disclosure Motivations and Characteristics on Social Network Sites 2004Complementarity in Consumption of News Types Across Traditional and New Media 1998Work, friendship, and media use for information exchange in a networked organization 2008New Tech, New Ties 2010Attitudes Toward Online Social Connection and Self-Disclosure as Predictors of Facebook Communication and Relational Closeness

Cited by

2019Political Consequences of the Endangered Local Watchdog: Newspaper Decline and Mayoral Elections in the United States 2021Long-distance texting: Text messaging is linked with higher relationship satisfaction in long-distance relationships 2021Distress Disclosure across Social Media Platforms during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Untangling the Effects of Platforms, Affordances, and Audiences 2020The multimodal nature of Snapchat in close relationships: Toward a social presence-based theoretical framework

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.