Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 124
Migration can erase the weak ties
Strong ties tend to span more media while weak but important ties often rely on shared infrastructure
Premise
A platform migration does not affect every relationship equally. Close collaborators often communicate through meetings, email, messaging, documents, calls, and informal conversation. Peripheral contacts may exist through only one shared system. Media Multiplexity Theory connects the strength of a social tie with the number of media the pair uses.
Caroline Haythornthwaite developed the theory from social-network studies of work, friendship, and distance learning. Its core insight is relational rather than technological: stronger ties tend to use more of the available media, while weak or latent ties depend more heavily on common access points. The theory does not rank channels or claim that adding platforms creates closeness.
What the model is: Media Multiplexity Theory in Knowledge →
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What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.