ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on channel navigation in interpersonal communication contexts: individuals' use of multiple communication channels to maintain their relationships and the relational implications of such use. It first explicates why it is important for researchers to undertake a holistic view of interactions by considering multiple platforms—not just the subset of interactions that occur on one specific channel—when studying interpersonal interactions in online contexts. The chapter argues that widening the scope of considered channels will provide researchers with a more comprehensive understanding of interpersonal communication in contemporary media environments. This understanding may offer opportunities to revisit existing theories of computer-mediated communication (CMC), specifically around relationship maintenance and technology use. The chapter then identifies salient factors that may influence which channel people gravitate toward or avoid in their navigation and synthesize them in a preliminary framework of channel navigation. Finally, as a way of prompting intellectual engagement with this topic, it describes three research areas that future scholarship could address.
