Hey everyone,
Today Michael and I will be presenting on media fandom and special interest communities. As Liz discussed yesterday, and what we will cover today, online communities enable people from all over the world to get together and create real connections through their interests and passions.
Michael will be discussing his involvement in film forums and I will be discussing my involvement in male style and fashion forums. Obviously, these are specific subject areas. I would like to ask, in your experience, do you think online communities are open to newcomers or very closed off? What do you think that this is a reflection of communities in the real world?
That's a great question Andrew! I think their are communities that are both private and public. For instance when I was looking for social networking sites, I noticed that for some you had to be a certain race, from a certain country, hold certain beliefs, or be above/below a certain age. I experimented by joining a community for British teens and right away I didn't understand their inside jokes or places they were talking about. I think communities like that are bringing people together for a common good. However, public communities are cool because you get a lot of different viewpoints and free expression. Take facebook for example...with all the Scott Walker talk going around it has served as a public forum for debate and has exhibited sub communities too for certain groups. I think the real world is a reflection of this but in the real world it is harder to become aware of certain communities. Online access makes it much easier for people to be apart of several communities tailored to their interests.
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