Imagined community and death

Author: Saarinen L.

Source: Digital Creativity, Volume 13, Number 1, March 2002 , pp. 53-61(9)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This paper addresses the limits of net discourse in virtual communities. I will analyse incidents of death that shattered the 'rhetorical vision' of one particular virtual community, Xena: Warrior Palace . The observations will trace some characteristics of the community's vision of itself, how vulnerable that vision can be and how it can be maintained or revised after some unexpected occurrence shatters it. I argue that even though the rhetorical vision of virtual community can be imagined, it has to stay in touch with the 'real world' in order to have real influence on constructed online culture.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1076/digc.13.1.53.3212

Publication date: 2002-03-01