Firepups at the Lake: Ties that Bind Until They Don’t

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Author(s): Dona J. Hickey (University of Richmond, USA)
Copyright: 2014
Pages: 13
Source title: Identity and Leadership in Virtual Communities: Establishing Credibility and Influence
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Dona J. Hickey (University of Richmond, USA)and Joe Essid (University of Richmond, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-5150-0.ch012

Keywords: Information Science Reference / Media & Communications / Social Computing / Virtual Communities & Virtual Reality

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Abstract

This chapter examines how a social community was created and developed on a left-leaning political blog, Firedoglake; in particular, it explores how readers, as commenters, engaged each other, establishing credibility, or rhetorically speaking, acquiring and enhancing their ethos and attaining the status of a respected member of the blog’s community. All excerpted threads include pseudonyms or screen names of users and all material from the designated blogs is, of course, in the public domain. In part 2, the chapter describes how the character of the blog itself, Firedoglake, changed over time as it grew to include an increasing number of front-page posters, became generally identified as hypercritical of the Obama administration, and became an umbrella site for smaller blogs under its banner. The discussion in both parts explores identity creation and the question of community in computer-mediated communication.

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Firepups at the Lake: Ties that Bind Until They Don’t

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