Week 4: Key Points from: ‘Blogs as Virtual Communities: Identifying a Sense of Community’ Pt 1

These key points are taken from, Anita Blanchard (2004) ‘Blogs as Virtual Communities: Identifying a Sense of Community’. This can be found at the web address below.

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogs_as_virtual.html

Virtual Community- Should blogs be considered as virtual communities too?

The importance of virtual communities

• For social reasons- to replace to loss of relationships of people who are perhaps isolated.
• It allows people from all over the world to connect
• People in virtual communities could develop social relationships and connect with like minded others

Ther term "Community" implies an emotionally positive effect and creates a rewarding experience for participants.

To establish what a V.C is, we must first consider the virtual settlement within which the V.C exists. This is define by Jones as the place where people interact. Postings, Structure and content all make up the virtual settlement.

Sense of Community (SOC)

• The FtF( face to face) define this as: Feelings of membership- identifying with, belonging too, the community.
• Feelings of Influence- being influence, influencing etc
• Integration and Fufilment of needs- being supported by others in the community
• Shared emotional connection- feelings of relationships, shared history etc.