Abstract
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"Every Home Is Wired": Abstract |
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| This paper is concerned with an analysis of the use of Internet-based media by minority subcultures which are geographically dispersed and ignored by the traditional, mainstream media. In an effort to help the move from the current Internet hyperbole to academic research, it investigates how the Net is being utilised to bring such communities together, to give them their own fora of interaction and communal online institutions, and thus to strengthen them to the point of self-determination in independence from coverage in other media. To do so, an overview of the Net's position in today's structurally increasingly globalised, yet content-wise simultaneously more and more fragmented media environment, and of the impact of that environment on subcultural communities, is provided. | Bit 1 |
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| In order to avoid overly superficial statements, the focus here is on one particular subculture: that of the fans of Progressive Rock, a musical genre originally born out of late-1960s counterculture. A discussion of the particular structures and ideals of the Progressive Rock subculture demonstrates why this community has been able to make especially good use of the Internet, and why its experiences may be seen as instructive for other, more or less similar community groups on their way to establishing an online presence. | Bit 2 |
| Central to this paper is an analysis of the experiences made by the Progressive Rock community on the Net. Patterns of community interaction, especially in open discussion fora such as newsgroups and mailing-lists, are analysed, along with their implications for individual and communal identity formation and for the maintenance and propagation of community ideals and ideology. | Bit 3 |
| The paper ends with an overview of the effects of Internet-mediation on communities such as that of Progressive Rock fans. Such effects, it suggests, may mean that we will have to reconsider our concepts of prospective societal structures in a world where increasingly "Every Home Is Wired", as the song by Progressive Rock artists Porcupine Tree goes. | Bit 4 |
© 1998 Axel Bruns