Preface
|
|
"Every Home Is Wired": Preface |
|
|
|
|
| The Internet has been much acclaimed as a medium that is able to give a voice to underprivileged and minority individuals and communities around the world -- its egalitarian, pluralistic and democratic nature and its opposition to censorship are frequently seen as offering avenues away from a domination of culture by a few transnational media corporations and the powerful political interest groups they are allied with, and towards a more grassroots-based concept of democracy. It is necessary to balance such rhetoric with research into the ways actual subcultural communities do in fact use the Net to come together and strengthen their communal ties, and into the effects this move to an online environment with its own particular opportunities and limitations has on these subcultural communities, their relation to mainstream culture, and their individual members. | Bit 1 |
|---|---|
| This paper aims to contribute to such research efforts. It analyses the online structures of one particular community, that of Progressive Rock fans, which for a number of reasons has made the move to the Internet at a relatively early time and is thus likely to show fairly well-defined community structures already. Since the formation and maintenance of community depends centrally on an articulation of community ideas and ideologies, the focus will be particularly on the Progressive Rock fans' fora of interaction -- especially their Internet newsgroups. | Bit 2 |
| The paper is divided into four sections: section one offers a general introduction to the media environment of the late 1990s, with particular emphasis on the impact of the Internet on music industry and fandom. Section two introduces the Progressive Rock subculture, and gives reasons why it may be seen as particularly well-suited for a move online. Section three analyses the Progressive Rock community's uses of the Net, and the forms that fan interaction takes especially on newsgroups. Section four, finally, reviews the changes the community has undergone due to its Internet presence, and concludes with a suggestion of what its experiences may mean overall for our views of an Internet-mediated global society. | Bit 3 |
© 1998 Axel Bruns