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Title:
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A SEMIOTIC APPROACH TO ONLINE COMMUNITIES: BELONGING, INTEREST AND IDENTITY IN WEBSITES AND VIDEOGAMES COMMUNITIES |
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Author(s):
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Stefano Tardini , Lorenzo Cantoni |
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ISBN:
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972-8939-03-5 |
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Editors:
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Pedro Isaías, Piet Kommers and Maggie McPherson |
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Year:
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2005 |
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Edition:
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Single |
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Keywords:
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Online communities, websites, videogames, belonging, identity, interest. |
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Type:
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Full Paper |
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First Page:
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371 |
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Last Page:
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378 |
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Language:
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English |
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Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload 
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Paper Abstract:
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Borrowing some concepts from the linguistic and semiotic traditions, the paper aims at understanding the nature of online (virtual) communities. First, it distinguishes two basic kinds of communities: communities where members just share something similar (paradigmatic communities) and communities where social relations are established through interactions (syntagmatic communities). On the basis of this distinction, the paper focuses on online communities and analyses the main critical issues concerning them, namely belonging, identity and interest. These issues are then discussed in the last part, where a semiotic approach to online communities is presented: interest is pivotal in order to define the semiosphere of a virtual community, i.e. the social space within the community where interactions are allowed and encouraged; belonging is a key factor for websites communities, since it helps them becoming real syntagmatic communities; identity is as much important in websites as in videogames communities, since on the basis of the different identities considered, different play communities can be identified. |
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