'Noobs' and 'chicks' on Animutation Portal: power and status in a community of practice
Kendall, Lori
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/9157
Description
Title
'Noobs' and 'chicks' on Animutation Portal: power and status in a community of practice
Author(s)
Kendall, Lori
Issue Date
2008
Keyword(s)
computer-mediated communication
online video
knowledge communication
communities of practice
gender
Abstract
Researchers interested in knowledge communication within
communities of practice tend to focus on tasks, skills, or the shared interests of
the group, while relegating other aspects of interaction and communication
to the ‘cultural context’. But from a participant perspective, knowledge
communication includes knowledge about group culture and identity. Attention
to participant perspectives and motivations provides a better understanding
of what counts as knowledge and how knowledge communication is
accomplished. This paper analyses communication within a voluntary
community of practice oriented towards a hobby activity. Animutation is a
subgenre of amateur animated online videos. Participants in the animutation
subculture are primarily US-based young men who interact on a variety of
websites that offer video hosting and bulletin board services. In this paper, I
analyse discussion posts to the website animutationportal.com. In addition to
the specific cultural context of the animutation subculture, participants’
identities and understandings of other social contexts (such as the culture of
online video production in general) influence their interaction and knowledge
communication. While issues of belonging and culture are likely more explicit
in voluntary, leisure-oriented communities of practice such as the animutation
subculture, these aspects of community participation are important to consider
in all communities of practice.
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