The New Imagined Community

Identifying and Exploring a Bidirectional Continuum Integrating Virtual and Physical Communities through the Community Embodiment Model (CEM)

Bibliographic Data

ID11371894
AuthorsSteve Fox (Microsoft, area of natural language and speech technologies, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume28
Issue1
Pages47-62
Publication date2004-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Communication Inquiry (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0196-8599 • E-ISSN: 1552-4612
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0196859903258315
OpenAlexW2060820943
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited13

The Internet has enabled global growth in the use of virtual communities. Virtual communities provide Internet researchers with an excellent opportunity to study human communication across different conceptualizations of community, different technologies, and different cultures. This article introduces a theoretical framework called the Community Embodiment Model (CEM) to better understand the nature of the virtual community. It is proposed that CEM can help us better understand how participants interact with virtual communities by defining interaction within virtual communities as beginning with a conceptualization of community (imagined community) that embodies a continuum of virtuality/physicality. This article also describes a pilot study, as part of a wider research project, that used CEM as its theoretical framework

Conceptualization · Human–computer interaction · Knowledge management · Online community · Sociology · The Internet · Virtual community · Virtual reality · Virtuality (gaming · World Wide Web · Complex Network Analysis Techniques · Computer Science · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Social Media and Politics · Artificial Intelligence