Blog #4

1) Thought I have not been involved within the social networking sites, facebook and MySpace, for years, I think that these sites fit the definition of peg communities perfectly. Occasionally, I access MySpace to check the comments on my band's page. When I log in, I am bombarded by what looks like a wall of people’s status. This wall is filled with instantaneous emotions of complete strangers. These emotions are crying out for attention and advice from other people within this virtual community. A person would not express deep emotion online unless they were willing and wanted to receive some sort of emotional satisfaction from the comments of others based on their mutual relation within the community.

 This view of MySpace places it under the definition of a peg community. As Bell states, peg sites are "sites where people can hang their interests or obsession, their enthusiasms or worries, and around them they can - or might - try to build something collective..."(Bell p. 257). I believe that not all, but most, comments on MySpace are pleas for attention of the other users in an attempt to find some type of common ground and a simple emotional connection between two people at an instantaneous moment. Creating a community with the RL is far more effective, in my opinion, than it is in the virtual reality. Though some sense of emotional satisfaction can be gained in the VR, the real life gain from emotional connection, in differing communities, can be even greater.

2) I think that it would be interesting to compare differing MySpace music communities. I would do this by looking at three different genres and how they are portrayed on MySpace. I would try to derive their values and the messages they are trying to send to their target audience. I could also look at the differencing Pathos and Logos on their site in an attempt to further analyze their values. Another option would also be to attempt to analyze their top friends to see what kind of rhetoric they are trying to display.
Possible bands:
Behemoth: http://www.myspace.com/behemoth
Justin Beiber:  http://www.myspace.com/justinbieber
Casting Crowns: http://www.myspace.com/castingcrowns