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UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Discourses Of UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Discourses of Connectedness: Globalization, Digital Media, and the Language of Community A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Lisa Ann Newon 2014 © Copyright by Lisa Ann Newon 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Discourses of Connectedness: Globalization, Digital Media, and the Language of Community by Lisa Ann Newon Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor Marjorie Harness Goodwin, Chair This dissertation provides both ethnographic and linguistic analysis of how translocality and transidiomatic practices intersect the ways in which people organize their social worlds in the digital and information age. I explore how translocality informs how people understand, construct, and experience a voluntary and avocational community and identity in their everyday lives, through the lens of a global, video gaming community, centered around a game called League of Legends. In this dissertation, I focus on understanding how distributed players and developers together co-construct a sense of community, belonging, and connectivity, through both language and interaction online and offline. This analysis first discusses how players and developers co-construct community and identity through language, distinctiveness, and authenticity. The data in this dissertation is used ii to highlight how players and developers use language in their everyday interactions to construct particular group identities, through specific lexical and material styles. I then discuss how a sense of community and belonging are constructed in the social network through moral participation and engagement, both institutionally and endogenously, looking particularly at stance, directives, assessments, and structure-preserving transformations. Further, I discuss how players and developers co-create community through understandings and narrative experiences of translocality and temporality that focus on empathy and the experience of playing the game itself. At a macro level, this dissertation discusses the analytic concept of community and problematizes the multiple and varying definitions of speech community. As technology and globalization continue to impact, transform, and recreate communities, there is a great need for expanding our understanding of speech communities as one that accounts for the changing ways in which people constitute meaningful participation in a society or culture. This research provides an empirical example of how participation, fluidity, interconnectedness, and sense- making unfolds, particularly in the everyday interactions of a specific, global network of players and developers. iii The dissertation of Lisa Ann Newon is approved. Elinor Ochs Paul Kroskrity Charles Goodwin Marjorie Harness Goodwin, Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract of the Dissertation…………………………………………………………………….....ii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………...……..ix Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………..……..…xii Curriculum Vita .......................................................................................................................... xvi ONE: INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................1 1.1 Globalization, Digital Media, and the Language of Community ...........................................1 1.2 Fieldwork and Research Questions ........................................................................................3 1.3 Overview of Chapters .............................................................................................................4 TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS .................................................................................8 2.1 Community .............................................................................................................................8 2.1.1 Speech Community .........................................................................................................8 2.1.2 Community of Practice ..................................................................................................11 2.1.3 Online Community of Practice ......................................................................................13 2.1.4 Sense of Community .....................................................................................................14 2.2 Social Network .....................................................................................................................16 2.2.1 A Historical Perspective ................................................................................................16 2.2.2 Social Network and Speech Community .......................................................................18 2.3 The Business of Community ................................................................................................19 2.3.1 The Economy of Buying and Selling Community ........................................................20 2.3.2 Globalization, Markets, and Localization .....................................................................22 2.3.3 Managing Global Communities ....................................................................................24 THREE: THE ETHNOGRAPHIC SETTING ..........................................................................26 3.1 Gaming as Social Practice ....................................................................................................26 3.2 Research Methods ................................................................................................................28 3.2.1 Entering the Community ...............................................................................................28 3.2.1.1 The Interview........................................................................................................28 3.2.1.2 The Internship .......................................................................................................32 v 3.2.1.3 Leaving and Returning .........................................................................................34 3.2.2 Sites of Data Collection .................................................................................................34 3.2.2.1 Riot Games Headquarters .....................................................................................35 3.2.2.2 Riot Forums, Websites, and Social Media Channels ...........................................37 3.2.2.3 National and International Gaming Events ..........................................................41 3.2.3 Data Collection and Analysis ........................................................................................43 3.2.3.1 Ethnography .........................................................................................................44 3.2.3.2 Digital Ethnography .............................................................................................45 3.2.3.3 Conversation and Discourse Analysis ..................................................................46 3.2.3.4 Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis ..............................................................47 3.2.4 Ethnographic Roles and Positionalities .........................................................................48 3.3 The League of Legends Community ....................................................................................49 3.3.1 The Industry of Interactive Media .................................................................................49 3.3.2 Riot Games and League of Legends ..............................................................................51 3.3.2.1 The Company .......................................................................................................51 3.3.2.2 The Game .............................................................................................................52 3.3.3 The Riot Manifesto: Subculture and Ritual Practices ...................................................56 3.3.4 Developers and Intersubjectivity ...................................................................................59 3.3.5 Players, Social Media, and Remix Culture ....................................................................61 3.4 Mapping the Community Through Quantitative Data .........................................................62 3.4.1 Quantitative Research Methods .....................................................................................62 3.4.2 Mapping the League of Legends Community ...............................................................64 FOUR: CO-CREATING COMMUNITY THROUGH STYLE AND IDENTITY ...............75 4.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................75 4.2 Theoretical Frameworks .......................................................................................................76 4.2.1 Language and Identity ...................................................................................................76 4.2.1.1 Sameness and Difference .....................................................................................77 4.2.1.2 Authenticity ..........................................................................................................80 4.2.1.3 Subculture and Style .............................................................................................81
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