Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons English Theses & Dissertations English Summer 2016 Communities in (Digital) Space: Creating Networks for Daily Living Through Pervasive Media Jamie Lynn Henthorn Old Dominion University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons, and the Leisure Studies Commons Recommended Citation Henthorn, Jamie L.. "Communities in (Digital) Space: Creating Networks for Daily Living Through Pervasive Media" (2016). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dissertation, English, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/ph8v-y765 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds/18 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. COMMUNITIES IN (DIGITAL) SPACE: CREATING NETWORKS FOR DAILY LIVING THROUGH PERVASIVE MEDIA by Jamie Henthorn B.A. May 2005, Emory & Henry College M.A. May 2008, The American University A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ENGLISH OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY August 2016 Approved by: David Roh (C0-Director) Kevin Moberly (Co-Director) Dana Heller (Member) Avi Santo (Member) ABSTRACT COMMUNITIES IN (DIGITAL) SPACE: CREATING NETWORKS FOR DAILY LIVING THROUGH PERVASIVE MEDIA Jamie Henthorn Old Dominion University, 2016 Co-Directors: Dr. David Roh Dr. Kevin Moberly Studies of online communities often focus either on communities that produce texts or the texts with which individuals engage. This dissertation examines online communities that practice in ongoing activities, in their leisure time, often with no end goal of producing any final text. Through interviews, surveys, and community forum analysis of running, gaming, and translation communities, this study finds that place and everyday habits factor heavily into the ways that sustained online communities structure their work. “Place” can have several meanings within this context, including the communities valuing specific locations or working with specific individuals because of where they live. Due to the rise in use of pervasive mobile devices, online community access often weaves into members’ offline lives. This knowledge of life ancillary to online community adds a layer of affective work to online community participation. Throughout the data collected from these communities, stories pertaining to the work of community maintenance dominated the conversation. Participants defined “work” as managing community involvement around other obligations, maintaining relationships across distances, and acknowledging the benefits that corporate entities derive from these communities. By investigating work within this context, we expand our understanding of the ways less visible populations work online in their leisure time. iii Copyright, 2016, by Jamie Henthorn, All Rights Reserved. iv This dissertation is dedicated to my son, Dorian, who has grown up alongside it. You will never know what it meant that you imagined me to be the smartest person in the world while I was writing it. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dissertations are genuinely collaborative endeavors and I have many to thank. I want to first and foremost thank David Roh, for agreeing to oversee this dissertation and for remaining dedicated to this project as you moved on to the University of Utah. I am equally indebted to my other committee members: Kevin Moberly, Avi Santo, and Dana Heller, who have all been outstanding mentors as I have progressed from student to faculty. You gave me more opportunities than any grad student deserves and I hope to return on the investment. Because not all mentors serve on committees, thank you Beth Vincelette and Shelley Rodrigo for teaching me the inner workings of academic life. I am lucky to have been part of a strong campus community at Old Dominion. Working with top tier academics over the years as we have researched, published, and presented together has only sharpened my skills. In dissertating I am particularly grateful for Dissertation Bootcamp, an accountability group for ODU dissertators. Laura Buchholz, Vincent Rhodes, Carmen Christopher, and Danielle Roach defended before me and taught me how to write a dissertation in and between life. I have enjoyed writing, dissertating, and commiserating with other Bootcamp members: April Cobos, Megan McKittrick, Sarah McGinley, Sheri Mungo, Chvonne Parker, Zack Hill, and Diane Cook. I have learned so much from your research and look forward to your defenses and the future you bring to knowledge. To my closest colleagues, Megan Mize, Sarah Spangler, and Matt Beale, thanks not only for being amazing scholars I look up to, but also for reminding me that taking a break is sometimes the best way to get writing done. Some people happen into a doctorate, but I have wanted this since I first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark and have only been slightly disappointed at how few Nazis there vi have been to punch. In this near life-long quest, I am indebted to my parents, Jim and Mary Turner. Thank you for keeping a house full of books, never limiting my interests to age appropriateness, and for listening to the research papers I assigned myself over summers. I am who I am because you never yelled at me for staying up all night reading, but also kicked me out of the house during the day to play with my friends. Thank-you, Chris, for being my best friend in the many moves the military invited us to enjoy and for being the kindest of brothers. To Amanda, it has been such a joy watching you grow up, and now to watch you love on our kids the way Chris and I loved on you. To Gavin, I’m not sure if at eighteen anyone can know where their lives will take them. I would not have developed this study of games if I had not married a fellow gamer to test ideas and theories on. Thank you for the sense of adventure and humor that you bring to all far reaching and overly complicated situations I find our way into. I have been so lucky to have such a friend and partner through study, travel, parenthood, and general adulthood. I eagerly anticipate what is next for us. Finally, to Dorian, before I applied to PhD programs holding a baby, all my research concluded that being a mother-scholar was essentially impossible. At the first conference I went to after your birth, an older woman laughed at me for trying. However, I am so happy I listened to my gut. My fondest memories of this dissertation include you curled up next to me during 5am writing sessions, half asleep, as I read sentences out loud to myself. No one else has been so integrated into the everyday work of my research, which often extended to public playgrounds, swim lessons, and gymnastics practice. I’m not sure you can remember a time when I was not writing this dissertation, or understand that most people do not write their dissertations with young children, but know you being you was integral to my success. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... ix Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................... 6 SPACE VS. PLACE ............................................................................................................... 6 ONLINE COMMUNITY AND PLACE ............................................................................... 7 THEORETICAL METHODOLOGY...................................................................................... 16 NEW MEDIA AND THE INTERFACE............................................................................ 17 LEISURE AND PLACE: A MARXIST CRITICAL LENS ...............................................20 METHODS .............................................................................................................................. 26 DATA COLLECTION .........................................................................................................30 METHODS OF ANALYSIS................................................................................................ 32 STUDY LIMITATIONS...................................................................................................... 34 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER SUMMARIES ...................................................................................................... 35 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 35 (IMAGINED) COMMUNITIES OF RUNNERS ............................................................. 35 BANDS OF BROTHERS, GIFTING IN FPS CLANS ..................................................... 38 I HAVE ALL THE QUALIFICATIONS. INTERNATIONAL FAN PROFESSIONALIZATION ON VIKI ...............................................................................40 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 42 II. (IMAGINED) COMMUNITIES