Joga Bonito Storify
I thought it was very cool that the campaign started by Nike was able to gain so much attention and be developed further through the internet community.
I thought it was very cool that the campaign started by Nike was able to gain so much attention and be developed further through the internet community.
NBC’s The Office isa show that has received twenty six Emmy nominations in six seasons (with four wins), boasts some of the highest overall ratings in network television, and has countless numbers of affiliated social networking sites. Social networking is a major part of communicating in today’s technology based society, so it is only natural that fans of The Office virtually interact. Online communication among fans leads to the formation of communities, particularly those within blogs and forums where fans share their passion for their favorite Scranton paper company. Leaders emerge from these communities and use their influence to implement shifts in the direction of conversation.
Recently, the overall tone of these forums and blogs (regarding The Office) has shifted from appreciation to skepticism. This major shift is likely related to the opinions and ideas based on the leaders of online blogs and forums. While one could speculate on the many reasons that these online leaders are initiating this change in trends, a major factor could be the absence of Michael Scott (a fan favorite) in the newly released season eight.
On The Office blogs and forums, there is a very strong sense of community. Wyke Stommel, a scholar who researches online communities, wrote a journal article titled “Conversation Analysis and Community of Practice as Approaches to Studying Online Communities”, in which he claims that a sense of solidarity emerges when bloggers and forum posters find enjoyment in their shared purpose. Fans love posting and bonding about anything relating to Dunder Mifflin. Posters of blogs and forums return to their favorite sites frequently to get their daily fix of gossip or trivia about Michael and the rest of the gang, and this constant interaction among members allows them to easily form relationships.
But how do members make the jump from follower to leader? Dave Huffaker, a Google researcher writes in his article, “Dimensions of Leadership and Social Influence in Online Communities” that leaders within online communities are connected to numerous members of the site. Members of The Office sites who have expanded their network of “internet friends” are more likely to become leaders because their opinions and ideas are shared more widely across the web. Bloggers, like OfficeTally’s Jennie (aka tanster), automatically assume leadership because they posses sole control of their own site. On NBC’s board, status within the group is made visible under the member’s name. One makes the jump from “newbie” to “member” after posting 500 times. Members also rate one another with a star ranking (from 1 to 5) which appears next to their status and name.
Camaraderie is highly prevalent in The Office online communities. Contributors to NBC’s board are almost always willing to help and support one another. The best place to see this is in the “How to do anything on the message boards” thread. Here, posters as high up as “user moderators” are interacting with “newbies” in order to help them gain a better understanding of the site. There is also a sense of respect for the veterans on this thread, as those who do not have high rankings display through their posts that they hold the leaders of the forum in high regard.
Members who have gained leadership status are no longer initiating threads like “Which Michael Scott is your favorite?” or “Official New Season Countdown!” In particular, The Office NBC board is seeing a drastic increase in threads relating to “Why did you destroy a great show?” While some leaders are posting more negatively, some are not posting at all. Social media experts Jyh-Jeng Wu and Alex S.L Tang found that a loss in leadership causes a decrease in site credibility and trustworthiness, which leads to less involvement by “followers”. JelloStapler, a popular fan site for The Office addicts, contains a forum that once boasted 336 views, but has not seen activity in over year. Along with the forums, the blog on this site has not had a post since March 6, 2011. It is likely that the lack of posts by the primary blogger of JelloStapler has caused his or her followers to view the site as inactive (and not post). The absence of leadership thus causes a decrease in overall conversation.
Through observing online forums and blogs relating to NBC’s The Office, I have been able to further understand the importance of leaders within an online community. In this particular observation, I can tentatively conclude that the leaders within the observed communities have major influence in changing group tone and dynamic regarding The Office.
As I near the long awaited end of the continuous work I have been doing on my project relating to “The Office”, I ran across this article in which the show parodies social media. I thought it was a perfect conclusion to both my project and this class because it shows the excessiveness of social media in the technology overloaded society in which we all live.
I have recently joined the online community of Pinterest. I am wondering if Pinterest would be defined as a social media website? Here, on Pinterest, users can reblog others photos and website links. When describing this to a friend, he said, “Oh, so it’s Tumblr?”. I didn’t know how to explain…
I was wondering the same thing! I also have recently joined Pinterest (love it!) and did not know how to classify it. While at first glance it seemed to be a more convenient formatting of flickr or imagefav, I discovered that it is actually something completely different. Since the sharing and communication used on Pinterest is not verbal per say, it is hard to figure out if it would be social media, or just a super cool place to share pictures and put off doing homework and studying for finals…
I thought this article would be a nice follow up to Eli Pariser’s TED talk from the other day. It discusses how Google+ plans to use filters to make the site more sophisticated than Facebook. An interesting aspect is that it is going to give the option to users of choosing what they would like to filter, as opposed to doing it for them.
Storify Presentation-DIS Boards
I was not in class for your presentation, but from your slideshow it seems evident that there is a a very helpful tone in the conversations going on about Disney Cruise Lines. I thought it was particularly interesting that people can have an online “meet and greet” to get to know others before they even board the ship.
I did not get the chance to see you give your presentation, but from looking at your slideshow, it’s clear that you’ve done quite a bit of research on aspects of online communities. I also loved the video, Stanley is definitely one of my favorites!
<script src=”http://storify.com/MUndestad/big-bang-theory.js?template=slideshow”></script><noscript><a href=”http://storify.com/MUndestad/big-bang-theory” target=”_blank”>View the story “The Big Bang Theory” on Storify</a>]</noscript>
While I did not actually see you present, I looked over your slideshow and I think it’s pretty funny that so many people comment on the science jokes that are made on the show. It seems pretty clear that one of the big communities who discuss The Big Bang Theory online are people that are into science.
I follow baseball enough to know about different ways of creating statistics, but I had never heard of the other statistic methods that deal with sabermetrics. I think it seems like a pretty cool concept and I am surprised it is not as well known. It is interesting that baseball geeks use social media to publicize their sabermetric formulas in hopes of getting them someday used in the MLB. Also, the Yankees video was classic. So true.
I thought the information you provided about the actual community within Etsy was really cool. I’ve been to the site before and was always amazed at the creative stuff people make. I like the aspect of supporting other artists by adding them to a favorites list. That seems to make it easy for the artists to receive credit and appreciation for their work even if others are not actually purchasing it.
