Discourses of connectedness: Constructing the networked, mediated community

In this paper, I focus on clarifying and expanding the analytic concept of “community” to account for the interaction between groups of networked people, prone to interacting in dynamic and multidimensional digital paradigms. I seek to discuss the questions: 1) How do community managers at a video game development studio in Los Angeles structure and shape their large-scale, global online community through regular interaction and engagement with players online and offline? and 2) How do players co-construct a “sense of community” and “feelings of connectedness.” Using an anthropological approach, this research attempts to explore these questions using digital ethnography, physical ethnography, and computer-mediated discourse analysis.