The Influence of Online Communities in Online Identity: An Analysis of the Venezuelan Podcast Escuela De Nada's Online Community
Veronica Vila
Co-Presenters: Individual Presentation
College: College of Liberal Arts
Major: English Writing Studies (M.A.)
Faculty Research Mentor: Maria (Mia) Zamora
Abstract:
This research project looks to examine the VenezuelanpodcastEscuelaDeNada’s (EDN) online community’s(OC) characteristics, communication, and behavioral patterns by coding and analyzing the comments on the podcast episodes onbothYouTubeand Patreon. The study is framed betweentheannouncement dateof EDN’s onlineshowLast Dominationandthe dateof theevent, focusingonspecific keyelements ofthe EDNuniversethat encourage community building, identity,andsolidarity, suchas freetickets andpublic service announcements(PSA). That way, this project seeks to draw a line that surveys and connects assimilation theories to new environments and diasporic immigration stories to the aforementioned OC, as well as its influence on an individual’s writing identity and multimodal composition. After many years of widely spread Venezuelan diaspora, Venezuelan immigrants were in need of cultural connection beyond physical spaces and ethnicity. In 2018, EDN built that connection for many Venezuelansacross the globe, including the author and researcher of this project. The goal is to highlight the transformative potential of digital content in nurturing belonging and community building among dispersed populations and suggest reasons for the free ticketing phenomenon to exist.