Multimedia Performance in a Computer-Mediated Community: Communication as a Virtual Drama

In this study, I explored the complex multimedia performances of an interactive computer-mediated community. Through the frameworks of Erving Goffman's dramaturgical perspective and Dell Hyme's ethnography of communication, I explored the patterns of multimedia performance of a virtual community called the Palace. The findings demonstrate how virtual architecture, visual context, virtual space/proxemics, and avatars can be used in social interaction in communities on the World Wide Web. More importantly, the analysis represents the multimedia communicative processes that serve to foster and sustain virtual communities. These communication patterns of the multimedia chat community represent a form of virtual dramatic performance in contemporary communication. Based upon the findings, conclusions, implications, and future directions for scholarship are explored in detail.

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