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Digital Subculture

A Geek Meaning of Style

Clemson University, jamcart{at}clemson.edu

Recent scholarship in critical/cultural studies and ethnography has suggested studies of youth subculture can no longer be solely centered around musical preference and that the Internet may be a new resource for the affiliation and expression of subcultural identity. This study furthers this scholarship through the analysis of one such group: the "geeks." Through examination of Internet sites devoted to the subculture, this analysis argues that geeks who affiliate in self-assigned Web-based chat rooms demonstrate the characteristics, community, and style common to the expanding conceptualizations of Internet-based subculture. This study adds strength to the argument that the Internet can simultaneously be a gathering site for subculturalists and a medium for expression of subcultural identity.

Key Words: subculture • cultural studies • geek • computer-mediated communication • virtual communities

This version was published on January 1, 2009

Journal of Communication Inquiry, Vol. 33, No. 1, 58-70 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0196859908325676


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