Systemic Functional Linguistics in the Digital Age - Sheena Gardner
4. Imagined Community and Affective Alignment in Steve Jobs Memorial Tributes on YouTube
Systemic Functional Linguistics in the Digital Age - Sheena Gardner
Anu Annika Harju [+]
Aalto University School of Business Department of Management Studies Unit of Organizational Communication Helsinki Finland
Doctoral Candidate
Unit of Organizational Communication
Description
In today’s digital era, online communities abound. Technology transcends physical distance and allows the like-minded to congregate and communicate. Dedicated sites are designed for community and executed with a format. This paper addresses another type of online belonging in digital space: that of ‘imagined community’ (Anderson 1991). This paper examines fans’ mourning and acts of remembrance after the death of Steve Jobs in 2011 and looks at how community and identity are constructed in short messages in non-dedicated digital spaces, such as YouTube user comments.