Tutorial Six: The internet and online communities

Provide the web address and the name of the community you are investigating

www.thelowdown.co.nz


What is the brief or focus of this community

The low down website focuses on depression. It is a site where people can go to talk and hear about other people that experience depression. It allows people to feel safe in a supported environment.


What services are provided? How interactive is this site? How can people contribute?

There are lots of services provided within this website, they include definitions, facts and knowledge about depression, a place where you can go and chat to other people who have depression and stories about celebrities who have depression or people close to them that do.

There are navigators that you can choose from which show and help you find your way around the site. People can contribute to this site by joining in conversations or starting up their own conversations themselves.


Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on why people choose to contribute to this community. What is it they are seeking?

People who visit this website will want to find out more information about depression to enable them to help someone that is suffering from it. They also may be seeking help for themselves or just want to listen to other peoples stories or listen to music clips.

Cut and paste an example of the type of topics being discussed (you may have to provide a context to your excerpt).

What is depression

Depression is the experience of being in a really low mood, pretty much all the time, over a long period of time. Depression can be a serious illness, which leaves you feeling sad or miserable most of the time. It’s been described as “being sad or empty”, and “feeling totally hopeless”.

It also gives you facts about depression and you can self-test yourself to see how depressed you are. I cannot copy and paste things off this website as it wont let me so I just typed in a bit of the depression topic.


Considering material presented during the course and make comment on the potential ethical issues that may arise in this community e.g. lack of identity and accountability.

The low down website has people watching the site to make sure that nothing offensive or inappropriate is placed on this website. Whatever you write can be viewed by many people so you have to be careful of what you write. You are not allowed to copy and paste anything off the website so therefore there must be some type of block on it.


Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment on the benefits this community holds over traditional notions of community e.g. communities reliant on geographic proximity

Anyone anywhere in the world can go onto the low down website if they have access to the internet, distance is not a factor.


Consider material presented during the lecture and make comment what this community lacks or can not provide which traditional communities can.

This community has some limitations such as not being able to talk with someone face to face. Also if people do not have access to the internet they are not able to view this website. You can not build a rapport with the moderators so this is very limiting.