Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rules Of Interchange: Privacy In Online Social Communities– A Rhetorical Critique Of Myspace.Com, Adam W. Tyma

Communication Faculty Publications

As online social communities (e.g. MySpace, Facebook) grow in popularity and become commonplace, these same communities also become sites of information exchange through various communication channels (eg. text, visual, aural). With these exchanges occurring either individually or collectively, sets of questions arise regarding the community, the value of information within that community, and how/what/why they choose to communicate what they do within such a space. By applying Sandra Petronio’s Communication Privacy Management theory and Michel Foucault’s discussion of the Panopticon, a rhetorical critique of user decisions regarding private information within Myspace.Com can be conducted. The knowledge uncovered adds insight into …