Leitores online: um estudo da comunidade virtual booktwitter

Abstract

This present research focused on the investigation of the booktwitter virtual community, aiming to study the practice of readers, their behavios and language, presenting the particularities of this yet unexplored community. The term bookstan describes a reader who is found of books, and it is approached in this research with the objective of understanding the booknetworks and its specificities. Therefore, some bibliographical research was carried out considering the main themes that encompass this study, highlighting online social networks, the very concept of network and social ties, as well as the understanding of the value of Twitter. The book history and the characteristics of the contemporary reader are also important to contextualize the emergence of bookstans readers. From the virtual communities, it was possible to trace a path for the analysis of booktwitter, considering it as a community that is a multifandom of books, supported by the idea of fan culture. To investigate the booktwitter culture of readers, a netnographic survey and 12 semi-structured interviews were carried out, which resulted in some conclusions about the community. Driven by a desire to talk to other members, the readers consider themselves bookstans, because they share a love for reading in an online conversation space such as Twitter. In addition, readers characterize their profiles on Twitter and, even if they remain anonymous, they are likely to be recognized by other readers, they also maintain weak and strong ties with community members and are producers and consumers of fan creations, marked by the presence of fanfics, fanarts and fancasts. These practices coexist on Twitter as an open space for conversation.