Abstract

This research considers the myths of empowerment through interactivity and the use of online communication technologies to serve commercial ends as opposed to communicative needs. It explores, through discourse analysis, ‘community’ sections on retail-oriented websites as a manifestation of the notion that interactivity can encourage communal interaction among consumers and promulgate goodwill for the retailer. Building on Habermas's theories on the commodification of fundamental social institutions, this work posits that these websites use the rhetoric of community to entice new consumers and fulfill business goals. This work also uses Foucault's theories on technology as means of social control to examine the possibility that these communities are used as surveillance mechanisms for the purposes of data mining.