The Discourse Community

I'm basing part of my dissertation on the concpet of the Discourse Community by John Swales... for the uninitiated here it it: (yes yes the 'uninitiated' comment was a part of a pathetic attempt to feel superior... ok???)
Swales gives out six defining characteristics of a Discourse Community:

1. has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
2.has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
3. uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.
4. utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims. 5. in addition to owning genres, it has acquired some specific lexis.
6. has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.

Part of my dissertation will look at blog communities in the light of this definition... then I'll embark on this 'hena' anthropological look at blog communities both more 'international' ones and 'local' communities like Kottu for instance... observing... watching...
he heee