The nongeographic community . This study of one nongeographic community and of media usage in that community has a number of academic implications.
Communities continue to be an important part of the fabric of social life.
This study supports the notion that people believe themselves to be members of a nongeographic community, even though it is not a physical place they can see, touch, go to on a regular basis, or reside in. Up to this point, studies have been conducted on communities of process, but only one was found that, to a limited degree, dealt with people's ties to these communities. Nongeographic communities are important to people, as is indicated by their level of ties to, their commitment to, and their media usage in this particular community. Furthermore, people do not have to work in the community to have strong ties to it. Another academic implication is that measures of community ties which were developed for use with studies of geographic communities also may be used for studies of nongeographic communities.