MEDIANZ • VOL 16 NO 1 • 2016 https://doi.org/10.11157/medianz-vol17iss2id198 - ARTICLE – Facebook as a Platform for an Imagined Diasporic Community Paula Ray • Abstract Overcoming geographically determined territorial boundaries, Facebook as a communication platform offers an extension of Benedict Anderson’s concept of the ‘imagined community’ (2006, xi), particularly in the form of groups formed around diasporic communities. These Facebook groups encourage civic engagement and are bound together by the use of a distinctive ‘cyber-language’ and set of expressions that contribute to a sense of shared identity. In this paper, I look at the ‘cyber-dialogues’ of three south Asian diasporic cultures in New Zealand, namely Indian, Malaysian and Filipino, to identify the most popular civic issues raised on this platform by each of them. It is often noted that we can find it more convenient to reach out to a ‘friend’ in the virtual world than to a real person, physically present next to us. This is perhaps because it is much easier to learn about the disposition of the virtual contact, as expressed on his/ her online profile, than to ask the real person for his/ her character traits. Our identities in the ‘imagined’ world are often constructed or guided by the cyber language usage with which we are familiar. Mutual contacts and shared information among inhabitants establish familiarity, and this sharing of information is possible only through language. Our familiarity with certain forms of cyber language practice often helps us to assess the risk factors of forging a virtual friendship quite effortlessly, and we end up with a higher number of friends in the virtual world than in the real world. These ‘friends’ coexist in the virtual world as a community, referred back to in times of need. But what is it that binds them together? And, what kind(s) of information exchange do they engage in? In this paper, I shall investigate these questions with regard to online communities formed by Facebook users. As a communication platform, Facebook overcomes geographically determined territorial boundaries, and offers to take Benedict Anderson’s concept of the ‘imagined community’ (2006, xi) a step forward, particularly in the form of Facebook groups (FB groups) that encourage civic engagement. These groups are imagined, according to Anderson, because Paula Ray completed her PhD in Media, Film and Television at the University of Auckland. Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer and Research Manager at Aspire2 International.