The term ‘virtual community’ was first cited as commonplace by Howard Rheingold, to define the online cultures of those engaging in computer-mediated communication (CMC), establishing “alternative planetary information networks�? (Rheingold quoted in Flew, 2005, p. 62). This was made possible due to the three interrelated components of CMC: the construction of social networks and social capital, the sharing of knowledge and information, and the facilitation of new forms of democratic participation in society (Flew, 2005, p. 62)