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running head: USING CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS TO BUILD COMMUNITY

Sledge Hockey Manitobas Website Uses Canadian Cultural Associations to Build a Sense of
Online Community

Janis L. Ollson
University of Winnipeg

running head: USING CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS TO BUILD COMMUNITY

Sledge Hockey Manitobas Website Uses Canadian Cultural Associations to Build a Sense of
Online Community
A particular hand gesture can imply the number two, or an insult to the person receiving
it, depending on what cultural community you belong to accepts this image to mean. The
processing of images requires us to draw on our prior learning, which is shaped by the culture we
live in, to determine the images meaning (Lunsford & Ruszkiewicz, 2013). Messages are
conveyed using images that have known historical or social context, using the associations
between the image and its known meaning (Lunsford & Ruszkiewicz, 2013). As associations
between images and their meaning depend on the culture and community one belongs to, can a
sense of community be built using these known associations? I will explore the Sledge Hockey
Manitoba (SHM) website, and show that using colours, shapes, and images synonymous to
common cultural meaning can enable group identification evoking a sense of online community.
The SHM website is dedicated to the sport of sledge hockey, an adapted sport for persons
with disabilities where the player sits in a device called a sledge to skate, and is intended for
those active or interested in the sport. I chose this website to analyze as I believe it attempts to
build a sense of community around the sport of sledge hockey; I am defining community as a
group of people with similar interests, who derive benefit from their association, and who
mutually determine their presence in the group as important to their social identity.
I am using the visual rhetoric method of analysis to analyze the SHM website. This
method of analysis focuses on how the visual (which Judy Chicago describes as colours, forms,
images, textures, and other elements such as text (qtd. in Goldrick-Jones) communicates

running head: USING CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS TO BUILD COMMUNITY

meaning using the visual model of interpretation words and images that are inseparably bound
in an act of symbolic interpretation and action that direct intention (Blakesley, 2001).
My analysis identifies three main types of communities being represented through group
identification on the SHM website: a disabled, a Canadian, and a hockey community. The most
powerful visual arguments that represent these communities, and influence site visitors thinking
in respect to group identification are the colours, shapes, and images of the website. For the
purpose of my analysis I will examine these three key visual elements; SHMs logo, their
sponsors logos, and photographs used on their website.
The logo for SHMs website is the shape of a vertical rectangle with a point at the
bottom. The objects featured on the logo are two vertical lines with oblong shapes at their ends,
and a leaf. The logo includes the words sledge hockey and Manitoba. The main colours used
are red and white. Some of the sponsors logos include the government of Manitoba, the Society
for Manitobans with Disabilities (SMD), and Hockey Manitoba. The photographs used on the
website include (but are not limited to) a picture of three senior sledge hockey athletes wearing
Team Canada jerseys, two are standing and one is sitting in a wheelchair (picture 1); a picture of
a sledge hockey game in progress which is being played on a ice rink with a goalie net and
referee in the background (picture 2); and three pictures of sledge hockey games in progress,
representing the different levels of SHM teams (picture 3-5). These symbols are related to
several different communities (analysis to follow), and help site viewers identify with these
communities.
The SHM organization provides athletes with varying abilities the opportunity to play the
adapted sport of sledge hockey. A disabled persons community is being represented on their

running head: USING CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS TO BUILD COMMUNITY

website using images and text with common cultural associations to differing levels of ability.
Three different levels of athletes are represented textually, and by using pictures 3-5. By
comparison, one will notice that in picture 4 there is a single player skating, where in picture 5
there are several team members in an aggressive battle; skating is a less advanced skill than
competing using teammates and strategy. In picture 1 two different ability levels are being
represented as one player sits in a wheelchair, and the other players stand. The website states that
programming is geared to participants skill and ability; a culturally accepted tier system.
Although programming is geared to ones skill and ability, the sport is obviously geared towards
those with disabilities, as evident by one of their leading sponsors; SMD is a leading sponsor
which is known for its support to persons with disabilities. The reference to varying levels of
ability through text and images draw upon known cultural associations to build a sense of
community among persons with disabilities.
When you think of Canada do you think of the red and white Canadian flag with the
maple leaf, or its different provinces, or maybe even Canadas favorite pastime, hockey? The
SHM website uses all of these Canadian symbols to build a sense of a Canadian community. The
two main colours used on the website are red and white. The logo has a maple leaf on it. The
second symbol on the logo (two lines with oblong ends) would be easily recognizable to
Canadians as two hockey sticks. The word Manitoba is used in their logo, and within one of
their partners name. In picture 1 the athletes are wearing jerseys that are well known to be Team
Canadas. The use of all these symbols which are culturally linked to Canada are ways the SHM
website uses cultural associations to evoke a feeling of Canadian community among its websites
visitors.

running head: USING CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS TO BUILD COMMUNITY

The shape of a hockey stick is a unique and easily recognizable shape in Canadian
culture, and is used along with other visual elements to draw on cultural associations to create a
hockey community on the SHM website. Although the sledge is an integral piece of equipment
for sledge hockey, hockey sticks were chosen instead to be part of the logo as they have a clear
association to hockey. The shape of the logo is recognizable as the shape of a championship
banner one would see hanging from the ceiling of a hockey arena. The words sledge hockey is
an obvious association to the game and culture of hockey in Canada. When reading the SHM
website you will find many references to other well-known hockey organizations which create
associations between the website and the culture of hockey. In picture 2 a typical hockey game is
being represented by showcasing all the main elements of the game (players, referee, goal, ice,
sticks, puck). These visual representations draw upon cultural associations to build a sense of
hockey community on the SHM website.
Through these symbols the SHM website uses known cultural associations to
successfully build a sense of online community by enabling group identification to a three main
communities including a disabled, a Canadian, and a hockey community. SHM uses these
associations to evoke a larger sense of community, a sledge hockey community, among site
visitors. These findings are significant because groups, organizations, businesses, or individuals
with the goal of constructing online communities can incorporate a visual model with known
cultural meaning into a website to enable group identification. Through group identification a
sense of community can be built around a particular website.

running head: USING CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS TO BUILD COMMUNITY

References
Blakesley, D., Brooke, C. (2001). Notes on Visual Rhetoric. Enculturation, 3(2).
Goldrick-Jones, A. (n.d.). Visual Rhetoric . Retrieved from
http://amandagoldrickjones.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/clustercritappendix.pdf
Lunsford, A., Ruszkiewicz, J. (2013). Everything's an Argument (Vol. Sixth Edition). Boston,
New York, MA, NY: Bedford / St.Martin's.

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