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Winter and Huff's study focuses on a 1996 survey of a women's only online bulletin board for computer scientists called SYSTERS. Although the study is 9 years old, it still brings voice to women who were previously marginalized as gender minorities in their field of work/study.  The authors discuss the issue of same-gender boards being both "havens" and "ghettos" for women online, and also provide some support for Cass Sunstein's theory that the internet allows for the consolidation of like opinions - both positive and negative, as in the case of women's forums and online sexual harassment, respectively.  Based upon their work, the authors felt that the differences between the genders in online communication was equal or magnified to that present in speech.

Persky writes of the market place versus media forum.  They both play off of each other.  However, as companies like Virgin merge and grow into conglomerates, they begin to control both the market place and media forum.  Companies like Virgin are able to control what the consumer views as advertisiments, and what they consume in the market place.  Ultimately, the audience does not have say in what they purchase, therefore a switch from fandom to fadism.