Abstract

With the continuous popularization of social media, netizens often comprehensively utilize semiotic resources such as different languages and linguistic variations, emoticons, GIFs, and memes to participate in the construction of various types of online communities. Based on online ethnography, this study tracks the language practices of the producer of Blow Your Mind (BYM), a popular podcast program, and his interactions with followers on Sina Weibo. Focusing on sociolinguistic theories of social media communities, we aim to examine the construction process and defining features of the BYM linguistic community and to identify the linguistic strategies involved. The analysis demonstrates that the podcaster and his followers jointly engaged in the negotiation and confirmation of their shared multilingual ideologies, carried out cross-domain language management, and constructed a BYM linguistic community on Weibo. This linguistic community features a diversity of translanguaging practices, including playful communal member naming, narratives of personal growth, informal learning, and lifestyle sharing. The new media linguistic communities in this case have the characteristics of being dynamic, emergent, and transcultural, comprehensively embodying the features of affinity space, light community, transidiomatic groups, and metalinguistic community. The BYM community on Weibo not only successfully attracts a niche fan group with specific personal characteristics but also provides multiple functions for community members, including knowledge and hobby sharing, linguistic play and innovation, and emotional support. This study also offers theoretical and practical implications for future research on cross-platform new media linguistic communities.