First blog Post:
Below I listed my five questions from reading Chapter 7 and page numbers!
1. Why is decay inevitable? (125)
2. What are the three relevant principles that Thorngate developed? (126)
3. What is afterlife in relation to a viral event?
4. How does virality reproduce social norms? (141)
5. Do you think that a media message can go viral multiple times?
1. Decay is inevitable because virality is about a large amount of people seeing a piece of media quickly. Once people see the media, the attention goes away. People see the media, share or choose not to share, but then the attention goes away.
ReplyDelete2. The three relevant principles that Thorngate developed were attentional economics, diminishing attention returns and fixed attentional assets.
3. Afterlife is what remains of the the viral event. It is the stage where the viral event has died but has yet to gain attention again. For example, a video will go viral everyone will watch it, then everyone will stop. The dead period where everyone stops before people start to rewwatch the video is the afterlife.
4. Virality reproduces social norms because it reinforces stereotypes. Viral videos often need stereotypes to be funny, serious or quickly spread through a certain community.
5. I think a media message can go viral multiple times but I think the context needs to be changed and that the second time will not be as viral as the first. The reason is, once people view a video even if the context changes they are less likely to return and watch it again, even under different context.
My questions:
ReplyDelete1. After reading the book, how has your impression of viral events changed?
2. TED talks are a viral event, but they spread over two years. Is this really virality based on the time frame, or is it popularity for a category of videos?
3. Are viral events always natural events because media, corporations and governments promote viral messages and images? Therefore, can they be called natural events?
4. If viral events are spread "selectively" (pg. 30) and they are passed through gatekeepers, than are viral events random?
5. Are viral events good for society since they support stereotypes, the meaning of the message is lost once they spread and they are often only humorous? Do they do more harm than benefit?
My answers:
Delete1. I understand that viral events are not new and that there are some negative consequences associated with viral events such a stereotyping and false information.
2. TED talks in my opinion are not viral because it is a network. Much like saying facebook posts are viral because a few of them have gone viral. TED talks as the author explains is a group of videos not one video.
3. Viral events are both natural and not natural. They are not always natural because organizations try to use viral events for promotions.
4. Viral events are random because they cannot be controlled when released. Certain videos will gain more attention and therefore may spread quicker, but it is hard to control viral events.
5. Viral events are good for humor but not spreading reliable information. Anytime a large amount of people share and pass information it is not positive for society because the meaning will change and become jumbled, just like the classic game telephone.
1). My impression of viral events has not really changed. If anything, I feel that I have a better knowledge of what virality means and how it works within social media.
ReplyDelete2). I personally do not feel that TED Talks are viral events. I believe that at once they might have started off as a viral event, but then they grew in popularity and now they are just popular videos, like a television show that people look forward too.
3). Viral events are both natural and non-natural. Companies use virality to try and gain profits and advertisements that is how they are not natural. However some viral events such as videos and media accidentally become viral because of popularity.
4). I believe that some viral events are random, and I believe that other are random. I feel that they are selective when gatekeepers for corporations pass them on the viral events.
5). If you are looking for reliable, accurate information than viral media events are not the place to look. Viral events promote stereotypes and sometimes inaccurate messages. It is hard to control these viral events and sometimes the viral events are misconstrued. However, these viral messages can be good for entertainment and humor.