Critical Perspectives on Social Media

The notion of ‘participatory culture’ is used to refer to the participation of consumers, audiences, users, and fans, to the formation of culture and the creation of content.  Participatory culture may be contrasted and opposed to the archetypical way of producing information where only one sender shares information with many receivers. Examples of participatory culture […]

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From Viral Media to Spreadable Media

Rushkoff (1994) introduces the concepts of ‘media virus’ and ‘viral media’. According to him, anything that catches our attention on the web may be considered as a media virus: media events, inventions, systems of thoughts, musical riffs, visual images, scientific theories, sex scandals, clothing styles, etc. (1994, p.10). He holds that those memes spread through […]

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