From Viral to Spreadable Media

Rushkoff (1994) argues that viral media is media which “takes over something”/ “infecting something”. He states that media viruses are not inherently positive and/or negative, however, his work gained criticism from Jenkins as his approach denies human autonomy. In Jenkins (2008) viral media and memes are biological metaphors which explains the way content moves through cultures. Viral media explains the process of cultural transmission but in doing so, ignores the social and cultural contexts in which they circulate. Jenkins is critical of the viral media approach because whilst the theory explains the spread of media it ignores the role of human action and participation. ‘Viral media’ and ‘memes’ emerged during a period of transition in the relationship between consumers and producers; shifting away from the ‘stickiness model’. The ‘stickiness’ model is an old model which refers to websites which ‘grab and hold the attention of the visitor’ (Meredian, n.d.). There is a centralised control over the message which makes it consistent, and this lowers the risk of the content being manipulated in a negative way by an audience. Stickiness is associated with pre-structured interactivity rather than open-ended participation with games etc. Sites such as Amazon or eBay represent the success of the ‘stickiness’ model because both sites depend greatly on the return of highly committed and strongly motivated consumers and upon multiple transactions per visit. For example, consumers are encouraged to link their homepages back to Amazon, which provides incentives for them to help increase their community’s awareness of the site’s products and services.

For Jenkins (2008) spreadable media is more appropriate and a better alternative terminology. ‘Spreadability’ as a concept refers to the properties of the media environment, texts, audiences, and business models work together to enable easy and widespread circulation of mutually meaningful content within a networked culture.  Spreadable media has made it easier to circulate certain types of content. ‘Spreadable media’ emphasises the social logics and cultural practices that have enabled and popularised the new platforms. ‘Logics’ explain why sharing has become such common practice, not just how. The new ‘spreadable’ model allows us to avoid metaphors of ‘infection’ or ‘contamination’ which over-estimate the power of media companies and underestimate the agency of consumers. Additionally, spreadability aids the expansion of consumer awareness of a brand, and it can also intensify consumer loyalty by increasing emotional attachment to the brand or franchise.  Furthermore, Jenkins states that there is a significant difference between the producers and consumers of content in terms of motivation to circulate media. Jenkins (pg…) argues that people (consumers) pass along content, not because of economic motivation, but because they are members of social communities involved in activities which are meaningful to them.

Example: Dumb ways to Die (2012) – A public service announcement by Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia.

The campaign video went viral through sharing via social media. At first watch you don’t think this is an awareness video, let alone a serious one endorsed by the Australian government.

The cute, non-human characters and the catchy, upbeat song makes the campaign video memorable and enjoyable to keep watching. The message of the campaign isn’t sinister, or too hard hitting, but it gets it across and makes a statement. On the ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ Wikipedia page it claims that the campaign received some criticism on the basis that suicide is one of the most influential causes of ‘rail trauma’, and supposedly the advertisement reinforces trains as a possible suicide method, but this was denied by the producers of the campaign. When searching for the video on a search engine, there were multiple hits. Firstly, there is an official website for the campaign, which includes links to the video, a link to the ‘Dumb Ways to Die Game’ and there was even an online shop. The online shop included merchandise, of characters from the video. There is a mini game called ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ where you can collect characters for your train station and you have to avoid death as long as possible, and this game is available on smartphones. Also, there is a possibility to the buy the campaign’s jingle on iTunes. The jingle actually became number 94 in the top 100 charts in The Netherlands.  On the youtube platform underneath the video there were multiple comments such as “This is still my tune in 2017”, “This jingle is so damn catchy”, and “Remember when almost everyone you knew would know the lyrics… I miss that”, which show appreciation for the video, but also display a sense of nostalgia for the video. The comments presented some emotional attachment to the video, and hence they kept watching it.

Within two weeks of the video being uploaded onto youtube 85 parodies were created and shared by social media users.

 

References:

Jenkins, H., Li, X., & Domb, A.
(2008). If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead. Creating Value in a Spreadable Marketplace. Retrieved from: http://www.convergenceculture.org/weblog/2010/04/conver gence_culture_consortium.php
Jenkins, H., Ford, S., & Green, J.
(2013). Introduction: Why Media Spread. In Spreadable media: creating value and meaning in a networked culture (pp. 1-46). New York; London: New York University Press. Retrieved from http://nyupress.org/webchapters/jenkins_intro.pdf.
Rushkoff, D.
(1994). Introduction (pp. 3 -16). In: Media virus! Hidden agendas in popular culture (1st ed.). New York: Ballantine Books.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *