The article I read for this blog assignment was one that Professor Dean suggested for my honors assignment. I thought this article would be cool to share because it has a lot of interesting points. The article is called "Why spreadable doesn't equal viral: A conversation with Henry Jenkins" and is written by Nikki Usher.
Henry Jenkins shares his catchphrase in this article: "If it doesn't spread, it's dead. For things to live online, people have to share it socially. They also have to make it their own- which can be as participatory as just passing a YouTube clip on as a link or making copycat videos themselves."
Spreadable media is described as "media which travels across media platforms at least in part because the people take it in their own hands and share it with their social networks."
I thought this was an interesting statement because it points how everything we do today is spreadable. We all share our pictures, stories and information through social media sites. We made quick decisions to share things on the internet that could potentially be there forever--even when we delete them. We share them through every available media platform.
We share all of these things without thinking how incriminating they could potentially be. You can post things of a crazy night out, alcohol or maybe even drugs, or other things. These things could be found by employers and can cost you your job. At the moment it seems like there can be no harm done, but they could be found later.
However, when used properly, this spreadable media can be good for news. There's constant access to news content which we are able to share through Twitter or blogs. Many people count on peoples participation is the distribution process. Readers are now encouraged to circulate the content.
It's interesting to read about this concept. Social media doesn't seem like such a big deal because we have access to it at all times. I never really stop to think about how amazing it really is (spoiled-I know). It's amazing to see the information spreads and all the different ways social media can actually be used.
This is a very interesting article. It is shocking how quickly a small photo or tweet can become a life changing decision based on who sees it. Spreadable media has so many pros and cons, but I think it is an amazing tool when people use it for the right reasons and are responsible with it.
ReplyDeleteThis piece is incredibly interesting and it brings to light a lot of important points about how "shareable" our culture is today. I know just a few years ago if you were caught in a picture at a party you could just throw away the photo. However now that picture could be saved or uploaded or copied or shared by anyone around the world. The internet is both a blessing and a curse in this sense, since everything is right at our fingertips at all times. I think it's great that you're stopping to think about how amazing social media is! It truly is such an incredible interface and when it is used for the right reasons can open our eyes to worlds of possibilities and information just at the click of a mouse.
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