Talk Theory To Me

Before we can delve headfirst into a dark and twisted trail of Kim Kardashians "brand" and "social impact," we have to know what exactly we're looking for and why it's important. We have to look at some THEORY.

Listen, if you're reading this, you're clearly fascinated at least some amount by popular culture and the "things" that make it up -- i.e. celebrities, television shows, films, etc. However, to truly understand how pop culture exists and causes a frame of reference, comes down to how we, as a participatory culture, exist and spread the content.

“If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead.” Henry Jenkins’ -- world-renowned communication scholar -- captivating study of media and distribution in his book Spreadable Media opens up with this blunt statement. We currently exist in a world where media and content circulate in a way unprecedented. With the revolution of technology and the constant revitalization of ideas and methods, it’s almost difficult to truly staple down a meaning and understanding of trans & spreadable media.

To understand spreadable media, we have to take a pit stop into Jenkins’ older school of thought – convergence culture. Convergence culture is a study of 3 concepts and their intersection – media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence. How media and content flow from one platform to another as well as the acceptance and usage by engaged audiences leads us to understand the mating of new and old.

A simple example of convergence culture: A local newspaper’s YouTube channel. We have the traditional media source (the newspaper) incorporating their elements within a new media (YouTube, or the Internet.) It’s something that traditional media are doing time and time again in order to not “die” out. With social media and new media constantly changing and revolutionizing how they’re used, traditional media have to keep up.

You still with me?

Great.

Okay, so spreadable media is media that transcends and reaches a lot of people. Right. So viral? NO.

Vitality is a totally different ballgame.

We’re now in an era where things are defined by the level of “viral” to which something achieved. Viral media and viral content is often seen as a mark of success – if something “goes viral” a brand and/or company has achieved their goal found success.

Though viral media also spreads, it happens organically. Whereas spreadable media is often incubated and primped to be let out into the mainstream media, viral happens randomly, without a real diagnosis. No one can really predict what will go viral or how or why it will, it happens often within a few hours, typically a few days. Spreadable media is planned and executed with an agency and a voice, and often serves as a means to an end for a brand – the end being further reach.

Spreadable media is often born in a marketing office, thought out by executives with a branch of ideas and thought process, with different limbs serving as different marketing ploys for spreadable content: Perhaps each limb is broken down by social media platform, and analyzed by the audience engagement and reach. Viral is like a contaminant, rapidly spreading and reaching, infecting platforms. Suddenly, everyone knows the meme. Suddenly, television, radio and other traditional media platforms are making jokes and participating in the Viral Culture. It was completely unprecedented and taken the world by storm. This wasn’t planned by a CMO in a pantsuit, but rather a 13-year-old girl on Twitter sharing a witty caption with a badly photoshopped picture that somehow, everyone else thought was funny, too. It happens suddenly, quietly. Viral content slips into your day-to-day life without you truly realizing it. Spreadable content is seen and noticed. Viral is seen but not heard – at least, not immediately.

It's really easy to just clump all of this together and not pay attention to it, but in order to truly, and actually understand many of the concepts and ideas I will be discussing in the upcoming posts, you have to understand backstory and theory.

Theory is to pop culture as history is to a country. You need it to learn how to move forward.