Monthly Archives: September 2018

It may seem surprising that a 4-second, 4-word Vine could be such a spreadable media piece. In 2014, a video was posted on the social media site Vine, which specializes in short video clips. In this video, someone hands her friend an empty can of soda. Upon noticing that the can is empty, the girl says “This b*tch empty!” and proceeds to throw it down the hallway into a throng of students while yelling “YEET” at the top of her lungs. Previously, the word yeet itself had been a slang word for throwing garbage away, often yelled while throwing.

Since this video was posted, it has seen many variations and clearly possesses the qualities of a great “meme”. In Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (2013), Jenkins et al define “meme” by citing Richard Dawkins (1976): “Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.” (Jenkins et al. 19). In other words, a meme is a media object that changes by jumping from person to person, each who changes the meme slightly before passing it on. This B*tch Empty. YEET” is a perfect example of a “spreadable” meme. Contrary to the idea of “viral media” of the past, this meme does not spread without audience involvement. In fact, this meme, like so many that are circulating social media sites today, relies on audience involvement. The spreadability of the meme relies on each person who views it changing it before passing it on, creating new versions of the meme that in turn, are changed by each person who views it.

As seen in these screen captures of text posts from the blog site Tumblr, users have seen the This B*tch Empty. YEET meme and have recreated it with different contexts. This Vine is so successful as a meme because it is easy to adapt to many contexts, whether sensical or nonsensical, and therefore millions of online users have been able to create their own versions of the meme and spread it.

This is an important quality of a media object that makes it spreadable in today’s day and age. If a media object is funny, it might go somewhat far online and reach many people. However, if a media object is able to be adapted and changed and become even funnier each time a new adaptation is created, it will reach many more people in its intended forum. A meme’s success, therefore, is not measured by how many times you see the original; it is measured by how many variations you see.

From a 4-second Vine to a viral – oh, sorry, I mean spreadble – media sensation, This B*tch Empty. YEET is a perfect example of a successful meme.

The development of digital technology has increased accessibility so that people all over the world can create contents easily which are a  medium to be connected with each other and produce other  additional contents.The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge demonstrated the power of social media and the audience  to influence cause marketing on a national scale.

The challenge was a perfect storm of media celebrity and grass-roots philanthropy, producing hurricane-strength viral social engagement during the  summer of 2014 (Forbes.com. (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2014/08/22/7-marketing-lessons-from-the-als-ice-bucket-challenge/#71474b6c7586 ) It originated from Pete Frates, a former Boston College baseball player, who got ALS and started to post his challenge to raise awareness and money for patients suffering from ALS. A huge number of participants  expressed their gratitude for getting an opportunity to participate in this meaningful challenge and uploaded their videos on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.What about its effect? Was it small? No! as you know, it was massive. The process of the challenge was so simple, but its effects to the society were considerably massive. From their perspective, doing small thing led to super positive consequences such as raising awareness and money for the good cause.

This phenomenon is called ‘participatory culture’ which means “a culture in which private persons (the public) do not act as consumer only, but also as contributors or produces (prosumers; it is a combined word with producer and consumer) (“Participatory culture”).  According to Jenkins et al. (2006), major characteristics of participatory culture reflect audience’s perspective to participate in digital culture.(3rs-reduction.co.uk, 2018)

The campaign was completely organic and relied entirely on ordinary individuals. There was no big marketing blitz to numb the public — a public that is far too jaded from the over-abundance of media images in the internet age (Medium. (2018). The Success of the Ice-Bucket Challenge – PROVOCO – Medium. [online] Available at: https://medium.com/@Provocome/the-success-of-the-ice-bucket-challenge-269f1776122d [Accessed 1 Oct. 2018]). Ordinary people saw other ordinary people participate in the ice-bucket challenge. This was inspiring to others on a deep and intuitive level. The combined effect of regular people participating along with the celebrities doing the same things boosted the success of the campaign.The cause and effect of the challenge were clear and people were able to get behind it without any moral ambiguity. This feature also tended to give the good feelings people derive from doing something which benefits others. Those who saw and participated in the ice-bucket challenge saw a clear direction from what they saw on social media to their own ability to join in, and ultimately to the desired outcome of doing something good.

Overall, the ALS ice bucket challenge created quite a stir back in the day but it did help get us one step closer to bridging the gap between the audience and the various forms of media as well as show us how participation of the audience could really turn ideas into reality!

Sherlock is a TV miniseries that first aired on the BBC back in 2010. Created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Sherlock Holmes and John Watson respectively, the show amassed a huge fan following. The Sherlock fandom was a force to be reckoned with and is the perfect case study for fan culture studies.

Throughout the show’s run, the creators have frequently denied the possibility that Sherlock Holmes is gay, and that he and John Watson will get together as a couple. But the fandom doesn’t take them at their word, citing the fact that the creators have a history of lying in interviews to protect plot points of the shows they run. Queer fans in particular draw from their experience and view the show in a different light from what was originally intended. The Johnlock Conspiracy, or TJLC for short, was the culmination of the work of many fans who analyzed the show for evidence to support the subtext they saw.

This discrepancy can be illustrated by the three different readings an audience may take when decoding media as theorized by Stuart Hall. First is the dominant/hegemonic position, which is the audience taking the text at face value. In the context of Sherlock, casual fans which comprises majority of the show’s viewership views John and Sherlock’s relationship as platonic, which was the intention of the creators. Second is the negotiated reading, which is when the audience partly agrees with the text. In Sherlock’s case, this would be the people who accuse the show of queerbaiting, which is when a show employs queer subtext in order to attract a queer audience, but with no intention of following through on that subtext. In line with the negotiated reading, this section of the audience generally agree that the text for John and Sherlock’s relationship is purely platonic, but they also can’t ignore the queer subtext evident in the show. So they take the view that the show employs queerbaiting to explain the discrepancy between the show’s text and subtext. Last is the oppositional reading, which is when the audience is in complete disagreement with the text. This is illustrated by the TJLC sub-fandom, who believe that the queer subtext will become text, going against the creators’ intentions that the text will never become queer. These fans reject the platonic nature of the show’s main relationship, citing the mountains of subtextual evidence in the show as reason to do so.

In the end, fandom has a way of remixing existing media to take on more fresh and radical stories. Participatory culture has largely been a space for minorities such as women, LGBTQ+, people of colour, etc. It is important that we not dismiss the alternative readings, for they reveal the representation that is sorely missing in the current media landscape.

In the age of new media, products and political messaging are inseparable. With the rise of political messages embedded within commercials, the intended messages encoded by the producers of such content can be decoded in several ways, taking into consideration the audience’s sociocultural context and the recent political climate. With hopes of spreading a global message of unity and acceptance, Pepsi launched an advertisement starring Kendall Jenner which faced major backlash.

The commercial, which was shortly pulled, displayed a protest that is blocked by the police until Kendall Jenner resolves the conflict between the police and the protestors by handing the officer a can of Pepsi. The Pepsi can, as said by the creative team that conceptualized this commercial, was meant to serve as a symbol for hope and resistance since it was inspired by the infamous photograph by Marc Riboud titled ‘The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet’. The audience, however, interpreted it in an oppositional manner and criticised the company of trivializing significant social issues like the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality towards minority groups and the immigration ban. Though this video displays individuals of multiple ethnic groups, such as the Asian cello player and the Muslim photojournalist, the message of diversity and multiculturalism that it was meant to denote was lost when the protest was led by Kendall, a wealthy white model, who has not struggled with firsthand oppression. The dominant ideology of the creative team was to create an advertisement that resonates with the beliefs of this generation. Using their institutional knowledge, it is apparent that the company believed that using a current influencer would be beneficial in reaching millennials. To reinforce that Pepsi stands with the values of activism and equality that the youth holds, the song used in the background is “Lions” by Skip Marley. This song connotes the importance of resistance and how the youth has the courage to fight for social justice. However, the audience does not partake in a dominant-hegemonic reading and the reception of the song’s message is not positive though it skyrocketed in the charts.

Overall, Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding/decoding is applicable in this example since the message encoded by the creators is clearly warped in the process of distribution and the receiver rejects the message. Finally, the audience is in an oppositional position which defeats the purpose of the commercial entirely which is to boost sales by creating a connection with today’s youth. Aforementioned, the majority of Pepsi’s creative team are white. Thus, one strategy to improve their production of content that resonates with the youth is to make their team more diverse and invest in detailed market research prior to the circulation of its advertisements. As a result of doing this, the company can potentially increase their product sales since they can cater to the needs of various social groups.

References

https://www.cinemablend.com/television/1644290/the-real-explanation-behind-kendall-jenners-controversial-pepsi-commercial

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/pepsi-ad-advert-commercial-kendall-jenner-police-protest-black-lives-matter-review-a7667486.html

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/critics-notebook-real-problem-kendall-jenners-pepsi-ad-991932

There is a Chinese economic talk show named Brainstorm, which is famous for its all-sided design. Let me just take one edition for example— what is the future of the brick-and-mortar bookstores? . With a short video, which is the encoding part of this program, sending the message that the brick-and-mortar bookstores face a lot of difficulties recently and probably do not have a bright future. Firstly, the host asked for the opinions of the owners of brick-and-mortar bookstores and online book retailers. It is obvious that the owners hold an optimistic opinion for the brick-and-mortar bookstores, but the online retailers do not. Then some commentators argued that both brick-and-mortar bookstore and online bookstore have advantages and need to reform.

According to Encoding, Decoding written by Stuart Hall (1973), there are three hypothetical positions of decoders, to be exact, the receivers. The first one is the dominant-hegemonic position, ‘perfectly transparent communication’, as Hall stated, which means that the viewer receives the information exactly as the sender means and agrees with it. Negotiated code or position is the second one, which contains both adaptive and oppositional opinions. The last one is the oppositional code, which means that the receiver’s understanding of the information is contrary to the sender.

Although most of the viewers are from the negotiated position, there are still a large number of people who hold the dominant-hegemonic or the oppositional code. This talk show, just like a debate, perfectly meet needs of all kinds of the viewers. With the same encoding—the message sent by the short video, people have different understandings and opinions because of different ages, genders, etc. If the Brainstorm only invited online retailers to ask for their opinions, this show would be extremely one-sided, which might lead to the loss of audiences. But by inviting holders of brick-and-mortar bookstores, online retailers and economic commentators, whatever position the viewer holds, he or she has one side to agree with. The viewer with the oppositional position will agree with the opinion of the owners of brick-and-mortar bookstores, while the one with the dominant-hegemonic position support the online trailers and the viewer has negotiated position agrees with the commentators.

A media object should cover all the opinions the viewers might have, who decode the information with three possible positions—dominant-hegemonic position, negotiated code or oppositional code. One another possible way for the media object is to provide some specific ways for the viewers to state their different ideas. By doing so, a media object can be integrated well-rounded, in order to attract more audiences.