Monthly Archives: October 2018

Youtube culture has changed drastically since it was created in 2005. In the early years of the media site, silly home videos were the main material but now content is as flashy as possible. This change evolved from the participatory culture that has arisen over the years with the rapid influx in technology and media circulation. Henry Jenkins describes this new culture as a participatory one because we are “shaping, sharing, reframing, and remixing media content,” (2) and getting more involved in the material we are consuming.

In the beginning, money wasn’t the motivation for creators. Videos were uploaded for fun but now, the culture of Youtube today has changed immensely. Jenkins talks about the two concepts of media circulation; stickiness and spreadability. Stickiness seeks to gain viewership and profit off the numbers. It’s quite formulaic and measures “success of online commerce.” (4) Spreadability, on the other hand, relies on viewer participation and adequate platforms. Viral videos can’t necessarily be planned. Someone can watch a goofy singing video and decides to share it with their friend who posts it to facebook. Youtube is spreadable by nature and works as a platform that allows for media to go viral. However, the videos and culture of the site have become less genuine and more strategic. The concept of the “Youtuber” has transformed the motivation of video creation with the end goal of making money, producing content that is sticky and holds the viewer’s on videos to generate revenue. 

The new breed of youtuber has integrated the stickiness model into their content so subtly that we except it. One of the most common examples is clickbait. Popularized by exaggerated “storytime Youtubers”, such as Tana Mongeau, clickbait is a prime example of stickiness for it gets the viewer’s attention and holds it because the viewer is waiting for the story to pan out. It is rare that the clickbait is genuine and often uses extra phrases like “… GONE WRONG” or “live footage” to increase views. Other channels attract viewers by promising announcements or giveaways, often happening at the end of the video so the audience watches the entirety. This results in more views and more money. However, not all popular content on Youtube is out to make money by clicks alone. Vloggers like Jake Paul or David Dobrik create content that is bound to spread because of its intensity. The videos are so wild and addictive that they are just waiting to be shared, reposted, and spread. This shows the link between spreadability and stickiness. Spreadability, or what makes things spreadable and shareable, can direct stickiness and the way content creators decide to frame videos. Youtube culture has become sticky and less natural than it was 13 years ago. 

Ads for major companies play a very important role in their representation and marketing. The whole world is watching this 30-second production, creating many different opinions. Praise and criticism comes along with making these ads, especially when they stir up controversy. Recently, we’ve seen a Nike commercial including Colin Kaepernick, a former NFL football player who started the #Takeaknee movement during the national anthem. His intentions were to protest police brutality against black people occurring in the United States. This created a lot of backlash in the media, as stated in an Independent article. It also served as a reminder of the Pepsi ad involving Kendall Jenner that came out in April of 2017.  This ad created a situation that undermined the Black Lives Matter movement without supposedly realizing its “racial tone-deafness”, as described in BBC and Huffington Post news stories. At the beginning of the ad model, Kendall Jenner is in the middle of a photo shoot when she notices a large crowd protesting outside. Everyone is holding signs displaying peace symbols and statements including: “join the conversation” and “love”. Kendall joins the protest. While grabbing a can of Pepsi she walks up to the front of the protest line to then hand it to a police officer. He drinks the pop and the crowd cheers, celebrating the “unity” between the two forces. This brought up many questions about Pepsi’s intentions for this ad as it began circulating in the media. 

According to Stuart Hall in his article “Encoding, Decoding”, he believes that a message from factual events must be constructed in the production stage for it to be of value to the receivers. The message is interpreted by a single group and set in place,“ encoded”, at the beginning of the communication process and then broken down into different interpretations, “decoded”, at the end by the audience at which it’s received. In regards to the Pepsi ad, the “encoding” of the message for the protesting movement was to be “a global message of unity, peace, and understanding.” as Pepsi described in a tweet. When it reached different audiences around the world, it was “decoded” into a very different message. The overwhelming response consisted of criticism for “painting a privileged, white model as a peacemaker between civil rights activists and police.”, as BBC described it. A particular conversation during the “decoding” stage in Huffington Post article brought up that it looked like a replica of the trended Black Lives Matter photograph of Ieshia Evans in Baton Rouge in 2016. The Huffington Post article commented: “Unlike Jenner, however, Evans was arrested. If only she had a Pepsi in hand.” This analogy of the contribution of a Pepsi in historical black movements seemed to be a trend in discussions, including Bernice King’s (daughter of Martin Luther King) tweet: “If only daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi.”

The “decoding” of this controversial ad resulted in an overwhelming response of criticism and shock. The conversation lead to a large audience questioning the cultural diversity and ethics of the production team and the head of Pepsi itself. The public’s response formed a contrast in the original message that was “encoded” by Pepsi. One must ask, how did anyone perceive this insulting message as unifying? It raises the concern that Pepsi possibly made this ad to gain publicity from the controversy.

Citations:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/taking-a-knee-national-anthem-nfl-trump-why-meaning-origins-racism-us-colin-kaepernick-a8521741.html

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/kendall-jenner-appropriates-the-resistance-to-sell-you-pepsi_us_58e40c27e4b0d0b7e165bdec

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/41465222/kendall-jenner-feels-bad-after-pepsi-black-lives-matter-advert-controversy

Bernice King’s Tweet

https://twitter.com/BerniceKing/status/849656699464056832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E849656699464056832&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fobserver.com%2F2017%2F04%2Fkendall-jenner-pepsi-civil-rights%2F

Pictures

1. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/pepsi-advert-pulled-kendall-jenner-protest-video-cancelled-removed-a7668986.html

2. https://thinkingraceblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/24/that-pepsi-commercial/

3. https://www.pride.com/activism/2017/4/05/even-martin-luther-king-jrs-daughter-couldnt-believe-kendall-jenners-cringey-pepsi-ad

Other trended tweets involved in the discussion:

Phil Lewis

https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/849416977525465089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E849416977525465089&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fobserver.com%2F2017%2F04%2Fkendall-jenner-pepsi-civil-rights%2F

Scott Ludlam

https://twitter.com/Scottludlam/status/849404357485481984

Xavier Burgin

https://twitter.com/XLNB/status/849425654978408450?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E849425654978408450&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.harpersbazaar.com%2Fcelebrity%2Flatest%2Fnews%2Fa21830%2Fkendall-jenner-pepsi-commercial-twitter-reactions%2F

The Logan Paul video was possibly the most controversial internet incident of 2018. For the uninformed, Logan Paul is a YouTube celebrity, who is well-known for his video blogs. While traveling, Logan toured a forest that happened to be a common site of suicide attempts. During the tour, his group discovered a dead body. Filming the tour for his blog, Logan, as the New York Times puts it, “[began] to engage in the kinds of behavior most familiar to his viewers: exaggerated reaction shots and nervous laughter. The tone soon [became] more antic as Mr. Paul and the others appear[ed] to try to lighten the mood.”

When Logan posted the video blog, it was met with extreme backlash. Realizing his mistake, he released a written apology that evening. The next day, he removed the video from YouTube and posted an apology video. Opinions on the apology video have been divided, with it currently having 1.6 million likes and 2.2 million dislikes. Within these two groups, a host of opinions are represented.

Perhaps a better way to classify these opinions would be in the categories presented by 20^th century cultural theorist, Stuart Hall. In his article, Encoding, Decoding, Hall, introduces three different positions from which an audience can determine meaning (“decode”). The “dominant-hegemonic position” tends to agree with the intended meaning of the sender, the “negotiated position” accepts some elements of the dominant position while challenging others, and the “oppositional position” maintains a viewpoint in disagreement with the sender’s meaning.

Obviously, in the case of Logan Paul’s apology, the intent was to offer acknowledgment and repentance for his actions. Those ‘decoding’ from a dominant position would likely accept the apology as sincere and contrite. They might even sympathize with Paul’s shame and regret.

A person taking a negotiated position might also view the video with a degree of understanding, but would likely not dismiss his misconduct so quickly. They would probably recognize the unretractable effect of Paul’s actions, but appreciate his efforts to remedy the situation.

In an oppositional position, one might capitalize on the permanence of the damage and the inability of an apology to compensate. Additionally, one might question Paul’s sincerity and doubt his “promise to be better.”

However, these three views are forced to agree that nothing can be done to change the past. While his behavior shouldn’t be overlooked, there’s nothing more Logan Paul can do. Part of being human is making mistakes. Sometimes, all that can be done is to apologize and learn from the experience. Hopefully, this will have taught us to carefully consider what we share and the motive behind it – it could be the difference in preventing the next online catastrophe.

Nowadays, in order for a successful story to be made, the creator must include such aspects in the story on which both hardcore fans and regular viewers can enjoy and relate. The ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy captures this method very efficiently, both the methods of spreadability and stickiness are clearly represented within the story.

‘Lord of the Rings’ manages to portray these qualities by introducing viewers to many events that are interpret-able in entirely different ways. For example; some viewers may find the ‘one ring to rule them all’ just as a symbol of power that the villain controls, like in any other standard story. However, some viewers may interpret the ring to be a vessel for the corruption that power brings, as it is displayed in the story, the person that controls the ring (power) inevitably becomes corrupt. Such is generally the case in reality. These types of different views show how the story is open to interpretation.

The story could be experienced in two ways; the viewers may just watch the movies/read the books and absorb all the information provided whilst not delving deeper inside and just witnessing the obvious. Another type of audience might be very keen to learn more, explore the possibilities, create fan-theories, interpret things differently than the average viewer and all-round delve deeper into the story and the meaning of the material.

The people that do not delve deeper into the story are known as spreaders, these type of people tend to, after experiencing the story, share their views and opinions with their friends with their own views. Viewers who dive deep in the story are people affected by the stickiness of the given story. These people are likely to be more involved in any kind of debate or theory crafting regarding the material, maybe even set up a fanbase to find like-minded people as themselves.

If we were to think about and perceive both of these perspectives at the same time, we would be able to experience to the full extent, the decisions that the creator has made in order to appeal to both of these types of viewers, as well as the obvious differences that these two types of storytelling express.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Spreadable Media.” NYU Press, nyupress.org/books/9780814743508/.

Jabar, Cynthia. “Sticky Vs Spreadable: If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead by Henry Jenkins.” TransmediaKids.com: Multi Platform Storytelling, 1 Jan. 1970, www.transmediakids.com/2011/09/sticky-vs-spreadable-if-it-doesnt.html.

admin, Author. “Spreadable Media – Stickiness vs Spreadability.” MediaPedagogy, www.ralphbeliveau.com/uncategorized/spreadable-media-stickiness-vs-spreadability/.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994. Print.

Currently Internet is a platform which is ruling people. The internet has created a small world within itself for the followers. People have indulged themselves into following the craziness of this world. This craziness is termed as fandom. A Fan culture is now more likely to be known as a pop culture. Stalking every single move and act of someone has become a part of our daily living. More likely this is a stressful situation between both up loaders and followers. This whole process is now a part of human’s life. People treat fandom as a religion.

Fan cultures cultivates around creations and artistic expression that may take place in different forms like fan fiction, cosplay, fan art, videos, folk songs and various other interactions with a group of people or around a fictional universe. Fans generally share their creations through the platform of social media. The internet has given a warm welcome to this culture and is embraced with a lot of similar minded people across the globe. This social activity allows fans to build their own communities in which they can express themselves and connect with different ideas and thoughts.

According to the Media Scholar Henry Jenkins, he contrasts the fan culture with consume culture, emphasizing that fans “poach” from popular media, appropriate idea from the text and rereading them in creative ways for their own uses. This culture has become beneficial for the culture industry. Taking the fan culture as an advantage they use them as their sources of promotion which actually works out quite well for them. Jenkins has also strongly opposed against the negative fan stereotype, keeping his pint that these portrayals must be critiqued and fandom must be out looked positively.

A fandom is usually divided into groups within themselves, people are grouped according to whomever’s opinions relate. Sometimes these groups take a negative spat over the internet creating unnecessary controversies which destroys the image of the celebrity. It can be taken positively that he/she is all of talks but it negatively affects the career.

However fans need to understand they aren’t a part of a celebrities personal life. Every person has a right to say out their onions but not to impose it into others life. This culture is meant to be a fun-entertaining environment and must be followed in that way.  It will then help in building a person in a right way. The more people take this culture positively the more better it gets. Being crazy isn’t meant being ill but making it a habit is harmful. The beauty of this culture is the ‘belief’ which should never fade.

References:

https://alevelmediaguilsborough1730spencer.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/media-theorists-henry-jenkins-fandom/

Fan Culture

Nowadays, Korean popular music or Kpop has thoroughly reached across the globe, gaining fan clubs from all over the world. Even though Korean itself is not a popularly spoken language, Korean Pop culture, known as Korean wave or Hallyu, has somehow become a notable global influence in the last eight years. However, compared to other pop cultures, Kpop is still considered new to the global music scene. A big changing point occurred in 2012 when PSY’s “Gangnam Style” music video was launching on YouTube. It became the most viral music video at the time as it held ranked the most viewed YouTube video for five years onwards with 2.894 billion views in 2017. The reason behind this considerable intersperse is how social media space is used to convey its distinctive attribute.

Gangnam Style is well known for its catchy rhythm and unique dancing style – riding on an invisible horse. Thanks to the easily accessible and easy-to-share digital Platforms like YouTube, the MV itself has overwhelmingly gained audiences’ participation as it has over 14 million likes and about 2 million dislikes. His popularity was mainly driven through many social media sites, started on Youtube to others including Facebook and Twitter. From Ming Yan’s study of  YouTube Video Promotion by Cross-Network Association, millions of related Tweets on Gangnam Style issue are from 38,540 YouTube users. Besides, more than ten celebrities such as Katy Perry and Madonna has mentioned PSY and his prominent riding dance in their social media spaces. The famous and influential people have helped the song goes more viral and broader spread among social media users.

On the other hand, The song became globally popular since it portrays a very new perspective of music to worldwide fans. The MV content represents life in a flashy area of Seoul, humorously. Funny and “nonsense” videos impressed the audience and encouraged them to spread it. (Yan) The distinct dance style, yet easy to imitate, motivate the fans to generated massive remakes and parodies. Another factor, such as the vivid imaged and the desultory editing attracted audience to stick on what they were presenting. In this case, the fact that most viewers do not understand the lyrics does not matter in this issue; actually, it gets more audience to discuss the connotation of the MV relating those mentioned elements.

We could assume that fans actively play a significant role in promoting its spreadability. All those processes of spreading this media object can be considered participatory culture, in which the individual interplay with the subject as explained by Henry Jenkins et al. They do not only receive and consume the media but also take a prominent place in contributing role.

Citations:
Ming Yan, Jitao Sang, Changsheng Xu, M. Shamim Hossain(2015) YouTube Video Promotion by Cross-Network Association: @Britney to Advertise Gangnam Style. Retrieved from https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7127030
Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, Joshua Green et al(2013) “Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture” New York University Press, ProQuest Ebook Central. Retrieved from ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ubc/detail.action?docID=1114591
Frederic Landinois(2012), Psy’s “Gangnam Style” Passes Justin Bieber’s “Baby” To Become The Most Popular YouTube Video Ever With Over 805 Million Views. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2012/11/24/psys-gangnam-style-most-viewed-youtube-video/