As media forms and communicative practices are affected by the environment they take place in, the articulations as media modes of productions are also affected.
When Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" went viral in colonial America, 1776, it is in a very different process of Youtube's Most Watched Video OF ALL TIME - Gangnam style. However, the works of both this 16th century author who wrote in favour of independence, and the korean popstar with a materialistic crtitique of the new millenium both were wildly popular within their own audiences.
Thomas Paine's work was a pamphlet, which was at first anonymously printed in newspapers. It rose in popularity as it was both printed in sections (and developed a following) as well as being reprinted across the United States. It was also shared to the illiterate by being read aloud in taverns. This extended its reach beyond the newspaper reading population, and let it be discussed by a manjority of people. It discussed an issue that was relevant to all colonists at the time, as it argued for American Independence. Therefore, most people had a stake in it, and it also evoked a lot of feedback and responses that were sometimes published, but definitely shared themselves. This demand for "Common Sense" was due to the interested audience, and involvement that garnered it's virality.
Moving into the 21st Century, another media artifact that has been shared and discussed is PSY's Gangnam style. Nearing 2,500,000 views on Youtube, this video has gone viral in a very different context. In the digital world, something goes viral when it is introduced by a tastemaker, has a lot of community involvement, and is "novel" or "unique". Being Korean, despite a growing trend of K-Pop music, there is a general unfamilirity of having a korean song, this adds to the obscureness and "wtf" factor of the video. With his comedic antics, PSY's Gangnam style is both exotic, but the horse dance soon became all the familar. The "horse dance" allowed community members to participate, and soon after it went viral there were a slew of "Gangnam Style" remakes as audiences made their own versions. How did Gangnam style get introduced? This was both through mainstream articles from Gawker, Billboard, Time Magazine as well as a slew of social media sharing across websites like twitter and facebook. Gangnam Style was a decently popular song in South Korea, and thus got a lot of play in Videogame streamers, and spread across that community, where South Korea has a strong foothold. As an earworm, it spread across that community and soon "leaked" into the mainstream world -- and pushed PSY to the front of the global music scene.
What I find to be particularly important about your post is your emphasis on audience accessibility. Both Paine's "Common Sense" and PSY's "Gangnam Style" were disseminated in ways that allowed the largest possible audience to engage with them. Paine's pamphlet was written in a style that permitted it to be read and shared with the illiterate in venues that commonly targeted that demographic. On the other hand, the sharing of "Gangnam Style" on a popular video sharing website, like YouTube, ensured that the audiences could not only view it on the site itself, but that it could shared on different social media platforms, reaching a large audience.
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