CS 371 Blog Post #3 - Paine and his pamphlet vs. Rebecca Black and "Friday"

 Media modes of production are constituted by two distinctive conceptual articulations: the first articulation involves how media modes of production are simultaneously modes of communication, modes of affect and modes of accumulation. The second articulation concerns how media and messages are created and then spread through a culture, society and community. In class we watched a “Ted Talk” where the trends manager of Youtube Kevin Allocca explained that in order for media content to go viral, three things needed to happen: the content is introduced into the mediascape by a “taste maker” (i.e. Jimmy Kimmel and the ‘Double Rainbow” video); community participation that creatively transforms original content (i.e. remixes of NyanCat); the content must be “unexpected” or novel. (Week 6 L. 1, Oct 27^th) Although this definition of "going viral" can be applied to a more contemporary society today, it is important to note that this concept of content going viral also existed during the 18^th century as well. 

During the 18^th century Thomas Paine created a pamphlet titled “Common Sense” which inspired people within the original thirteen colonies to declare and fight for sole independence from Great Britain. This pamphlet clearly explained the advantages of separation from Britain and became a large sensation. The pamphlet was read aloud at meetings and was distributed largely and reached a new form of popularity while connecting a multitude of individuals who aligned themselves with Paine’s main goal. We can closely see that with Paine’s viral movement surrounding this pamphlet, he clearly attached a simplistic message which had meaning to the pamphlet. The main message also managed to pull on the emotions of the community and society in which he immersed himself in and with the growth of this "viral" movement, he was able to gather a rather large group of followers who shared similar opinions towards separating themselves from Britain. As was previously mentioned Paine’s pamphlet was mainly spread by individuals reading aloud the message at town meetings. We know for a fact that Paine’s pamphlet and message was spread to people at a rather fast pace even without the assistance of social media.

Individuals in the 21^st century have the means to spread messages at such a rapid rate. This is largely due to social media platforms as well as the Internet. The opportunity to send and receive messages and memes instantaneously has skyrocketed over the last decade with our reliance as a society on social media apps growing. There are a number of ways videos and memes can go viral in our contemporary society today. Obtaining a large amount of views in a short period of time is ultimately heightened by how many times an individual share a post. Views are about consumption and when you are talking about shares you are talking about circulation and distribution. The greater the range of the platform the more people you will reach.

Rebecca Black’s catchy song “Friday” went viral in March of 2011. The whole notion of videos going viral can be credited closely to Alloca’s three points of what a video requires to go viral. Black’s song was produced for the sole purpose of gaining popularity and reaching viewers. The video was released on video sharing site YouTube which acted as a popular social media platform that had the ability to reach a large number of viewers. Although these notions of consumption and distribution were successful for Black’s video, “Friday” fully catapulted into the spotlight of millions of viewers when it was featured on Tosh. 0, which is a comedy, show. Tosh. 0 acted as a tastemaker for Black's video and with his social media presence and power and and his ever growing audience, he helped Black's video gain millions of views on Youtube.

The main difference between the two different forms of media going viral is the fact that due to the growth of the internet and different forms of technology, we are exposed to several different facets that allow for media to be spread at such a rapid pace . Although Paine’s pamphlet reached a large audience by word of mouth and through the consumption of a popular message, if Paine had released a similar pamphlet onto a small community today, if desired due to this idea of virality, Paine and his notion of separating the thirteen colonies from Britain would and could be an International phenomenon within hours.