Viral Media Content Over Time

The initial difference between the two examples provided is the socio technical reach of the pamphlet, compared to a meme like “Ermahgerd”. At the time that Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense” went viral, it was considered highly prolific and utilized the most current media form. So, in that sense, it doesn’t different all that much from the contemporary ‘meme’ or video that goes viral, however the scale of virility is definitely much more pronounced in present day media content than in the 18th century. The next difference that caught my attention would be the shift in control or the role of “intent”. With Paine’s pamphlet, he produced it with the intention or at least the hope that it would achieve virility. Here we can conceptualize the control to be at the level of the producer, who has the voice that is ultimately heard. In the case of videos and memes that go viral today, often the producer does not have this intent in mind, or even preconceive the extent to which it will become popular. “Ermahgerd” is an excellent example, since the subject did not intend for it to have become as widely seen as it had. The “Alex from Target” twitter going viral is another example. Alex ended up going on Ellen and confirming that from one day to the next he was immensely popular and had no idea why it happened. Therefore the control is shifted from the producer to the consumers, as the audience determines how popular something will become (to what extent it is circulated).  

Kevin Allocca identifies three different things that must happen in order for “media content’ to go viral. “Common Sense” became viral more as a result of “community participation that creatively transforms original content” (Allocca, 2012) than it being particularly unexpected/novel. He is described in Standage’s book as an ‘unlikely author’, so it would be fair to say that there also isn’t an active “taste-maker” presence here either. This analysis can offer another means of identifying difference between the process of virility amongst these two different examples. While Paine’s pamphlet achieves virility through community participation, present day videos and memes achieve virility with the help of taste-makers, as well as being characterized by unexpectedness of content. The “Ermahgerd”, “double rainbow” and Rebecca Black’s “Friday” are all fairly novel in their own respects.