How can "media
material act as a Trojan horse," or turn people into "hosts"?
(17). Provide some original examples to
explain this idea.
As stated by the authors of Spreadable Media, media material
[may] act as a Trojan horse (17). By this they mean that the spreading of media
will often, and even may be designed, akin to a virus (18). This viral spread
of media, whether intentional or not, is done through people. In the era prior
to the internet being so accessible, this would have been done through
printable media and then spread through word-of-mouth. However, in today's day
and age the internet is the main distribution system for the vast majority of
media. While the concept of viral media was definitely present in the era
before the internet, it became much more prevalent and true to name with the
gap closer that is the internet. The internet allowed users to literally
'share' links to the source, which inherently uses them as a conduit in where
the media can travel. In other words, the act of sharing a piece of media
turned the user into host over which said media may spread. Likewise, the user
may or may not even be aware of what is happening or what they have done,
reinforcing the 'Trojan Horse' angle of view. An example of this would be if
the Coca-Cola company decided to spread a new upcoming promotion, but only
though social media. While only some people will actually 'share', 'retweet',
'reblog', etc, it is inherently going to be shown in some way or form to their
friends, followers, etc.
The
authors of "Spreadable Media" bring up the interesting concept of
'influencers' (79), and how they are the supposed keystones to understanding
how the spread of social media works. In the chapter, the authors cite how
Malcolm Gladwell emphasizes the usage of 'influencers', or key people that are
well embedded in the community, are the more valuable people when trying to get
something spread around. This conclusion comes of course from the 'Small World
Experiment' (80) conducted in the 1960's, or in other words from a time period
before the internet. In the modern age, these 'influencers' aren't necessarily
people any more, but rather social media websites. While it may be argued that
the people on the websites are the 'influencers' that serve as the catalyst for the spreading
of media texts, the website itself is the only reason said person could have so
many connections and be able to 'influence' so many people. These websites not
only include social media sites, but also forum style sites, bulletin board
style sites, etc. Consider the following, say a person had just recently been
introduced to a wiki style site, and the person was adequately knowledgeable of
the subject and actively visited and contributed to the website. Said person
produces good work and works their way up the hierarchy and eventually becomes
the administrator of the website. The person then chooses what ads are
displayed on the website, influencing the type of media displayed on the site.
While yes, he himself is 'influencing' the visible media on the site, it is the
site itself that is the actual vehicle of the spread of media text throughout
the user base.
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