Viral phenomenon
Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the term viral pertains to a video, image, or written content spreading to numerous online users within a short time period.
The word meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene as an attempt to explain memetics; or, how ideas replicate, mutate, and evolve.
[4] When asked to assess this comparison, Lauren Ancel Meyers, a biology professor at the University of Texas, stated that "memes spread through online social networks similarly to the way diseases do through offline populations.
[3]: 19, 27 For example, multiple viral videos featuring Vince McMahon promoted misogynistic messages and hate against Jewish people, women, and the LGBTQ+ community.
This video was taken out of context to support misogynistic views for the Men Going Their Own Way Movement to gain attention according to research led by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
The term viral pertains to a video, image, or written content spreading to numerous online users within a short time period.
Accordingly, Tony D. Sampson defines viral phenomena as spreadable accumulations of events, objects, and affects that are overall content built up by popular discourses surrounding network culture.
Mofolo bases this definition on a study about how internet users involved in the Tunisian Arab Spring perceived the value of Facebook towards their revolution.
Mofolo's understanding of the viral was first developed in a study on Global Citizen's #TogetherAtHome campaign and used to formulate a new theoretical framework called Hivemind Impact.
Hivemind impact is a specific type of virality that is simulated via digital media networks with the goal of harnessing the virtual collective consciousness to take action on a social issue.
Research[10] conducted by Dr. Jonah Berger at The University of Pennsylvania, summarized in his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On,[11] suggests that content’s shareability can be increased by activating six key S.T.E.P.P.S.
A study of United States newspapers in the 1800s found human-interest, "news you can use" stories and list-focused articles circulated nationally as local papers mailed copies to each other and selected content for reprinting.
In 1979, dial-up internet service provided by the company CompuServ was a key player in online communications and how information began spreading beyond the print.
The success that was predicted by CompuServe and the Associated Press led to some of the largest newspapers to become part of the movement to publish the news via online format.
[19] The creation of the Internet enabled users to select and share content with each other electronically, providing new, faster, and more decentralized controlled channels for spreading memes.
[22] The classification is probably assigned more as a result of intensive activity and the rate of growth among users in a relatively short amount of time than of simply how many hits something receives.
"YouTube, which makes it easy to embed its content elsewhere have the freedom and mobility once ascribed to papyrus, enabling their rapid circulation across a range of social networks.
As one example, American Idol was the most viewable TV show in 2009 in the U.S. while "a video of Scottish woman Susan Boyle auditioning for Britain's Got Talent with her singing was viewed more than 77 million times on YouTube".
On March 5, 2012, the charity organization Invisible Children Inc. posted a short film about the atrocities committed in Uganda by Joseph Kony and his rebel army.
[30] According to Visible Measures, the original "Kony 2012" video documentary, and the hundreds of excerpts and responses uploaded by audiences across the Web, collectively garnered 100 million views in a record six days.
"The discourse of Web 2.0 its power has been its erasure of this larger history of participatory practices, with companies acting as if they were "bestowing" agency onto audiences, making their creative output meaningful by valuing it within the logics of commodity culture.
[6] Other content being promoted on platforms that may be harmful include; anti-LGBTQ, anti- Black, antisemitic, anti-Muslim, anti-Asian, anti-migrant and refugees viewpoints.
Users who spread disinformation use the algorithms of video platfforms, like YouTube or TikTok, exploit engagement tools in order to get their content viral.
Another way users can get around terms and conditions is by a multiple part video series on their account where they often spell out racial slurs and hate speech.
"[3]: 19 Viral marketing has become important in the business field in building brand recognition, with companies trying to get their customers and other audiences involved in circulating and sharing their content on social media both in voluntary and involuntary ways.
[37] Stacy Wood from North Carolina State University has conducted research and found that the value of recommendations from 'everyday people' has a potential impact on the brands.
"[3]: 17 For example, the 1992 novel Snow Crash explores the implications of an ancient memetic meta-virus and its modern-day computer virus equivalent: We are all susceptible to the pull of viral ideas.
"Audiences play an active role in 'spreading' content rather than serving as passive carriers of viral media: their choices, investments, agendas, and actions determine what gets valued.
"[3]: 21 Various authors have pointed to the intensification in connectivity brought about by network technologies as a possible trigger for increased chances of infection from wide-ranging social, cultural, political, and economic contagions.
[2][41] In this context, Tarde's social imitation thesis is used to argue against the biological deterministic theories of cultural contagion forwarded in memetics.
