Spreadability

Year: 2013

Theorist: Henry Jenkins

Background: Jenkins argues that audiences shape the flow of communication and have power to decide what content spreads and succeeds. “If it doesn't spread, it's dead”. New technology empowers audiences and reshaping the way that we think about the law, politics, and the economy and our interaction online involves sharing meaningful content with each other. What audiences share not only expresses the ideas intended by its producers, but the act of sharing also communicates something about themselves.

Jenkins rejects the idea of ‘viral’ media as it implies that audiences are passive and powerless and creates false assumptions about the power dynamic between media and audiences. According to Jenkins, audiences literally remake content when they choose to spread it.

Key terms:

Viral media: a piece of media that replicates rapidly over a short period of time

Level of media power:  ☆/★★★