A Conversation About Spreadable Media

    

1. What is residual in digital writing environments, and how does it work? How is it a catalyst for spreadability? Provide some original examples to explain.

Residual artifacts are pieces of content that represent “areas of human experience, aspiration, and achievement which the dominate culture neglects, undervalues, opposes, represses, or even cannot recognize” (Raymond Williams). Residual content may include media that certain people are interested in that is from the past and has retained little to no popular media currency. One such residual genre I have found is hilariously bad training videos from the past. The 1989 Wendy’s training video featuring a man rapping burger grilling instructions to a Wendy’s employee has been viewed on YouTube more than 300,000 times, yet it arguably holds no cultural value today except for entertainment purposes. These residual media are spreadable because they offer unique views into the past, culturally common experiences (many people have experienced watching low production training videos), comparisons and contrasts to today’s popular media and culture, and nostalgic feelings.

1. How can audience labor "generate alternative forms of value?". Provide an example.    

Audience labor is the work done by an audience that helps distribute or legitimize a work, whether the audience means to or not. Pirating TV shows, the example book uses, is one such way that the audience provides more value for the creators of the show, by engaging with it, spreading the popularity of it around, recommending it, and even adding to the original creation. For instance, if I recommend Breaking Bad on Netflix, a show that was originally aired on AMC, am I taking away or adding value to what AMC is distributing? People who watch the show on Netflix will be recommended other AMC programs, and will probably spread the word about Breaking Bad, which provides AMC with more potential viewers (not everyone will want to wait for a show to come on Netflix, so they might watch it on AMC instead).

1. Explain what spectators and inactives are. Then consider how these individuals provide something valuable despite often being dismissed as invaluable.

Spectators and inactives are consumers of media who don’t create content, but rather consume it exclusively. This, according to the book, constitutes 52 percent of people online. These individuals can provide value, however, by recirculating or passively popularizing content (views on YouTube, for instance). In the book, there is a clear attempt given to be fair when using the terms “active” and “passive”, because “an individual who ‘productively’ responds to one media property, brand, or cause may be a ‘passive’ listen to many others; activity and passivity are not permanent descriptions of any individual.” The point made here is that many users considered passive can seem active, and vice versa, depending on your perspective. If I am on Facebook but I never post, I merely watch videos and read posts, am I passive? To my Facebook friends I may be, but Facebook wouldn’t think so, because I’m still a marketable person with an account who is interacting.