Catching a Viral Video

The sharing and re-sharing of videos on social sites, blogs e-mail, and other means has given rise to the phenomenon of viral videos - videos that become popular through internet sharing. In this paper we seek to better understand viral videos on YouTube by analyzing sharing and its relationship to video popularity using millions of YouTube videos. The socialness of a video is quantified by classifying the referrer sources for video views as social (e.g. an emailed link, Facebook referral) or non-social (e.g. a link from related videos). We find that viewership patterns of highly social videos are very different from less social videos. For example, the highly social videos rise to, and fall from, their peak popularity more quickly than less social videos. We also find that not all highly social videos become popular, and not all popular videos are highly social. By using our insights on viral videos we are able develop a method for ranking blogs and websites on their ability to spread viral videos

Memes inside and outside the Internet - how digital entertainment mirrors the human psyche

The essay sets out to explain how the meme-sharing mechanism on the Internet is the reflection of human psyche. Starting from Richard Dawkins’ definition of meme, the analysis focuses on the search of what make Internet memes go viral, with the supporting theories of Richard Brodie about the effect of memes on human mind and Limor Shifman’s studies about memes in digital culture. Having described the elements of adaptability, accessibility, belonging, exclusivity, nonsense, irony, cuteness, contrast, surprise, political incorrectness, and stereotype, meme genres such as image macros, videos and photoshop-edited pictures are analyzed across the spectrum of such factors. The result is subsequently compared to the ones obtained by Shifman in 2014, in order to find common elements to outline a spreading pattern. The third and last section focus on the effects of memes on human brain, starting from Brodie’s “button pushing” theory, which refers to many mechanisms such as “repetition”, “cognitive dissonance”, and “creating value” that trigger humans’ most basic instincts. By comparing such theory with Shifman’s about memes providing freedom of expression, the suggested solution concentrate on raising awareness the real potential of memes among people and providing them the means to make memes work for a more conscious society

Food and Beverage Marketing to Children and Adolescents: What Changes Are Needed to Promote Healthy Eating Habits?

Provides an overview of research on media use by children and youth, the channels and marketing techniques food and beverage companies use to market to them, and the influence on their diets. Outlines recommendations for improving marketing regulations

The Viral Concept: the Winning Ticket of the Romanian Online Advertising Industry

The connection between the steady development of the Internet in Romania in the last five years, as channel of transmitting the marketing message, and the viral concept, as method of transmitting the message, may become the winning ticket for the Romanian online advertising market. Thus, in the current socio-economic context, any company who wishes to be successful in the virtual space cannot ignore the viral marketing techniques for several reasons. Firstly, we are talking about the profile of Internet users who tend to constitute a new social group. Secondly, we are talking about the thirst for information. And, last but not least, we are talking about the appetite for online chatting, statistics showing that 62% of the Roma-nian Internet users consider it a very "savory" information channel. This article tries to explain, in brief, what viral marketing is, which are its peculiarities, advantages, risks, as well as the limitations of its use, and which the strategies of a viral marketing campaign are. We will illustrate by giving successful examples from the Romanian online market.viral marketing, Internet, promotion, campaign.

Getting Past It's Not For People Like Us: Pacific Northwest Ballet Builds a Following with Teens and Young Adults

This case study examines how the Pacific Northwest Ballet set about trying to cultivate the next generation of ballet-goers. Focusing on teens and adults under the age of 25, the Seattle-based ballet company sought in part to knock down the view of many young people that ballet is stuffy or boring and replace it with the view that ballet could be exciting and meaningful to them. The ballet company attacked the problem on a number of fronts, including revising promotional materials to appeal to younger audiences, posting online videos to familiarize viewers with the ballet, holding teen-only previews, and offering heavily discounted tickets. One result was a doubling over four years of ticket sales to teens

Networked idiots:affective economies and neoliberal subjectivity in Russian viral video

Idiot is usually a term of derision. In this article, we reconsider the common meaning as designating a stupid person and return to an earlier etymology as signifying a private and independent individual. In ancient Greece, being idiotic meant engaging in the contemplative process of becoming an individual. At times, this pursuit of individuation differentiated such individuals as their acts occurred in public and were seen as absurd, out-of-the-ordinary and, frankly, idiotic, as most now know the term. With the widespread use of social media and digital video, these once private or semi-public acts of individuation often become explicitly public acts for others to see, critique and mimic. Social media has made it possible for these explorations of self to circulate where their emotional intensities resonate with or are rejected by viewers, are captured for profit by media corporations, and leveraged by their producers into media careers. Using a case study from Russian social media, this article describes the affective economy of idiotic videos and how the history of one Internet video illustrates the circulation, capture and self-capitalization attendant with neoliberalism