Blog Post #1
It never occurred to me, when the exact moment was that Internet based media came to be. I would be willing to bet my money on the guess that someone out there in the world had originally striven to post something of true meaning, phenomenal incites in hope of generating positive public response. Unfortunately, the true success of it all ended up being something negatively viral. Based purely on what I’ve noticed about media sites and public comment, such as any well known news organization, or even YouTube, negative publicity spreads like wildfire, whereas positive publicity becomes extinguished and forgotten 48 hours after the incident had taken place.
To support this kind of idea, you can take the Dayum video as an example. Prior to revision by the Gregory Brothers, this food critic, no matter how unrefined in quality, did not receive nearly as much publicity as it did as an auto-tuned song parody. The intent, I would assume, is purely good natured and humorous. I doubt that the Gregory Brothers knew the individuals in the video personally before completely revamping their video and somehow, through humiliation, caused for major publicity. I don’t think it was malicious of them, if one were to base purely on intentions; however, in the end, it could be racially based ridicule that results from this kind of viral revision of the content.
The twists of the revisions made through virtual media can also turn the attention from the product to the presenter. In instances such as Marilyn Hagerty’s Olive Garden review, the focus landed not on the restaurant, although I’m certain that Olive Garden did exceptionally while for a time afterwards, but on the critic herself. The public chose to focus on what seemed to be more interesting: the fact that the woman commenting was old, rather than what she had intended to put across: that the restaurant was good. The revisions of media focus, especially when these articles or videos become viral, skew the perception of the audience. The intentions and end results become like a game of Telephone, and it becomes accessible to every with an Internet browser.
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