Shelley Russell October 5, 2009
Book Synthesis: Reaching Interactive Media Audiences
In order to effectively reach interactive media audiences, businesses and various media outlets must re‐think their products and content, as well as the nature of their consumers. This book, “Reaching Interactive Media Audiences,” is centered around the idea of the emergence of spreadable media, proactive consumers and the importance of research and usability testing for new user‐centered design processes. Essentially, it is not the good, but the consumer that is the new focus for companies looking to market a product to an interactive media audience. Convergence culture expert Henry Jenkins created a new model to describe the ways that information is distributed and shared on a daily basis: “Spreadable media.” This model rests on the idea that when information is transferred among consumers, it is “repurposed,” or “transformed,” and this re‐creation of original content adds value because the content can be made more specific to various cultural contexts (p.2). Past models utilized a centralized control, or “stickiness.” Stickiness and spreadability can be thought of as two separate models of media contact. Web sites such as Amazon are “sticky” sites; they get the attention of the consumer and work to keep the consumer on the site. On the Amazon Web site, information is concentrated within the site and there are very few links to external sites. New sites using the spreadability model do just the opposite. They encourage open‐ ended participation with many external links. Users are motivated to spread the word and collaboration between producers, marketers and consumers is essential for the survival of the Web site and its content. There has been a clear shift in the way that consumers are viewed. Whereas once businesses and media outlets could easily dictate content to a receptive audience, this audience is making a transformation. Marketers are recognizing an emergence of “prosumers,” and “multipliers,” or those who are becoming more active at manipulating and deciding which content will survive in the masses (p.12). Spreadability relies on the minds of consumers to keep information alive. Because of this, consumers are becoming key players for producers, who rely on their users to complete their work by expanding the meaning and the purpose of content. It is interesting to think that no matter how skilled or experienced a marketing team is, it will never be able to predict all of the uses of contexts that their message will be used for. Consumers serve as multipliers because they expand upon the original purpose of messages to create something previously unpredicted by any producers or marketing teams. “As consumers produce and circulate media, they are blurring the line between amateur and professional” (p.27). These new and more prominent consumers have been deemed: “loyals, media actives, inspirational consumers, connectors and influencers (p.27). Many companies, such as Facebook, allow users to decide what kind of relationship they wish to have with the site; such as fan, friend or coworker. Andrew
Lockhart has suggested that other companies should follow suit because the move would only allow businesses to better understand their consumers and cater content accordingly. Not only are consumers becoming more active in leading content on the Web, but the present day culture is now also known as a “networked culture” (p.28). Lochay Banker indicated that this shift was a positive one, as the practical capacities of individuals have been improved threefold: 1) Improvement in the capacity to do for and by themselves 2) Enhancement in the capacity to do more in loose commonality with others 3) Improvement in the capacity of individuals to do more in formal organizations that operate outside of the market sphere (p.28). With a new networked culture comes structures that shape various groups. Lara Lee developed a social structure typography to describe the different network boundaries of consumers. The typography is divided into three sections: Pools, webs and hubs. In pools, people may not be strongly connected with one another, but all have a strong association with a value or a common cause. Webs consist of strong social connections between members, and hubs are influenced by dominant figures— such as a fan club. The most common types of Web community that would allow for spreadable content are free registration communities. Everyone is encouraged to join and this provides more channels for content flow. James Paul Gee has referred to these networked communities as “affinity spaces” (p.29). “We form non‐exclusive relationships to these kinds of ‘affinity spaces’…this focus on social mobility and multiple commitments helps us to understand how content might spread quickly between different [spaces] as members trade information from one site to another” (p.29). Newly empowered individuals are ultimately facilitating the distribution and survival of media content. Two main components lead to the survival of ideas: individual choices and the method of circulation. Depending on various backgrounds and agendas, consumers ultimately choose which ideas to share with others. In addition, the method of circulation of different content is essential to market a specific message to consumers. Online video for example allows for a “direct transmission of ideas,” (p.7) whereas it would not be appropriate to place other forms of media in the same method of circulation. Marketers must test and research which method of circulation would be most appropriate for the message that they want to reach consumers. Notable commercials or media messages that have stuck in the minds of consumers over long periods of time include: NBC’s one‐time airing of the Virginia Tech shooter, Cho Seung‐Hui’s tapes and photos, Will Ferrell’s many impersonations of President George W. Bush and the shocking Truth ads that focus on tobacco statistics and present live demonstrations. These three examples tie in well with some of the structural strategies presented in the book. The Virginia Tech example is shocking, but it is also information seeking. Many people were confused as to why the video and photos aired on the news in the first place. Others wondered if it was a mistake, and many people called one another to spread the news and discuss the content. The Truth ads also fall under information seeking content. Viewers are often left questioning the seemingly unbelievable statistics and discussing them long after the airing of the ad.
Aside from information seeking, other structural strategies for spreadability include humor, parodies, unfinished content and nostalgia. Will Ferrell’s Bush impersonations, and the Cadbury’s Gorilla commercial fall under the humor category (p.37). Good parodies are able to provide multiple levels of engagement, so that most viewers will understand the humor—regardless of whether or not they comprehended the original intent of the ad. Structural strategies are important, but not the sole contributor to the survival and spreadability of content. For content to exist in the realm of consumer groups for long periods of time, compelling nature of the material is essential, but survival depends on the fact that the material can be used to make meaning (p.8). Individual choices lead people to weed out the mass of products and messages and retain only several over a long period of time. According to Knobel and Lankshear, adaptation is a central component to spreadability. The example in the book involving the emergence of Soulja Boy as an artist supports Knobel and Lankshear’s idea. Soulja Boy gained popularity after YouTube viewers were encouraged to change and video and remix the original song in unique ways. Soulja Boy saw success “in part as a consequence of his understanding of the mechanisms by which cultural content circulates within a participatory culture” (p.9). Patricia Turner’s research about rumor circulation in the African American community also reveals a new form of spreadability in “solidified rumors,” or word of mouth (p.32). Turner’s research indicates that there are three social factors motivating the spread of content: 1) To bolster camaraderie and identity in a community 2) To gather information and explain confusing events 3) To establish boundaries of an “in‐group” (p.32). Research shows that fans' advocacy of a certain franchise or consumers' decision to back a specific brand comes from the relation of the franchise or brand to the consumer's community ‐ whether it serves a valued function or expresses a common feeling or perception in that particular culture. Ultimately, the consumers decide which brands and messages to promote based off of their cultural backgrounds or communal interests. In order for marketers to be successful in promoting a product, they must relinquish some control over their message—accepting that it will be personalized and localized in various communities (p.33‐34). These flexible messages are often referred to as “producerly texts,” which have some ambiguity, thereby allowing for some shift or development in meaning by consumers (p.35). Producers must also distinguish between mass media and popular media if they want a message or brand to have “staying power” in a community. Mass media refers to mass produced and distributed content, such as a song on the radio. But mass media becomes popular media when it is “meaningfully integrated” into the lives of consumers” (p.35). On various levels, users find a way to use a message to channel their own feelings or beliefs. Spreadable content occurs when a message transitions into the popular media realm. This is an obvious challenge for powerful companies and businesses, since integration of a message into a culture is not something that can be forced on anyone.
Marketers and advertisers often use the terms “viral” and “meme” to describe the circulation of content among various cultures (p.2). However, according to authors Jenkins, Li and Krauskopf, these terms are very difficult to define and can often lead to confusion. “Viral” media is ultimately a flawed view of the way that content moves through society today. The term viral implies that the content is being involuntarily injected into the minds of consumers, and spread rapidly like a virus. However; based on the above discussions of spreadable and changeable media, the term “viral” media does not include the transformation and changing of ideas based off of different cultural contexts. Instead, it only relates to replication of ideas. Douglas Rushkoff’s book “Media Virus” is closely related to the term viral media, because the book’s content focuses on the spread of ideas that can occur without the consent of the user (p.4). Memes, a term coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976, are described as the ideas at the center of “virally spread events” (p.5). These ideas are the ones that move among consumers. According to Dawkins, memes possess three characteristics: • Fidelity • Fecundity • Longevity Jenkins et al., recognize the memes and viral media yet view them as being completely contradictory to spreadability. Ideas spread not because they are forced upon consumers, but because consumers have accepted and chosen specific messages to retain long‐term: “We want to suggest that these materials travel through the web because they are meaningful to the people who spread them” (p.6). Jenkins contradicts Dawkins by saying that memes do not have the ability to self‐replicate, consumers are not “susceptible” entities and viral media are not meaningless “snacks” (p.6). Consumers drive away any unwanted content and spread messages that relate to them in some way. Success in creating ideas that will survive in the masses for long periods of time comes from understanding the nature of the consumer and the moral economy for which the idea is being marketed. The moral economy of a community is described as a “set of social norms and mutual understandings that allow two parties to do business together” (p.17) Spreadable media calls for a new moral economy involving an increased trust between producers and consumers. A large divide between these two entities comes from the underlying interests of each group: profit and social acceptance, respectfully. In a sense, there is a “cultural” divide between producers and consumers: the commodity culture versus the gift economy. The former emphasizes economic motives while the latter focuses on the importance of social motives. In terms of online content, the gift economy operates as a system, in which information or content is free, but one gains recognition, respect and feelings of good will from other members of the community (i.e. other consumers) (p.21). According to an excerpt from Lewis Hyde’s “Thinking through the Gift Economy,” social norms facilitate the exchange of gifts, not the economy. As such, it is the gift economy that is responsible for the spread of new media content to interactive audiences. Consumers are not economically driven to distribute content to others. Instead, they circulate information freely to boost social standing and gain respect from
fellow community members. Perhaps the biggest difference between gift economy and commodity culture is that items or messages in the gift economy have worth, whereas those in the commodity culture have value (p.22). In terms of spreadable media and success online, worth means more to consumers than a monetary value. In order for the value of a message to transfer its meaning to worth, advertisers must draw on already‐ established meanings within the culture (p.25). Too often, companies try to create communities around their products, instead of accepting pre‐existing values and standards within a community. A business must not only understand their consumer and the importance of giving a message worth in the eyes of the audience, but they must also accept the benefits of spreadable media because it is more effective at generating a buzz than revenue. Advertisers, although ultimately wound up in commodity culture, must give up some profit in order to gain a committed audience. The benefits of spreadable media include: • Creating an active audience • Empowering the audience and making users an integral part of the product’s success, 3) Gaining recognition through online word or mouth • Reaching a highly interconnected audience • Communicating with audiences in a community that they already understand and value (p.44). Based off of the strong influence of word of mouth, companies have a lot to gain by giving up some of their power. “By ceding this power to its consumers companies are losing much of the control over their distribution, but they are gaining the value of each user’s personal ties” (p.47). Many companies are now catering more to consumers. Sony‐BMG, which has historically been “prohibitionist” in terms of allowing consumers to view any of its content on YouTube, is now allowing the content to be linked to the original site while preventing the video to be embedded in YouTube. Fans can share music while visiting Sony BMG’s official Web sites and consumers are gaining trust in the company because the company no longer doubts them (p.46). While many may see consumers as one large “mass audience,” this is not the case. There are many different types of consumers—each playing a unique role of engagement and commitment in a community. Ross Mayfield’s Power Law of Participation explains that not all consumers can accommodate and understand how to use the multitude of available social software. Consumers range from low‐threshold participants to the “core community” of influencers. Sites such as digg fall under the “low‐threshold participation” category. Users simply use a one‐click method to put something of interest on their favorites list. This low level of participation is often referred to as “collective intelligence,” in which not all users must devote large amounts of time to a Web site, but a little bit of participation from a large amount of people can result in a collaborative effort to figure out an issue or put resources together. While these sites are valuable, there is no commitment from consumers. Subscribing to different sites requires a sustained attention from users, such as Facebook. Users will go back repeatedly to communicate on the site or update their profile.
The core community, mentioned above, is a small percentage of Web users who lead and collaborate with others. For example, on Wikipedia, 500 people (or just .5 percent of users) account for 50 percent of all the edits. This small number of people makes up the core community (p.50). Mayfield’s idea of a core community closely coincides with Malcolm Gladwell’s “Influencer Model” (p.27). Gladwell’s model rests on the idea that in each system, some users are more valuable. These valued consumers, or “influencers,” need to be reached in order to guarantee success. To gain insight into one’s audience and behaviors of consumers, research is essential. Multiple sources list statistical analysis, surveys, ethnographic research, interviews, contextual inquiries and Web analytics as important forms of qualitative and quantitative data collection. Before seeking out specific information on site visitors through external means of research, one can look at information already embedded in the site: such as visitor loyalty, bounce rate, time on site, location, search terms and traffic source (p.53). This information can provide valuable data on the general interests of site visitors, as well as how they are finding the link to a particular site. Data collection follows the initial look at statistics. Depending on the interests of the site creator or marketer, not all methods may apply. Surveys are a fast way to generate a large amount of both qualitative and quantitative data, although responses may be inaccurate. Ethnographic research is valuable because it involves observing users in their own context and recording overall behaviors. Interviews take ethnographic research a step further; allowing researchers to ask consumers why they behave in certain ways. Contextual inquiries involve combining observation and interview. The above research methods are valuable tools for learning about one’s audience, however there are other ways to gain insight into a consumer group: Personas mental models and experience lifecycles. According to Steve Baty, personas are used to represent various types of people that the organization or business wishes to connect with. When working in a communications research group, Baty noted that researchers are quick to jump at a certain “type” of person by way of stereotyping. Personas should not be created unless a particular person was observed that fits a type of consumer that is being targeted. Researchers must not have pre‐defined notions of personas prior to collecting data. Mental models and experience lifecycles are detailed visual representations that can provide information on how and why users approach various content (p.59‐60). Once research is complete and targeted audiences have been identified, Web content should be promoted. Understanding a user‐centered design (USD) process is essential to creating a site that will be visited frequently by many consumers. UCD works to “integrate users representing the profiles of target user groups into the development process” (p. 84). Instead of creating a site and then presenting it to a consumer, consumers are placed in the center of the design process. Creating prototypes, or “rapid application development” (RAD) for users to test and releasing a Beta version of the site will generate a large amount of feedback and save money because advertisers will ultimately be putting out a pre‐tested, consumer‐approved Web site (p.103). Focus groups as well as eye‐tracking and heat maps are often used to gain feedback on the tester site (p.88‐89).
The most important factor in determining the credibility of a user experience is visual design (p.103). Consumers look for sites that are aesthetically pleasing, easy to use and have a solid interface. According to Bruce Tognazzini, effective interfaces are the most fundamental and important requirement for a successful interactive design (p.107). Beyond the initial look and feel of the site, visitors look for a clear interface that is easy to explore. Those who create sites for more advanced users will likely not be as successful as those who cater to users of various experiences. According to Don Norman, people process input at three levels: • Visceral level – pre‐consciousness and pre‐thought in which appearance matters first • Behavioral level – experience with a product, function, performance and usability • Reflective level – the full impact of thoughts and emotions. The meaning of the product is realized (p.111). Understanding these input levels and recognizing basic principles of interactive design can lead a designer to achieve an easily‐accessible site that will load quickly and promote accurate content. Another valuable tool that site creators often enable is tagging. Tagging is a term that refers to assigning descriptive keywords to various sections of content, photos or video. Joshua Schachter is credited with creating the first social bookmarking service, Del.icio.us, and consequently creating tagging. If a tagging system is added into a Web site, the interactivity of the site is automatically enhanced. Visitors are encouraged to participate, and items on the site can be more easily found through searches for specific tags. According to Gene Smith, tagging falls in the middle of three categories: Information architecture, in which labeling promotes usability; Social software, in which tagging can facilitate group interactions and; Personal information management (PIM), where tagging allow for personal organization (p.117). It is interesting to think that when tagging first began, people objected to “non‐ expert” taggers participating in the labeling process. Now, many sites depend on users of all experience levels to give their input in the form of tags. When searching for an article on a blog for example, users can type in a number of different terms and likely find the correct article due to tagging. In addition, tagging promotes exploration on a site and can unite people with common interests (p.117). With strong followers and a solid site structure, the last step in the interactive design process involves monitoring content after it is on the site. Part of what makes interactive content interactive, is that it is constantly being updated and checked for accuracy. Interactive Web sites should operate in this way. In the age of spreadable content and interactive audiences, monitoring content can best be achieved through the use of usability research, usage trends and Web analytics—although misleading statistics from Web analytics can often confuse researchers. A hit is a request for a file from the Web server (including all of the files on a Web site). If a user clicks on a portfolio page, there will automatically be multiple hits if there are multiple files on the page. Many marketers get excited when looking at hits because the number high, but it is inaccurate. Page views are the more accurate
statistic. Click paths are also valuable for researchers because they reveal the different links the consumer follows. Designers can look at the click paths and cater content to more popular sites, or make other sections of the page more noticeable to entice visitors (p.73‐74). Thinking about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is also essential in creating a successful site. Sites that are ideal for SEO are frequently updated, have high‐ quality content and an abundance of resources (p.121). With so many tools to monitor a site and its content, marketers should be careful not to get too caught up in design and stray away from the focus, which is to engage users. According to Jesse James Garrett, users are engaged via mind (cognition), heart (emotion), senses (perception) and bodies (action) (p.127). As interactive communicators, it is our job to provide the tools necessary for consumers to follow our content and spread messages to other interested users. But it is also our job to give consumers the freedom to use the tools we provide, as they like. The spreadability approach is not for everyone. Companies that already possess a strong brand message or have predictably‐delivered messages through television or radio may not need to take the risk. However, the notion of spreadable content is important, and all businesses should recognize and understand it as a possibility for a way to successfully reach and maintain a strong consumer following.