**How sharing, linking, and liking have transformed the media and
marketing industries
**
Spreadable Media is a rare inside look at today's ever-changing media
landscape. The days of corporate control over media content and its
distribution have been replaced by the age of what the digital media
industries have called "user-generated content." Spreadable Media maps
these fundamental changes, and gives readers a comprehensive look into
the rise of participatory culture, from internet memes to presidential
tweets.
The authors challenge our notions of what goes "viral" and how by
examining factors such as the nature of audience engagement and the
environment of participation, and by contrasting the concepts of
"stickiness"--aggregating attention in centralized places--with
"spreadability"--dispersing content widely through both formal and
informal networks. The former has often been the measure of media
success in the online world, but the latter describes the actual ways
content travels through social media. The book explores the internal
tensions businesses face as they adapt to this new, spreadable,
communication reality and argues for the need to shift from "hearing" to
"listening" in corporate culture.
Now with a new afterword addressing changes in the media industry,
audience participation, and political reporting, and drawing on modern
examples from online activism campaigns, film, music, television,
advertising, and social media--from both the US and around the
world--the authors illustrate the contours of our current media
environment. For all of us who actively create and share content,
Spreadable Media provides a clear understanding of how people are
spreading ideas and the implications these activities have for business,
politics, and everyday life, both on- and offline.
