Proj 2 Initial Drafting

WORKS CITED

Berger, Jonah, and Katherine L. Milkman. “What Makes Online Content Viral?” Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 49, no. 2, Apr. 2012, pp. 192–205. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23142844.
Tellis, Gerard J., et al. “What Drives Virality (Sharing) of Online Digital Content? The Critical Role of Information, Emotion, and Brand Prominence.” Journal of Marketing, vol. 83, no. 4, Apr. 2019, pp. 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242919841034
Quesenberry, Keith A., and Michael K. Coolsen. “Drama Goes Viral: Effects of Story Development on Shares and Views of Online Advertising Videos.” Journal of Interactive Marketing, vol. 48, no. 1, May 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2019.05.001.

INITIAL DRAFTING

Prospectus Essay: Viral Phenomena on the Internet

Oct 24, 2022. By Sierra Zhang.

PROSPECTUS ESSAY

In the research project, I propose writing about viral Internet phenomena. I always try to create high-quality videos, but they were never a hit. At the same time, some of my lower-quality videos gathered a lot more views. For example, my medium-length movie that a 15-person team spent six months on got about 1500 views in a year, but a simple supercut I made in half an hour reached 10000 views in two days. I noticed a mismatch between quality and popularity. I wish to build a company that brings people delightful products with their own “spirits” in them in the future. As a business that aims to influence people’s habits for the better, popularity is needed. I am afraid that the “mismatch” I noticed will be a major threat then — high-quality products would not sell if few people notice them. I wish to research online viral phenomena and apply what I learned when the time comes.

I propose to explore, “what are the factors contributing to the virality of some online videos?”. Interestingly, the Washington Post author Geoffrey A. Fowler explains one possible factor in his article, “I gave Instagram photos of my baby. Instagram returned fear,” social media platforms adopt algorithms that use “signals” to guess what users are interested in and push content to them (Fowler). Does that mean the content that skillfully attracts users to get their “signals” are most likely to get viral? Further research is needed. All the existing research I have come across focused on one possible viral aspect, like social behavior, emotions, or content quality. Instead, I want to dig deeper into the systemic reason behind virality — how different factors “collaborate” and organically integrate into the process of virality. I wish to call the process the “Möbius strip of virality.” Specifically, through the case study, conceptual, and historical lenses, I wish to discover whether single factors lie underneath virality or Intertwined factors.

[Fig. 1] The “Möbius strip of virality.”

Based on the preliminary research, the videos’ internal factors induce external feedbacks that kick-start the “Möbius strip of virality,” leading to the videos’ popularity. According to brief research, I categorized factors contributing to virality as internal and external factors. They work together to make Internet content viral. In other words, the lack of either one will not start the “Möbius strip of virality.” Internal factors are the content’s characteristics, like content creator, quality/spirits of original content, and pushing strategy. External factors are more related to the environment, like channel and platform development, social environment, and social effects. The Following mind map details the draft roadmap of this research project.

In summary, I will support the working thesis first by discussing different internal and external factors that lead to virality and then describing their initiator-catalyst effect on stimulating the formation of the “Möbius strip of virality.” The targeted audience of this research is content creators with some academic backgrounds who wish to boost views of their content and positively contribute to society.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Parikka, Jussi. "Viral Aesthetics." The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, Marie-Laure Ryan, et al., Johns Hopkins University Press, 1st edition, 2014. Credo Reference.

In this chapter of the book, The Johns Hopkins Guide to Digital Media, called “Viral Aesthetics,” Jussi Parikka, new media theorist and Professor in Digital Aesthetics and Culture at Aarhus University, briefly elaborated on the relationship between digital aesthetics, vitality, and the milieu by introducing several related cases. This work indicates a mathematical perspective to explain network effects fostering sharing of viral content.

Compared to other works in this list, this brief introduction is less detailed and may not make it into one of the works cited articles in the final project. However, it is handy to point a direction for my research — how the viral phenomena can be related to the social environment. It helps me notice the “external factors” of vitality. It also points to other valuable resources in its reference section.

2. Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo. Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life. Plume, 2003.

According to the UC Library, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, a network scientist who is also the Robert Gray Dodge Professor of Network Science at Northeastern University, is “nation’s foremost expert in the new science of networks” (UC Library). His book Linked compares social networks and corporations to living organisms. It emphasizes their similarities, such that human innovations in an interconnected world can also spread in a contagious network like viruses. However, I might need to thoroughly read the book to carefully pick up insightful information since the focus of this book is not purely on viral content.

I think this book will provide some fresh ideas on integrating some biological evidence into this highly social-focused research. It can provide a deep understanding of “social effects” — one of the external factors of virality I summarized. One of my classmates in the UGBA class inspired me to look up “network effects,” and I think this book will provide some insight into this concept.

3. Berger, Jonah, and Katherine L. Milkman. “What Makes Online Content Viral?” Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 49, no. 2, Apr. 2012, pp. 192–205. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23142844.

Author Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman are Professors at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In their article, which has been cited over 3400 times on Google Scholar, they focused on published work in the New York Times magazine to analyze the effect of emotions on the virality of contents. According to their research results, contents that induce highly positive or negative emotions spread more virally as they stimulate activation for the transmission of information. The credentials of the professors may suggest that this article was written from a business-focused perspective.

This article provides valuable data to illustrate the linkage between induced emotion (part of the “spirit of the original content,” an internal factor of virality) and the spreading of Internet content. One possible limitation of this work is that since it was published ten years ago, in 2012, some descriptions might not perfectly match today’s more-developed internet and social environment.

4. Tellis, Gerard J., et al. “What Drives Virality (Sharing) of Online Digital Content? The Critical Role of Information, Emotion, and Brand Prominence.” Journal of Marketing, vol. 83, no. 4, Apr. 2019, pp. 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242919841034

This peer-reviewed article cited by 237 people on Google Scholar resulted from the collaboration between many authors. Author Gerard J. Tellis is a professor and director of the Center for Global Innovation at Marshall School of Business. Deborah J. MacInnis is a Charles L. and Ramona I. Hilliard Professor of Business Administration and professor of marketing at Marshall School of Business. Seshadri Tirunillai is an assistant professor at C.T. Bauer College of Business. Yanwei Zhang is Staff Data Scientist at Uber Technologies Inc. The authors’ credentials indicate that this is a more business-focused article, just like the previous one. Their article presented their research results on five theoretical virality factors: information density, positive emotions, drama elements, brand placement, and length. According to their research, positive emotions and drama elements help boost virality, while information density, brand placement, and length negatively impact sharing and virality.

This journal article offered me ideas on five major elements of what I call “spirits of the original content.” As it discusses the effects of emotions, I can cross-reference its outcome with the previous article. The same is for the following article, as this one also talks about drama effects.

5. Quesenberry, Keith A., and Michael K. Coolsen. “Drama Goes Viral: Effects of Story Development on Shares and Views of Online Advertising Videos.” Journal of Interactive Marketing, vol. 48, no. 1, May 2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2019.05.001.

Author Keith A. Quesenberry is a marketing professor and researcher at Messiah College, while Michael K. Coolsen is a professor of marketing at Shippensburg University. Just like the previous two sources, the two professors' positions and focused research area indicate that this article is focused more on a business perspective. Their peer-reviewed article presented the research result after analyzing 155 viral marketing videos: those videos with drama or full storyline development usually gain more reviews and shares.

This article sheds light on a critical aspect of the internal factor, "spirits of the original content." Unlike the comprehensive article 4, this article can provide me with a more in-depth view of this aspect.