Spreadable Media (blog post 9)
The YouTube video that I chose to use for this week’s blog was a video posted by MrBeast, titled: “Make This Video The Most Liked Video On Youtube.” As of Monday, April 8th, 2024, the video is five years old with over 150 million views, almost 318 thousand comments, and over 30 million likes, by far making it the most popular and most liked (non-music) video on the app. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBxOYE2j55U
I will be honest, at first, I was having a hard time deciding what video I was going to use. I still do watch YouTube videos and will use the application for small tasks, like maybe finding out the proper way to pronounce a word, or I would watch a very niche video tutorial on how to do something on Adobe Photoshop. There are a few individuals that I still follow and watch, but by no means are they attempting to post viral, universal content, but more vlog-style, chit-chat, follow-me-around videos.
I also was unsure of the true meaning of the word spreadable, and luckily was able to utilize the book to help me out there. In the Introduction chapter of, Spreadable Media, the authors offer readers a better understanding of this term, what it suggests, and what it is not. They say, on page three, that the term spreadability “refers to the potential- both technical and cultural- for audiences to share content for their own purposes.” So, this word does not mean trendy, and the content that falls under this category may not be of a topic you agree with or are even interested in, but it has this sense of ‘spreadableness’ and therefore takes off.
This specific video, like I mentioned is posted by a 25-year-old man by the name of Jimmy Donaldson. He is, confidently, the most popular YouTuber as he is both the most-subscribed individual and most-subscribed channel on the platform. His net worth, as of 2024, was calculated to have reached over $500 million. A large part of the content that he posts involves giveaways or elaborate challenges for money, that are very high energy and high production, and nothing that is of interest to me. Ironic that I am using his content for this assignment then, but that just goes to further prove my point. No matter what content he shares it is going to spread. The individuals or accounts that have the most likes and subscribers will be able to have a better time spreading their content because there is already a heightened set of eyes and ears, and in YouTube’s case, thumbs.
Most of the time there must be a strategy, and marketing tactics involved to perfectly crack the algorithm and post a video that will get the most views likes, and shares. However, there was not a flashy or even descriptive title, it wasn’t in all caps, and there was no “clickbait” as the cover image, it was literally just an egg. Simple, and dare I say stupid stuff spreads online like wildfire. About five years ago, there was this close, plain picture of a brown egg on a white background that was posted to Instagram. As of March 2019, the post had over 53 million views (which I’m sure has increased). A bit most recently, on TikTok, a short clip of a bowl of chocolate-covered strawberries earned 20 million likes, last, I had checked.
Content that is not suggestive, cannot be twisted or taken out of context, and is just downright random often becomes conversational, and can often create trends, or inspire copycat accounts.
After reading Chapter 2 of Spreadable Media, I was able to better see why sort-form, sometimes spur-of-the-moment content like this can spread quicker than thought-out, high production, video content. The book claims that “appraisal is a negotiation between different systems of evaluation” and that these systems also decide the value of a thing and how that value can be measured more across the board. In many of my communications courses, we discuss how powerful language is, verbal and non-verbal. And how we, as people, have the power to change language, place alternative meanings to different things, and create these systems and situations where we value and access them. The successfulness of online media is measured quantitatively through numbers of likes, shares, comments, saves, and views and I want to circle back and acknowledge again that yes, this specific video does have an absurd amount of views and likes, specifically, but when it’s broken down and evaluated, the production quality is not high, it has no meaning that views can take away, its less than 15 minutes, and its center focus is around eggs. I think that if there was not a monetary reward of $10,000 given at the end of the video, there would not be nearly as much interest, and I also think that if in between each round of the challenge, the contests were still alive in the game were unable to throw eggs at the losers, there would be even less interest. People, I included love to watch other people fail, be embarrassed, or get hurt (in a non-serious manner) because it makes us feel stronger or better than them. I am sure that there are plenty more videos that fit the criteria that our book brings up, as well as the ideas that I mentioned, but I hope that you were able to improve your understanding of spreadable media.
Resources:
Jenkins, H., Ford, S., & Green, J. (n.d.). Introduction, Chapter 2. In Spreadable Media, New York University Press.
