Kris Erickson's presentation for the BU Festival of learning event

1. Engagement, Reach and Control
(Pick Two)
Dr. Kris Erickson
Senior Lecturer in New Media
Bournemouth University
kerickson@bournemouth.ac.uk

3. Macro: Digitalisation / Convergence
Source: Hesmondhalgh (2010) The Cultural Industries; Jenkins (2006) Convergence Culture
Pictured: “black box” convergence. One device to
access all types of content.
But also:
• Platform agnostic: Many devices able to access
same content
• Cultural convergence, access to symbols and
cultural products from different cultures
• Regulatory convergence: EU single market
harmonization.
Digitalisation:
• High production costs, low reproduction costs
• Lower barriers to entry for indies / amateurs

4. •Number of web links
•Popularity of music
•Book sales on Amazon
•Number of twitter followers
•Revenue per user (RPU)
•Academic citations
•Population of cities
Power law – Pareto Principle – Rich-get-richer
80 per cent of impact is produced by 20 per cent of cases

5. Why?
• Communication about what is popular allows cognitive
economies in humans who must make snap judgments.
• More visibility leads to greater adoption in a get-richer loop.
• Network effects – utility increase.

6. Source: Mayfield (2006)
Power law of Participation

7. Ho & Dempsey, 2010
Motivations to share/forward online content

8. Implications: Cultural Production
Participatory culture
Read/write web
Peer production
Prosumption
User-generated content
Mass creativity
DIY media
Semiotic democracy
The social factory
Loser-generated content

9. IP ownership, control and parody
• Parody is a major aspect of YouTube’s user-generated video platform.
Adam Samberg’s (left) Lazy Sunday, a parodic send-up of both hip hop music and
the Chronicles of Narnia film franchise, was an early viral success on YouTube, but
sparked an intellectual property dispute with rightsholder NBC.

10. Examples of music video parody:
We found over 9000 parodies referencing 343 hit
commercial music videos from 2011. Here is a
typical example
Original: LMFAO Sexy and I know it
Parody: Average and I know it

11. Implications: Marketing
• The separation between
production and consumption
spheres is breaking down.
• Marketing, once organized
around a home / point of sale
dichotomy, has had to adapt.
• The street emerged as a site of
potential marketing activity,
now supplemented by personal
media

14. The ‘postmodern’ political campaign
Source: Erickson & Lilleker (2012)

15. Example: Political Crisis
In 2008, accused criminal Mas
Selamat bin Kastari (MSK)
escaped from jail in Singapore
Deemed highly dangerous,
connected with terrorism
The authorities did as expected,
and issued a press release /
wanted poster
But they left out some
important details…

16. Public response:
Rumour, superstition, conspiracy
• Ideas vastly more spreadable,
in some ways more drillable
and more engaging, than the
official story. Connect with
individual subject’s beliefs and
social context.
Parody, persiflage
• critiquing the official
response / failure, mocking
public figures to reduce their
credibility

17. Source: textsfromhillary.tumblr.com / 2011 photograph Kevin Lamarque for Reuters

18. Source: American Society of Civil Engineers / SocialFish 2010

19. Conclusions
• Intellectual property owners are clinging to old
business models, unwilling to let go of their familiar
position.
• Brand marketers are unsure how much control to
relinquish to reap benefits of online
• Political actors must engage in ideological jujitsu in a
memespace that plays by a different set of rules

20. Thank you
for your attention!
I would be delighted to discuss matters further
with you by email at
kerickson@bournemouth.ac.uk