heuristic embodied: students' "Viral" video examples
The first two design questions “what” and “why” explored YouTube’s intentional arrangement while guiding students through their development of their assignment. I was excited to see students draw connections between successful “viral” clips and YouTube as organizing system. YouTube as an organizing systems and their multimodal development of their “viral” video clips were not exclusive to one another, but symbiotically informed each other. YouTube, that semester, was not a mere repository for their video but provided a socially complex digital infrastructure that had the potential to broadcast their public argument to the world. The final video clips pointed to the students’ awareness of the infrastructures in place to potentially catapult their video clip into virality. The assignment came to a close with students presenting their videos to the class as a whole: they reflected on the development of their video—even beyond the video’s upload.
The last two design questions, “When [are the videos] being organized?” and “How or by whom, or by what?” guided students towards conceptualizing their “viral” video clip beyond the completion of the assignment. Their strategic rationale (excerpts included below) acted as a companion document for their “viral” video clip in that it provided insight into the strategies and decisions they made in their videos. One of the items in the strategic rationale that students reflected upon was the way they chose to label and tag their videos (to note, I did not require students to post their video clips onto YouTube with respect to their privacy). With the set of design questions used as a framework, the success of the students’ “viral” video clips seemed to originate from a deep understanding of the site in relationship to the multimodal texts they were composing. Below are two examples of students' "viral" videos.
The last two design questions, “When [are the videos] being organized?” and “How or by whom, or by what?” guided students towards conceptualizing their “viral” video clip beyond the completion of the assignment. Their strategic rationale (excerpts included below) acted as a companion document for their “viral” video clip in that it provided insight into the strategies and decisions they made in their videos. One of the items in the strategic rationale that students reflected upon was the way they chose to label and tag their videos (to note, I did not require students to post their video clips onto YouTube with respect to their privacy). With the set of design questions used as a framework, the success of the students’ “viral” video clips seemed to originate from a deep understanding of the site in relationship to the multimodal texts they were composing. Below are two examples of students' "viral" videos.
Kate Harris' "Viral" video: "Syrian civil war"
Excerpt from her strategic rationale:
"Viral videos are part of our everyday culture. They create a way for people to learn new things while still maintaining a sense of entertainment. They allow one to explore as well as the opportunity to make sense of an issue or topic. Virality is how people gain fame in today’s society. Jenna Marbles, a popular YouTube video blogger, has gained millions of views on each of her videos because of her infectious personality and the fact that today’s culture allows anyone this right to fame. While most viral videos are simply for entertainment, such as a cute guilty dog that ate the cat treats, some are meant to entertain but also to inform. Information travels with such speed that often times it can take only a few minutes for major news to spread. Sometimes though, this is not the case. This is how viral videos can help. Sensitive topics, such as the Syrian Civil War, can take longer to spread simply because the topic is one that not a lot of people know about. Keeping this fact in mind, I created a viral video that emulates Jenna Marble’s video “Draw My Life”, but instead of my life or Jenna’s life, I show the progression of the Syrian Rebellion and my answer to the question What Next?"
"Viral videos are part of our everyday culture. They create a way for people to learn new things while still maintaining a sense of entertainment. They allow one to explore as well as the opportunity to make sense of an issue or topic. Virality is how people gain fame in today’s society. Jenna Marbles, a popular YouTube video blogger, has gained millions of views on each of her videos because of her infectious personality and the fact that today’s culture allows anyone this right to fame. While most viral videos are simply for entertainment, such as a cute guilty dog that ate the cat treats, some are meant to entertain but also to inform. Information travels with such speed that often times it can take only a few minutes for major news to spread. Sometimes though, this is not the case. This is how viral videos can help. Sensitive topics, such as the Syrian Civil War, can take longer to spread simply because the topic is one that not a lot of people know about. Keeping this fact in mind, I created a viral video that emulates Jenna Marble’s video “Draw My Life”, but instead of my life or Jenna’s life, I show the progression of the Syrian Rebellion and my answer to the question What Next?"
Colin McCormick's "viral" video: "big mac attack"
Excerpt from his strategic rationale:
"The Big Mac from the McDonald’s fast food chain, may be one of the most recognized burgers around the world. It is for this reason, that I chose the Big Mac to represent big corporations, such as McDonald’s, or Starbucks in my viral video. In this video I focused on using facts and comedy to illustrate the point that McDonald’s and corporations alike are destroying cultures across the globe in the form of cultural imperialism. To show this I made a mock animal documentary, using the Big Mac as my animal, I then integrated a narration which included comedy and facts. More specifically I used ethos, logos, and comedy to make my viral video successful."
"The Big Mac from the McDonald’s fast food chain, may be one of the most recognized burgers around the world. It is for this reason, that I chose the Big Mac to represent big corporations, such as McDonald’s, or Starbucks in my viral video. In this video I focused on using facts and comedy to illustrate the point that McDonald’s and corporations alike are destroying cultures across the globe in the form of cultural imperialism. To show this I made a mock animal documentary, using the Big Mac as my animal, I then integrated a narration which included comedy and facts. More specifically I used ethos, logos, and comedy to make my viral video successful."