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Start Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
My project explores controversial viral videos that have been viewed and discussed by millions with a particular focus on the headline-grabbing videos from summer of 2020 that encouraged The Atlantic to name it “America’s Summer of Outrage.” The videos include people strongly reacting to requests for them to wear masks to prevent spread of the COVID-19 virus and racially-charged videos like the video made in New York’s Central Park when Amy Cooper threatened to call the police on Christian Cooper, who asked her to put her dog on a leash. Through interviews, I explore how audiences make sense of the explosive content in these viral videos, what uncomfortable feelings the messages in viral videos encourage, and whether viral videos encourage users to reflect on (and even change) their own positions and positions. I also discuss how many viral videos are meant to shame, and rightfully so: these videos can be used to build collective outrage, provide evidence for ongoing racial problems, demand accountability, and in some cases, push for legislation and other forms of change. But viral videos are a particular kind of communication: quick, spectacular, readily available, and one-sided. Viral videos don’t contain reasoned discourse or context and their lessons are not always clear. The number of views viral videos receive demonstrates their cultural significance, but we know little about how viewers are impacted by the messages they contain. My goal is to provide important context about how media audiences feel when watching and reflecting on these viral videos.
Watching shame: Viral videos and audience emotion
My project explores controversial viral videos that have been viewed and discussed by millions with a particular focus on the headline-grabbing videos from summer of 2020 that encouraged The Atlantic to name it “America’s Summer of Outrage.” The videos include people strongly reacting to requests for them to wear masks to prevent spread of the COVID-19 virus and racially-charged videos like the video made in New York’s Central Park when Amy Cooper threatened to call the police on Christian Cooper, who asked her to put her dog on a leash. Through interviews, I explore how audiences make sense of the explosive content in these viral videos, what uncomfortable feelings the messages in viral videos encourage, and whether viral videos encourage users to reflect on (and even change) their own positions and positions. I also discuss how many viral videos are meant to shame, and rightfully so: these videos can be used to build collective outrage, provide evidence for ongoing racial problems, demand accountability, and in some cases, push for legislation and other forms of change. But viral videos are a particular kind of communication: quick, spectacular, readily available, and one-sided. Viral videos don’t contain reasoned discourse or context and their lessons are not always clear. The number of views viral videos receive demonstrates their cultural significance, but we know little about how viewers are impacted by the messages they contain. My goal is to provide important context about how media audiences feel when watching and reflecting on these viral videos.
Bio
Melissa A. Click is associate professor of Communication Studies at Gonzaga University. Her work on fans, audiences, and popular culture has been published in Television & New Media, the International Journal of Communication Studies, Popular Communication, and Popular Music & Society. She is editor of Anti-Fandom: Dislike and hate in the digital age (NYU Press, 2019), and the co-editor of The Routledge companion to media fandom (Routledge, 2018), and Bitten by Twilight (Peter Lang, 2010).