Going Viral Book Review
Aug 04,2015
In today’s information age there are various social media sites available such as Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter, etc. Nohan and Hemsely describes these sites as, “The new information ecosystem, an individual can share information that can flash across our digitally supported social networks with a speed and reach never before available to the vast majority of people.”
The book explains everything from gatekeeping (Hubs), viral content, and the afterlife of an viral event. The main point that I found most memorable is chapter 4. “What is everyone looking at?” This particular chapter explains the reason that audiences makes certain things go viral. This particular part of the book stood out to me because this chapter explains that the type of content that goes viral falls under the category of humor, surprise, or emotion, and everything that that I’ve noticed that has went viral usually fell under those categories.
In chapter four, on page 63. The text says, “Emotional aspects are one set of factors that can make content remarkable. But information characteristics, like humor, surprise, novelty, resonance, and quality, can influence our decision to share as well.”
I will says that one of the major strengths of the book is the amount of information that the authors provides for the reader. The graphs, charts, and statics explains to the reader why a certain event goes viral. As far as weaknesses, I cannot find one. I found the book to be very enlightening and very refreshing, so all and all the book is a good source of information. I enjoyed the book, I thought that it gave me a great insight on how things go viral to a wide audience.
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