Journal #3: Circulation

I believe that circulation and composition have a mutualistic experience in the digital age; one can not thrive without the other. In Why Media Spreads, Jenkins says, "Spreadability recognizes the importance of the social connections among individuals, connections increasingly made visible by social media platforms." The ability to spread information as quickly as we are able to in this age is made possible by social platforms, therefore the composition of this written media is crucial.

Take for example, social media marketing. Marketing firms are using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to target specific audiences and promote their product. If the post is written well, the potential for the post to be spread farther increases. Twitter users are more likely to engage with content they find funny or interesting. If a certain film is being marketed, the marketer is going to target the audience that they believe will engage with the content the most. Therefore, the marketers are going to compose their content to best fit their audience to maximize the potential for circulation.

The use of internet platforms to circulate content encourages interaction. To quote Jenkins, "This shift from distribution to circulation signals a movement toward a more participatory model of culture, one which sees the public not simply consumers of preconstructed messages but as people who are shaping, sharing, reframing, and remixing media content in ways which might not have been previously imagined." The way in which people interact with online content definitely molds the content that is being shared online. Authors learn what circulates well and what is not well received by reading online content and its audience's response.