Journal 3

 What does circulation (or the potential for circulation) contribute to the composing process?

When composing and distributing a piece, it is important for the writer or creator of that piece to take the "participatory culture" into consideration. The way the work will be interpreted and interacted with by a particular population needs to be taking into account when shaping the piece.There are many factors that affect the success of the piece- the time in which it is distributed, the amount of access, the way in which it can be redistributed, the kind of people that access the form in which the piece is distributed, etc. With technology as advanced as it is, it is easy to circulate a piece that can meet an exponential amount of people. 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 choice of media that the write chooses to utilize, depends on their desire of circulation. How many people do you want this piece to reach? What kind of people? What is the most effective way to get these people to react to my work? The way in which the piece is composed depends on the audience. If the audience is a close friend or family member, the writer would use more informal and personal language. The medium in which he chooses to distribute this message would probably be through a private message. If the writer is attempting to launch a campaign, he/she might use more public mediums of circulation to reach people and gain followers. This is an example of how material, network and circulation closely connect and are dependent of one another. A work with the same content may have more of an affect if distributed through a more accessible medium, such as the internet, rather than the newspaper.