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Recent Research Drawing on Spreadable Media

We were excited to see Spreadable Media cited in a range of interesting academic studies and contemplative pieces of late about the nature of audience research, global mobile media studies, “cognitive surplus,” and the performative aspect of online social media use:

  • In Vol. 3 of Comunicazioni Sociali, published in 2013, Francesca Pasquali, José Manuel Noguera Vivo, and Mélanie Bourdaa co-author “Emerging Topics in the Research on Digital Audiences and Participation,” which lays out areas the authors believe should be the focus on forthcoming audience research. One of the areas the authors advocate for focus on is “the social experience that surrounds and penetrates the consumption of information and media content,” which “is becoming as important as the information itself.” The authors use Spreadable Media as a reference point to underscore the importance of more work in this area. The piece also appeared in the January 2014 Building Bridges: Pathways to a Greater Societal Significance for Audience Research, published by COST—European Cooperation in Science and Technology.
  • In his 2013 review of Gerard Goggin’s book Global Mobile Media for The Information Society, Andrew Schrock writes on how Goggin’s interest in “difficult questions about how mobile devices similarly serve as cultural platforms and business goals” mirrors similar concerns in Internet studies, such as Spreadable Media’s examination of the gift economy versus the market economy in Web 2.0.
  • The Wikibooks Digital Media and Culture Yearbook 2014’s chapter on “Cognitive Surplus” includes a reference to Abigail De Kosnik’s work, including her piece for the Spreadable Media enhanced book.
  • Juan-Carlos Duran, who consults on reaching Hispanic audiences to media producers and brands, recently wrote a piece entitled “The Masks of Social Media,” inspired by reading the book, about how social media profiles are performances to an audience.