Courtney Cox, Alison Kwong, Brittany Fuentes, Thi Le

Courtney Cox, Alison Kwong, Brittany Fuentes, Thi Le

Knight

EMAC 4372-001

5 December 2011

EMAC 4372 Reflection Paper

In EMAC 4372, we had to create a collaborative meme project based on a specific theme. Our group’s theme was bullying, and we decided to focus specifically on cyberbullying. We wanted to raise awareness about cyberbullying through the use of a funny YouTube video that mocks cyberbullying. Not only did we raise awareness about cyberbullying, but we also provided “communicatory utility - awareness about a topic about which the individual expects to interact - which respect to further conversations” (Walther, et al 30). Cyberbullying is a universal issue, and the information provided in our video might help others discuss and stop cyberbullying. This paper will outline the analytics, successes, failures, and overall results of the project.

To generate ideas for the video, we looked at examples of other YouTube videos on bullying and cyberbullying. As Dawkins and Blackmore wrote in The Selfish Gene and The Meme Machine, respectively, memes spread by imitation. The video we took the most inspiration for, plot-wise, is the “Can I be your friend?” video ( we decided to replicate the idea of online activity (in this case, cyberbullying) being put into a real world context, thereby ridiculing it. We first identified the most common behaviors and tools of cyberbullies: texting, Facebook, cyberstalking, etc. We then took these behaviors and wrote a script in which a bully would act out these behaviors in real life situations. We decided the cyberbully would wear a troll mask, in the hopes that utilizing the existing Rage Comic meme would connect the audience with a familiar concept. The Rage Comic meme has been used for many humorous image macros, so we figured that it would add humor to our video as well as increase the video’s spreadability. Spreadability considers “what motivates consumers to spread content,” and we hoped that the video would be funny enough to be shared (Jenkins). At the end of the video, we added a serious message about the tragic results of cyberbullying, including a link to for more information about how viewers can help end the epidemic.

After filming the video, we immediately went to edit the scenes together. The editing was not problematic until we got to the audio. We hadn’t secured the rights for any music, so we had to use music on a Creative Commons license in order to keep our video from being removed from YouTube. This proved to be harder than we thought. We scrounged through the CC website for music, but we were unable to find something that we were all satisfied with. One of the difficulties we came across was finding a piece that wasn’t too repetitive, since our video is 2 minutes and 10 seconds long. We ended up settling on the first piece that we thought “might” work. If we could redo the project, we would probably secure the rights to use another song before filming.

We also created two image macros of the cyberbully in a troll mask. Relating to the two aspects of our film, there was both a serious and funny image. The first featured the troll pointing and laughing at someone on the floor with the copy, “This is what cyberbullying looks like.” The other had a photo of the troll striking a confident pose for the camera with the copy, “Every day I’m trollin’.” This connected to an existing meme; “Every day I’m _____” is a quote from the popular song “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO. It has been replicated and has evolved into other quotes, like “Every day I’m Snufflin’” and other “punny” uses, so our version is another imitation.

After the video rendered, we created a YouTube channel and uploaded our video. We used YouTube because it is the most popular video sharing site, and we thought it was more likely that users would find the video there through searching. If hype is “communication redundancy” that ensures successful transmission, then we certainly tried creating hype (Fuller 36). After uploading, we began sharing the film and the image macros on our personal Facebook accounts, and a few of us posted the video more than once. This worked very well. Over 36% of our views came from Facebook links. We can infer that this is because Facebook offers features which encourage and enable link sharing and a platform which promises hundreds will have the opportunity to view the video each time it is shared. We also posted the video in the EMAC Student Group on Facebook. Because this group is connected to our project, they were very supportive in viewing the video, and we got a significant response from those members.

Another Facebook group we posted to is called “End Cyberbullying” ( We hoped some of the people who were interested in the issue of cyberbullying would also share the video to their Facebook friends, and we also hoped the organization that runs the group would share the video as well.

The second place we shared the video is Twitter. We each had a few retweets from posting the video, but most came from the students within our own class. Unfortunately, we didn’t have as much success on Twitter as we did on Facebook, with only 7.6% of our traffic coming from Twitter. We think this is because tweets are often there and gone in a flash; tweets usually only reach those who are on Twitter at the moment of tweeting, so it is likely that most of our followers did not even see the tweets. Twitter also doesn’t have a built in video player, meaning users actually have to click the link and go to YouTube to watch the video. This makes the path to the video more resistant, therefore less people will be willing to watch it.

The most ineffective way of sharing our video was the flyers. We posted them around campus, in downtown Dallas, and on the DART train. The images include a link to the video and tabs with the link that people could tear off to take with them. Only 2.3% viewed the video from a direct link to our page. We think this is because many of our flyers got removed, since we didn’t ask permission before posting them. This was also the path with the most resistance to our video, and it lacked the peer-recommended credibility that Facebook and Twitter offer. If we could go back and do something differently, we would add a QR code to the flyer to make it easier for viewers to reach the video without having to type in the link. This would help to make the out-dated flyer up-to-date with current technology.

When a video is spreadable, it’s likely that it has an appeal to emotion. Even though cyberbullying is a serious issue, educating others about cyberbullying can be boring. For this reason, we went for both a humorous response and a sympathetic response to our video.

Based on our video statistics, we believe that though the sympathetic part of the video is short in comparison with the entire length of the film, it was the most effective in gaining views. We came to this conclusion based on the fact that 86.1% of the viewers were female. If viewers were watching the video for its humor, we would suspect these numbers to be about even, as both sexes respond about the same way to humor; however, because women tend to be more emotional and sympathetic, we believe the sympathetic portion of the video, and the sympathetic nature of the topic in general, drew in more women that men.

As of Sunday, December 4, 2011, we have 171 views to our video. Our goal from the beginning was to get over 100 views before the project’s due date. We’ve surpassed that goal by 71%, so in that respect, we consider our project a success; however, seeing how quickly we reached our goal of 100 views, we wonder how much more successful it would’ve been if we had utilized other sites such as Google+ and Tumblr, or made our flyers more up-to-date with QR codes.

Bibliography

Blackmore, Susan. The Meme Machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Print.

Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene.2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976. Print.

Fuller, Matthew. Media Ecologies. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2005. Print.

Jenkins, Henry. “If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead.” henryjenkins.org. Henry Jenkins, 11 Feb. 2009.Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <

Walther, Joseph B., et al. “Interaction of Interpersonal, Peer, and Media Influence Sources Online: A Research Agenda for Technology Convergence.” A Networked Self. Ed. Zizi Papacharissi. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2011. 17-38. Print.