Blog Post #5

1. According to the text, Spreadable Media Jenkins, Ford, and Green believe that brand communities are courted. They feel that "the audiences they court have strong social bonds through common affinity for a brand" (163). I disagree with the authors because in today's digital age anyone can create anything. Companies create their brand because that is how they want to be viewed and that is the demographic they are attempting to reach out too. With videos like DIY, Youtube, and other creative platforms brand creation is practically encouraged in our culture. Audiences do not bond through brands but they bond through laughter, appreciation of hard work, and the products a brand has to offer, but not the brand itself.

2. Jenkins, Ford, and Green describe public as "a group of spectators... a collective nature characterized by shared sociability..." (166). Audiences on the other hand "facilitate rituals of sharing and debate among friends during or after episodes. An example used in the text for audiences was soap operas. Soaps usually run year around and have no off seasons, this in return leads for an invested audience, with too much information to catch up on for the general public. Fandoms is related to audiences because these audiences to some degree feel commitment and loyalty to these shows.

3. Brave New Films "has long used digital distribution offers to continuously update its documentaries" (177). The company uses a "public service media" method where they try to engage with the general public. They argue that by giving the public more control over the circulation of media it will depend their investment to the films in the long run.

4. In our culture today, people are use to hearing and not listening. As the authors state, everything is done for us, our cameras have suddenly became our eyes and ears. At some point we stoped knowing how to listen. Hearing is the physical act of receiving a message, and listening is waiting for, concentrating on, and responding to the message. Companies use quantitative monitoring because, it is easier to measure people when they are removed from the process. As opposed to qualitative insights that usually turn into focus groups.