Final Project Part 1

This food porn GIF is a perfect example of Henry Jenkins work about spreadability.  Jenkins, a scholar in communication and what makes things spread quickly on the Internet, writes that in order for something to be successful online it must be sticky.  These smores are both sticky in real life and on the Internet, as they spread quickly and easily with one click of the button.  It is appealing to an audience, making people want to share it.  Not only that, it follows recent trends of food porn and GIFs.  In line with Jenkins, with one click, people can share this; thus making it spreadable. 

Final Project Part 2

The photos are from a Buzz Feed article: “50 Best Food BlogPhotos of 2012.”  Howard Reingold, a communication theorist, writes about viral communities, that people can find and form support systems online, sometimes even better communities than in real life.  Through Buzz Feed, reddit, and other similar sites, people have the opportunity to meet others who agree with their thoughts and interests.  Not only that, but people collaborate and pull together similar blogs, photos, or ideas and have the ability to post them in a collaborative fashion on Buzz Feed.  Reingold would agree that as people follow the rules of Buzz Feed, policed by users, several internal communities are built.   This Buzz Feed article is a collaboration of many food bloggers, some of the best photographs.  It allows bloggers, people with a mutual aspect of their relationship, a forum to collaborate. 

Final Project Part 3

Yochi Benkler, a communication academic, finds that through social media and digital communication in general, the world has flattened out.  However, with that ease of access the type of conversation has decreased in importance.  Essentially, people have a platform to blabber all they want, but they are talking about nothing.  While I understand where he comes from,  my Storify proves he is not necessarily true.  This is a Storify entry, a place where tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, etc. can all be combined to make a story.  Mine particularly pertains to food blogs because, as I’ve been blogging about food all semester, I’ve created a Storify hosting different recipes from a variety of food blogs.  Benkler is incorrect in this case, because these are important, high levels of communication.  Though the development of the digital world, recipes have merely shifted from books to websites.  However, in my opinion this is not at the price of quality.