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Characterising the spreading of ideas within echo chambers is essential for understanding polarisation. In this article, we explore the characteristics of popular and viral content in climate change discussions on Twitter around the 2019 announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize, where we find the retweet network of users to be polarised into two well-separated groups of activists and sceptics. Operationalising popularity as the number of retweets and virality as the spreading probability inferred using an independent cascade model, we find that the viral themes echo and differ from the popular themes in interesting ways. Most importantly, we find that the most viral themes in the two groups reflect different types of bonds that tie the community together, yet both function to enhance ingroup connections while repulsing outgroup engagement. With this, our study sheds light, from an information-spreading perspective, on the formation and upkeep of echo chambers in climate discussions.

One of the main characteristics of today's private and intimate environments is that they are completely pervaded by mass media, and more specifically by the spider's web of the Internet. Through the Internet, we incessantly generate mappable traces of our opinions, desires, will, preferences, values, interests, fears, mindsets and moods, concerns, etc. If we take a quick look at our relationship with mass media screens and interfaces throughout the 20th century up to the present day, we can easily appreciate how the trend has been a sustained and progressive reduction in both physical and symbolic distance and an increasing sophistication in the forms of control through mass media technology as they have steadily penetrated the private and intimate spaces of the individual. This article analyzes some of the consequences of the increasing loss of symbolic and physical distance with mass media and informational technologies. The confinement caused by COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented restriction of public freedoms in countries with a long democratic tradition, combined with the generalization of legitimate and imperious digital surveillance undertaken in the name of the «public interest» especially through smartphones. It is the perfect example of an encapsulated and strictly media- controlled privacy accompanied by a massive, extensive and frenetic use of the Internet as the only window «open to the outside world» and the only means of contact as vicarious as it is frustrating with the other. The COVID-19 crisis has permitted the foreshadowing of the true dimension of the Internet in terms of control and social engineering, following decades of adaptation, interiorization and massive adoption of the medium by the citizenry. In this perfect storm in which two viral natures collided (that of the internet and that of COVID-19), the structural links between the Internet and socio-political isolation have become clear.

This research performs a thematic analysis on tweets published during Brazil’s 2018 elections that mentioned communism. The idea was to identify the linkages to other underlying themes that emerged during what we saw as the Twitter ‘virality of communism’ and interpret them considering the backdrop of anti-communist discourses in the country. The results show that political polarisation, distrust of democracy, criticism of the left and praise of militarism and religion are the most recurrent themes. We conclude by situating the virality of the term ‘communism’ as a process that follows a context of disinformation and hopelessness, but which also relates to the legitimate concerns of Brazilian voters.

International audience; Virality is a communicational phenomenon that is booming since the development of the Internet, the Web 2.0 and digital and social medias and devices. It is a prominent phenomenon of web culture. Virality is a complex phenomenon that results from a multiplicity of factors that can create, drive or boost it. Despite numerous works that have studied these factors, it seems that none of them have considered the influence of gender in a viral phenomenon. The aim of this article is to demonstrate, with the experimental method, the significance of this effect over sharing intentions depending the gender. Our first results allow to bring out a trend according to our hypothesis : gender seems to have no significative effect over viral phenomenon.; La viralité est un phénomène communicationnel qui a connu son essor depuis le développement d’Internet, du Web 2.0 et des médias et dispositifs socionumériques, et qui demeure aujourd’hui un phénomène majeur de la culture Web. Elle constitue un phénomène complexe qui est la résultante d’une multiplicité de facteurs potentiellement à son origine, qui lui sont favorables et/ou qui l’orientent. Malgré plusieurs travaux étudiant ces divers facteurs, il ne semblerait cependant qu’aucun d’entre eux ne se soit penché sur l’influence du genre dans un phénomène viral. L’enjeu du présent article est de démontrer, par la méthode expérimentale, la significativité de l’influence d’un tel effet sur les intentions de partage selon les genres. Nos premiers résultats permettent déjà de dégager une première tendance quant à l’hypothèse formulée : le genre ne semble avoir aucun effet significatif sur le phénomène viral.

This diploma thesis deals with the phenomenon of Internet memes. The theory of memes came from the evolutionary biologist R. Dawkins in the late 1970s, as a cultural analogy of genes. Decades later, the term "meme" began to appear in Internet culture in conjuction with Internet jokes. This thesis works with the concepts of meme, virality, spreadable media and media convegence. All of these terms define the current Internet environment. The diploma thesis is based mainly on books by L. Shifman: Memes in Digital Culture, H. Jenkins: Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (co-authored) and K. Nahon and J. Hemsley: Going Viral. This diploma thesis deals with the definition of the term meme and its differentiation from the term virality, because for the average Internet user, these two terms are synonymous. The thesis describes meme genres, phases of the creation of Internet memes, which arise mainly from spreadble media and on the basis of which principles are memes created and what factors contribute to their spread in cyberspace. The analytical part consists of a contextual analysis of selected Internet memes, which demonstrates how digital manipulation changes the context of memes in which the meme can be used and how this...

Virus and virus-related terms were much-abused concepts before the COVID pandemic, and they have become even more so during the pandemic. Such concepts stemming from microbiology are now used in a wide range of areas, such as the media, and even in computing language. In this paper, I map out how these concepts have spread across disciplines.

The influence of TikTok has reached the news media, which has adapted to the logic of the platform, in a context marked by the incidental consumption of news, virality and the intermediation of technology in access to information. The popularity of this social network invites news outlets to address a young audience on a platform characterized by visual and short content and dynamics defined by algorithmic recommendations, trending hashtags and challenges. Based on an exploratory search of news media and programmes on TikTok from around the world, we selected 234 accounts and conducted a content analysis of the 19 news media and programmes identified with a verified profile and general thematic scope. The results point to a progressive incorporation of the media since 2019, with the purpose of informing, positioning their brand and adapting to the logic of TikTok in a new approach to journalism for younger generations. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Government of Spain) and the ERDF structural fund within the research project “Digital Native Media in Spain: Storytelling Formats and Mobile Strategy” (RTI2018–093346-B-C33). SI

Introducción: TikTok ha sido una de las redes sociales más usada por los usuarios más jóvenes durante el confinamiento por la COVID-19. Objetivo: Analizar las principales tendencias y vídeos publicados en la plataforma durante el periodo de cuarentena. Metodología: Se analizaron los contenidos y tendencias principales publicados en TikTok durante 25 días de confinamiento desde el 9 de abril al 3 de mayo de 2020. Se presenta un análisis cualitativo y cuantitativo de tendencias y retos virales relacionados con la COVID-19. Resultados: El estudio presenta un modelo de generación de contenidos y viralización de éstos totalmente novedoso, a partir de la presentación de unos contenidos que, aparentemente, no son útiles, no cambian el mundo ni la vida de los ciudadanos, y presentando productos vacíos y basados exclusivamente en la diversión y la imitación. Conclusiones: Frente a las acciones generadas en otras redes para la factura de mascarillas y pantallas, TikTok sólo ha aportado humor y entretenimiento. Sin embargo, bajo una aparente capa de superficialidad y frivolidad, se puede descubrir una foto fija de nuestra sociedad de puertas adentro. Introduction: TikTok has been one of the most used social networks by younger users during confinement by COVID-19. Objective: To analyze the main trends and videos published on the platform during the quarantine period. Methodology: The main contents and trends published on TikTok were analyzed during 25 days of confinement from April 9 to May 3, 2020. It is presented a qualitative and quantitative analysis of viral trends and challenges related to COVID-19. Results: The study presents a completely new content generation and viralization model, based on the presentation of content that, apparently, is not useful, does not change the world or the lives of citizens, and presents empty products and based exclusively on fun and imitation. Conclusions: In front of the actions generated in other networks making face masks and protection screens, TikTok has only provided humor and entertainment. However, under an apparent layer of superficiality and frivolity, you can discover a picture of our society behind closed doors.

Unverified beliefs and truth-claims have been topics of enduring fascination for scholars of media and culture, gaining renewed urgency with the viral spread of fake news via social media and the bitter attacks on scientific knowledge amid the Covid pandemic and climate crisis. In this roundtable discussion, we gather six distinguished thinkers to help us understand rumors, gossip, and the broader allure and danger of unsubstantiated information. With their wide-ranging expertise, our six panelists address the ramifications of rumors and gossip for queer underground cinema, political allegory, star and celebrity cultures, AIDS and Covid media activism, racialised belief systems, and the status of truth and logos in our time.

International audience; This article comes back to our various works to present the data that helped to draw their conclusions (Roux, 2016, 2018, 2019). Our works have produced many data that we want to share with the scientific community, more specifically the information and communication sciences community, in order to let it use these in a heuristic way. These data have not revealed their full potential yet. Indeed, many of these have not been used yet.; Le présent article revient sur nos différents travaux pour présenter les données qui ont servi à en dresser les conclusions (Roux, 2016, 2018, 2019). Nos travaux ont produit de nombreuses données que nous souhaitons désormais partager et diffuser auprès de la communauté scientifique, en particulier celle des sciences de l’information et de la communication, afin qu’elle puisse les exploiter à des fins heuristiques. Ces données n’ont pas encore révélé leur plein potentiel, car nombre d’entre elles n’ont été que peu, voire pas du tout, exploitées.

Background Online interactions within a closed WhatsApp group can influence the attitudes and behaviors of the users in relation to health issues. Objective This study aimed to analyze the activity of the members of a WhatsApp group initiated to raise awareness of the possible health effects of 5G mobile networks and mobilize members to sign the related petition. Methods We retrospectively analyzed data from the WhatsApp group of 205 members that was active during 4 consecutive days in August 2019. The messages exchanged were collected, anonymized, and analyzed according to their timing and content. Results The WhatsApp group members were invited to the group from the administrator’s contacts; 91% (187/205) had a university degree, 68% (140/205) were medical professionals, and 24% (50/205) held academic positions. Approximately a quarter of the members (47/205, 23%) declared in their messages they signed the corresponding petition. The intense message exchange had wildfire-like features, and the majority of messages (126/133, 95%) were exchanged during the first 26 hours. Despite the viral activity and high rate of members openly declaring that they signed the petition, only 8 (8/133, 6%) messages from the group members, excluding the administrator, referred to the health issue, which was the topic of the group. No member expressed an opposite opinion to those presented by the administrator, and there was no debate in the form of exchanging opposite opinions. Conclusions The wildfire-like activity of the WhatsApp group and open declaration of signing the petition as a result of the mobilization campaign were not accompanied by any form of a debate related to the corresponding health issue, although the group members were predominantly health professionals, with a quarter of holding academic positions.

The present article deals with the patterns for creating viral headlines for web content. More specifically, it offers a comparative, corpus-based case study of the patterns employed in English-language and Bulgarian-language viral headlines pertaining to one particular topic (the taste of Coca-Cola at McDonald’s). The aim of the article is to provide a descriptive analysis of a specific phenomenon and a comparison of the approaches to creating headlines on English-language websites on the one hand, and on Bulgarian websites, on the other.

Frugal IS Innovations refer to innovative information systems that are developed and deployed with minimal resources to meet the needs of their users. While the concept has received an increasing amount of research attention in recent years, there remains little knowledge on how they are developed. This case study seeks to address this knowledge gap through an in-depth applied analysis of Weqia.com, a highly successful Internet startup offering Enterprise Social Networking services and solutions in China. The case study reveals that the effective development of Frugal IS Innovations hinges upon three key factors: (1) Strategic Imitation, (2) Product Virality, and (3) User-Centricity. A number of lessons learned are presented which support the innovative approach adopted by Weqia.

Many years after online social networks exceeded our collective attention, social influence is still built on attention capital. Quality is not a prerequisite for viral spreading, yet large diffusion cascades remain the hallmark of a social influencer. Consequently, our exposure to low-quality content and questionable influence is expected to increase. Since the conception of influence maximization frameworks, multiple content performance metrics became available, albeit raising the complexity of influence analysis. In this paper, we examine and consolidate a diverse set of content engagement metrics. The correlations discovered lead us to propose a new, more holistic, one-dimensional engagement signal. We then show it is more predictable than any individual influence predictors previously investigated. Our proposed model achieves strong engagement ranking performance and is the first to explain half of the variance with features available early. We share the detailed numerical workflow to compute the new compound engagement signal. The model is immediately applicable to social media monitoring, influencer identification, campaign engagement forecasting, and curating user feeds., Presented at ICAART 2020

Los memes digitales son un formato controvertido en el debate político y social contemporáneo. Este trabajo explora qué elementos del meme afectan al éxito de su difusión. El trabajo combina metodologías cualitativas y cuantitativas para el análisis de una muestra de memes políticos en España. Los resultados muestran que hay tres elementos básicos en el éxito del meme: el contenido emocional, un humor sofisticado y el capital social del creador. The digital meme is a disputed format in the current political and social debate. This paper explores the meme’s features as regards its virality. The study combines qualitative and quantitative methodology to analyse a sample of political memes in Spain. The results show three key features: emotional topics, complex humour, and the digital social capital of meme-creators.

L'emergència de les xarxes socials com a eina per a la protesta, la dissidència i la mobilització ha demostrat la capacitat d'apropiació de nous recursos tecnològics, d'expressió i d'organització de l'activisme clàssic, que n'hauria sortit reforçat. Les comunicacions sense fils van ser un mecanisme d'organització i mobilització eficaç dins les files proreferèndum independentista (de l'1 d'octubre de 2017). Les xarxes es van anar erigint com a altaveus de dues versions oposades de la història: una de negació i l'altra de reafirmació del moviment sobiranista. Tanmateix, les xarxes socials, més que un element veritablement transformador, han servit per amplificar dos relats oposats: un que criminalitza el moviment tractant-lo d'inconstitucional i violent, i l'altre que en defensa la legitimitat i el caràcter no-violent. Assistim al xoc de dues narratives mediatitzades que busquen monopolitzar l'estat d'opinió. La emergencia de las redes sociales como herramienta para la protesta, la disidencia y la movilización ha demostrado la capacidad de apropiación de nuevos recursos tecnológicos, de expresión y de organización del activismo clásico, que habría salido reforzado. Las comunicaciones inalámbricas fueron un mecanismo de organización y movilización eficaz dentro de las hiles pro referéndum independentista (del 1 de octubre de 2017). Las redes se fueron erigiendo como altavoces de dos versiones opuestas de la historia: una de negación y la otra de reafirmación del movimiento soberanista. Aun así, las redes sociales, más que un elemento verdaderamente transformador, han servido para amplificar dos relatos opuestos: uno que criminaliza el movimiento tratándolo de inconstitucional y violento, y el otro que en defensa la legitimidad y el carácter no-violento. Asistimos al choque de dos narrativas mediatizadas que buscan monopolizar el estado de opinión. The emergence of social networks as a tool for protest, dissidence and mobilization has demonstrated the capacity for appropriation of new technological resources, expression and organization of classical activism, which would have been reinforced. Wireless communications were an effective mechanism for organization and mobilization within the pro-independence referendum (of October 1, 2017). The networks became the loudspeakers of two opposing versions of history: one of denial and the other of reaffirmation of the sovereignty movement. Even so, social networks, more than a truly transformative element, have served to amplify two opposing stories: one that criminalizes the movement by treating it as unconstitutional and violent, and the other that defends its legitimacy and non-violent character. We are witnessing the clash of two mediatized narratives that seek to monopolize the state of opinion.

The paper discovers potential human interactions with growing amount of internet of things (IoT) via proposed concept of Social Web of Services (classical social web with smart things - daily life objects connected to the internet). To investigate the impact of IoT on user behaviour patterns we modelled human-thing interactions using agent-based simulation (ABM). We have proved that under certain conditions SmartThings, connected to the IoT, are able to change patterns of Human behaviour. Results of this work predict our way of living in the era of caused by viral effects of IoT application (HCI and M2M connections), and could be used to foster business process management in the IoT era.

Viral Image As Evidence. Videos of Police brutality in the Yellow Vest Crisis. At first denied by the government and made invisible in the mainstream media, the theme of police brutality emerged in December 2018, as part of the Yellow Vests conflict, on social networks, through the broadcasting and discussion of a limited number of viral videos. Is this a mere manifestation of the mechanisms of the proof by image, associated with participatory mediation ? This paper intends to analyze the narrative charateristics and media processes at work in specific circumstances to select and establish these videos as reference corpus. By employing the copwatching reading grid, online conversations have built a controversial space based on the denunciation of visible facts, a real alternative to institutional media coverage. The later coverage of police brutality in the mainstream news outlets attests to the fact that the yellow vest crisis has made of social networks the catalyst of public debate today., D’abord contestée par le pouvoir et invisibilisée par les grands médias, la thématique des violences policières émerge en décembre 2018, dans le cadre du conflit des Gilets jaunes, sur les réseaux sociaux, via la diffusion et la discussion d’un petit groupe de vidéos virales. S’agit-il d’une simple manifestation des mécanismes de preuve par l’image, associée à la médiation participative ? Cette contribution propose l’analyse des caractères narratifs et des processus médiatiques qui ont oeuvré, dans des circonstances spécifiques, à la sélection et à l’établissement de ces vidéos comme un corpus de référence. Empruntant à la grille de lecture du copwatching, la conversation en ligne construit à partir de la dénonciation de faits visibles un espace de controverse, véritable alternative à la médiatisation institutionnelle. La reprise tardive par les journaux d’information de la thématique des violences policières atteste que la crise des Gilets jaunes a fait des réseaux sociaux l’espace moteur de l’élaboration du débat public., La imagen viral como evidencia. Los videos de la violencia policial en la crisis de los chalecos amarillos. El tema de la violencia policial surgió en diciembre de 2018, como parte del conflicto de los chalecos amarillos, en las redes sociales, a través de la difusión de algunos vídeos virales y el debate sobre los mismos, pues al principio fue cuestionado por el gobierno e ignorado por los principales medios de comunicación. ¿ Se trata de una simple manifestación de los mecanismos de prueba por la imagen, asociados a la mediación participativa ? Esta contribución propone el análisis de los personajes narrativos y de los procesos mediáticos que sirvieron, en circunstancias específicas, para seleccionar y establecer estos vídeos como corpus de referencia. A partir de la matriz de lectura de copwatching, la conversación en línea construye un espacio polémico basado en la denuncia de hechos visibles, una alternativa real a la cobertura de los medios de comunicación institucionales. La tardía publicación en los medios de comunicación del tema de la violencia policial atestigua que la crisis de los chalecos amarillos ha convertido a las redes sociales en motor del desarrollo del debate público., Gunthert André. L’image virale comme preuve. Les vidéos des violences policières dans la crise des Gilets jaunes. In: Communications, 106, 2020. Post-censure(s) pp. 187-207.

Tema ovog diplomskog rada je utjecaj karakteristika video oglasa na namjere njegovog dijeljenja putem društvenih medija. Radom se prvo prezentiraju teorijske osnove vezane za temu kao što su osnovni podatci o video marketingu, koristima i izazovima, kao i o pojmu viralnosti i faktorima koji na to utječu. Isto tako će se obraditi i efektivnost i efikasnost video sadrţaja, te će se obraditi najčešće korištene društvene mreţe za dijeljenje upravo ovog tipa sadrţaja. U empirijskom dijelu rada ispitani su stavovi ljudi o tome kolika je njihova sklonost dijeljenja video sadrţaja putem društvenih mreţa, te postoji li utjecaj karakteristika poput duljine trajanja, zanimljivosti sadrţaja ili korištenih emocija u video oglasima na njihovo dijeljenje. The theme of this final essay is impact of characteristics of video ads on intentions of sharing it through social media. Through this essay first there were some theoretical basis about a theme of an essay which includes basic information about video marketing, its benefits and challenges, as well as the term virality and the factors that affect it. The effectiveness and efficiency of video content will also be processed and will handle the most commonly used social networks for sharing this type of content. In empirical chapter of essay we examine people's attitudes about their tendency to share video content through social networks and whether there is any impact of video ad characteristics such as length, content, or emotions on sharing the video.

Souvent reléguées aux marges de l’histoire de l’art, les controverses n’en ont pas moins un effet éminemment transformateur : elles font quelque chose aux œuvres. Consacrée à l’étude de polémiques récentes touchant des œuvres d’art contemporain, cette thèse met en lumière ce qui naît de ces conflits, à savoir de nouveaux objets, de nouveaux acteurs et de nouveaux modes opératoires. L’analyse s’articule autour de trois cas : la censure du film « A Fire in My Belly » (1986-1987) de David Wojnarowicz à la National Portrait Gallery de Washington, D.C. en 2010, le blanchiment d’une murale du street artist Blu réalisée au Museum of Contemporary Art de Los Angeles la même année et, enfin, la destruction de « Dialogue avec l’histoire » (1987) en 2015, œuvre d’art public conçue par Jean Pierre Raynaud pour la Place de Paris à Québec. Ces controverses signalent la mise en place d’une dynamique inédite quant au rôle exercé par la circulation d’images dans le développement des polémiques : ces reproductions, disséminées de manière soutenue dans le web, et plus généralement à travers différentes déclinaisons de l’espace public, infléchissent les trajectoires des œuvres. Ceci leur procure non seulement une visibilité accrue, mais leurs modes d’existence s’en trouvent par conséquent modifiés, les œuvres vivant pour ainsi dire par l’entremise d’images fixes ou animées qui prolifèrent en ligne. Prenant appui sur la conception pragmatiste des publics (Dewey), de même que sur la sociologie de l’acteur-réseau et les théories de la médiation, nous étudions par ailleurs la formation de collectifs nés conjointement à cette dissémination d’images « virales ». Des acteurs impliqués dans les controverses, qu’il s’agisse d’artistes ou d’activistes, entreprennent notamment de faire réapparaître les œuvres censurées ou disparues sous diverses formes, incluant des répliques, des œuvres dérivées ou encore des mèmes Internet. Nous démontrons que ce phénomène de réappropriation, inexistant lors de polémiques artistiques antérieures aux années 2010, est lié aux dynamiques de partage apparues avec le « web 2.0 »., While they are often relegated to the margins of art history, controversies nevertheless have an eminently transformative effect : they do something to artworks. Devoted to the study of recent debates surrounding contemporary works, this thesis brings into light what arises from these conflicts, namely new objects, new actors, and new modi operandi. The analysis is structured around three case studies: the censorship of the film “A Fire in My Belly” (1986-1987) by David Wojnarowicz at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. in 2010, the whitewash of a mural by street artist Blu at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles that took place the same year, and the destruction of “Dialogue avec l’histoire” (1987) in 2015, a work of public art created by Jean Pierre Raynaud for the Place de Paris in Québec City. These controversies reveal that there is a new dynamic taking place regarding the role of circulating images in the unfolding of such debates: these reproductions, extensively disseminated in the web, and more generally in public spaces and the public sphere, shape the artworks’ trajectories. Not only does this confers them a higher visibility, but their very modes of existence are modified in this process, works get to live, in a manner of speaking, through fixed or animated images that proliferate online. Drawing upon a pragmatist approach to publics (Dewey), actor-network theory, and sociology of mediation, we also study the forming of collectives born jointly with this dissemination of “viral” images. Actors involved in the controversies, either artists or activists, seek to make the censored or destroyed works reappear in various forms, including replicas, derivative works or even Internet memes. We demonstrate that this phenomenon of appropriation, inexistent during controversies prior to the 2010s, is linked to sharing dynamics that appeared with the “web 2.0”., Cette thèse a été réalisée avec l'appui financier du Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).

•PurposeIn the wake of Brexit and the 2016 US Presidential Elections, “post-factual” society has been heralded as a new era of political communications, where the digital public sphere plays a central role, in spreading “viral” contents and “fake news”, with the help of automated accounts or “social bots”. This paper seeks to define these terms and the methods by which the phenomena they commonly designate might be studied, in order to characterise the dynamics of political deliberation during the 2017 French Presidential Elections on Twitter, the online platform most commonly used for political communication in France. It thus aims to better understand the mechanisms by which information becomes popular and circulates rapidly on the network, notably the degree to which “fake” information is spread virally, and the role which bots may play in this, and to help public relations and political communication professionals to better take these into account in their strategies.•Design/methodology/approach The paper stems from an interdisciplinary research project involving computer scientists and communication scientists. It is based on a corpus of around 50 million Tweets constituted over 7 weeks during the French Presidential Election campaign in 2017. Focusing on a sub-corpus of just over 10 million tweets sent during the final two weeks of the election (between the first and second rounds of voting), the most popular retweets were selected (n=197), and subjected to qualitative analysis (manual coding) in order to characterise them in terms of their contents. In parallel, the Twitter accounts which has retweeted the most often (at least 100 times) the 1000 most common retweets were selected as the likely “influencers” of the sub-corpus (n=1077). The software tool specialised in bot detection, Botometer, developed by the University of Indiana, but also two types of algorithmic cluster analysis, were used to calculate the probability of automation of these accounts and to model the relationships between them. On the basis of this, different profiles of potential bots were identified. •Findings Results show that relatively little “fake” information featured among the most popular retweets during this period, and indeed that the expression of opinions, humour and irony, as well as denunciations of fakes and scandals, appear to be more likely to spread “virally”. There is clear evidence of at least some social bots, but detection techniques appear to be currently reaching their limits, at least in part because of increasingly sophisticated algorithms designed to escape detection, the use of automation tools to automate certain tweets only on their accounts by some individuals, and forms of human behaviour (e.g. bursts of rapid retweets) which resemble behaviour traditionally seen as that of bots. For these reasons, it would appear that bots will become relatively undetectable in the near future.•Research limitations/implications Limits to the study include the choice of sample and subjective bias introduced by the methods used (qualitative approach, cluster analysis), as well as the increasing difficulty of detecting social bots. The fact that “fake news” was not highly represented in the most retweeted messages is significant, but does not mean that “fake” information does not circulate on Twitter more widely. Implications for communications professionals seeking to optimise digital campaigning strategies on Twitter include insights into the types of contents likely to be spread virally, if other conditions (e.g. network structure and visibility) are fulfilled. •Originality/value The study is innovative in the choice to study virality through the prism of message contents, and also in the methodology of bot detection, which goes some way to address certain weaknesses of the current state-of-the-art solution. It is also original in seeking to bring together questions of virality, fakes and bots, questions which have no common definitions and generally treated separately, in order to propose a holistic reading of online political deliberation dynamics in post-factual society, through the particular example of the French Presidential Elections.

En el presente trabajo, se ha estudiado y experimentado el fenómeno fashion film. Un formato audiovisual que no hace muchos años atrás, ha comenzado a tener un gran auge entre las empresas de moda. En él se ha repasado la evolución del movimiento desde sus orígenes y se ha realizado una pieza audiovisual para la firma de moda Cuplé, volcando en ella todos los conocimientos adquiridos. In the present work, the phenomenon of the fashion movie has been studied and experienced. An audiovisual format that not many years ago has begun to have a great boom among fashion companies. It has reviewed the evolution of the movement since its inception and has made an audiovisual piece for the fashion firm Cuplé, pouring in it all the acquired knowledge.

The problem of assessing the mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of virality of social network posts is of great value for many activities, such as advertising and viral marketing, influencing and promoting, early monitoring and emergency response. Among the several social networks, Twitter.com is one of the most effective in propagating information in real time, and the propagation effectiveness of a post (i.e., tweet) is related to the number of times the tweet has been retweeted. Different models have been proposed in the literature to understand the retweet proneness of a tweet (tendency or inclination of a tweet to be retweeted). In this paper, a further step is presented, thus several features extracted from Twitter data have been analyzed to create predictive models, with the aim of predicting the degree of retweeting of tweets (i.e., the number of retweets a given tweet may get). The main goal is to obtain indications about the probable number of retweets a tweet may obtain from the social network. In the paper, the usage of the classification trees with recursive partitioning procedure for prediction has been proposed and the obtained results have been compared, in terms of accuracy and processing time, with respect to other methods. The Twitter data employed for the proposed study have been collected by using the Twitter Vigilance study and research platform of DISIT Lab in the last 18 months. The work has been developed in the context of smart city projects of the European Commission RESOLUTE H2020, in which the capacity of communicating information is fundamental for advertising, promoting alerts of civil protection, etc.

International audience; Although cultures are a group-based process, cultural change occurs on the level of the individual, through micro-level interactions which give rise to new representations. Based on the semiopragmatics approach to communications, this contribution will theorize this process of cultural evolution, linked to the phenomenon of contagion, notably assisted by media and internet-based communication, based on examples of recent emerging cultural trends.

The goal of this thesis is to examine Internet memes on Ylilauta.org, a Finnish discussion forum. Internet memes are catchy pictures, videos, sound, or text that spread on the Internet from person to person via different channels. One of their features is viral, virus-like, spreading. Internet memes often spread through repetition and imitation, and people often modify them. Ylilauta is a Finnish, anonymous Internet discussion forum or an imageforum. Another term for this kind of image-focused forum is imageboard and it is used of an Internet forum that has formed a special purpose for images and special kind of anonymous culture. Ylilauta is the Finnish version of the famous imageboard, 4chan. The research questions studied in this thesis are: 1. What kind of image content circulates on Ylilauta? 2. How or in what kind of ways do people use images on Ylilauta? 3. What kind of meme images get modified or how do users modify them on Ylilauta? The research method used in this thesis is netnography, also known as virtual ethnography. The research data were collected in November to December 2015, from /satunnainen/, the random discussion board on Ylilauta. Satunnainen is not a topic- based board so the discussion there is various. Discussion threads are collected and images in their context analyzed using a qualitative typology. The results show that reaction images are an important part of the discussion culture of Ylilauta. Irony is often used, and remixed and parodied content is a big part of participation and meme content production. Also, various memes were found from the data set, for example Röökijäbä, Lörs lärä, Sad frog, and Spurdo spärde.

The current study set out to shed light on the performances that 2016 US presidential candidates used during their interventions on the late-night comedy shows. Following the methodologies ofCritical Discourse Analysis, the aim of the thesis was to uncover and, therefore, analyze, the type of discourses that candidates used in the shows and how they combined them. There was establisheda special focus on the rhetorical styles used by each candidate, as well as the emotional content ofthe discourses, unexpected situations and comedy performances, with the aim to find the elements which lead to virality. This study reveals the rhetorical strategies used by politicians through ananalysis of the political and personal discourses they used in late-nigh comedy shows. According tothe results, the political discourse is most prevalent during the interview than the personal, which isused to start conversations and evoke personalized emotions. The study provides insights upon the elements found in politicians’ discourses on the late-night circuit that lead to achieve virality on social media.

A reflection of both the intensity of sharing practices and the appeal of shared content, the term ‘viral’ is often seen as coterminous with the digital media age. In particular, social media and mobile technologies afford users the ability to create and share content that spreads in ‘infectious’ ways. These technologies have caused moral panics in recent years, particularly within heavily regulated and censored media environments such as the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This paper uses the spread of a ‘viral’ sex video among young Chinesespeaking people who live transnational lives between Japan, China, and Taiwan, to reflect upon the question of ‘viral’ media as it is conceptualised more broadly. Their position both inside and outside Sinophone mediascapes affords a useful case study to think beyond purely institutional discussions of Chinese media, and focus on the ways media practices, affects, and affordances shape patterns of content distribution. It examines the language and practices of ‘virality’ among Chinese-speaking people in Tokyo and shows how the appeal of content like the sex video ‘digital stuff’ on WeChat are typically a digital amplification of pre-existing social practice. Described in terms of ‘sociothermic affects’ (Chau 2008) such as ‘fever’ and ‘heat’ (re/huo), the infectious nature of media is imagined in different but commensurate forms of virality that precedes the digital age. In the digital age however, virality is also made scalable (Miller et al. 2016) in new ways.

Formålet med denne studien er å oppnå en bedre forståelse av viralitet og viral kunst utover en objektorientert tilnærming. I dag blir hverdagen i stadig større grad integrert med Internett-teknologi og våre online-representasjoner av oss selv, og de sosiale medier-plattformene har blitt en innflytelsesrik kilde til informasjon der de gir oss trending / viralt innhold som dukker opp i overflod i våre newsfeeds. Spørsmål om hvordan vi påvirkes av all denne informasjonen oppstår hele tiden, med en pågående debatt om hvorvidt Internett er en form for societies of control. Internett som et intrikat og sofistikert nettverk som gir oss muligheten til å jobbe hjemmefra og administrere mange aktiviteter og handlinger uten å forlate sengen om morgenen, kommer med en pris. Kostnaden er frihet, ettersom våre handlinger blir overvåket og et krav om å være tilgjengelig har blitt konstant. Ettersom viralitet og viral kunst kan spre seg veldig fort gjennom nettene som Internett består av, blir de komponenter i viktige hendelser og emner. Denne tverrfaglige studien av egenskapene til viralitet og viral kunst som allegoriske enheter, argumenterer for at viral kunst ikke bør forstås som en frittstående gjenstand, men en sammensetning av mange elementer som er til stede og en del av vår interaksjon online, og hvordan det kan påvirke samfunnet vårt. Viralitet og viral kunst er i en posisjon hvor den kan nå ut til en veldig stor andel av befolkningen, noe som gir den potensielt høy grad av innflytelse. I tillegg er den til en viss grad i besittelse av kvaliteter som kan motsette seg societies of control, og bør betraktes mer som en effekt enn gjenstander. Mastergradsoppgave i digital kultur MAHF-DIKUL DIKULT350

Why do some online video advertisements go viral while others remain unnoticed? What kind of video content keeps the viewer interested and motivated to share? Many companies have realized the need to innovate their marketing strategies and have embraced the newest ways of using technology, as the Internet, to their advantage as in the example of virality. Yet few marketers actually understand how, and academic literature on this topic is still in development. This study investigated which content characteristics distinguish successful from non-successful online viral video advertisements by analyzing 641 cases using Structural Equation Modeling. Results show that Engagement and Surprise are two main content characteristics that significantly increase the chance of online video advertisements to go viral. Why do some online video advertisements go viral while others remain unnoticed? What kind of video content keeps the viewer interested and motivated to share? Many companies have realized the need to innovate their marketing strategies and have embraced the newest ways of using technology, as the Internet, to their advantage as in the example of virality. Yet few marketers actually understand how, and academic literature on this topic is still in development. This study investigated which content characteristics distinguish successful from non-successful online viral video advertisements by analyzing 641 cases using Structural Equation Modeling. Results show that Engagement and Surprise are two main content characteristics that significantly increase the chance of online video advertisements to go viral.