Keynote at 11th European Conference on Social Media: 30 – 31 May 2024, University of Brighton, UK
This talk will revisit the author’s Virality thesis (Sampson, 2012, 2020) in the context of contemporary social media cultures. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches, virality will be framed as a cultural phenomenon and dominant mode of communication and social interaction, which has seemingly moved from an initial biological context to become a key concept in understanding the spread of information, ideas, and emotions. The talk will trace virality back to 19th century sociology, and subsequent debates concerning connected subjectivities, affective economies, marketing, and emerging viral politics. Ultimately Sampson will assess the potential of the concept of virality as a powerful force for both creativity and control, functioning within social networks that are mostly unpredictable and chaotic.
The European Conference on Social Media was established 11 years ago in Brighton and has subsequently been held in Portugal, France, Lithuania and Ireland. The conference has attracted participants from more than 40 countries and been attended by a combination of academic scholars, public sector workers, practitioners and individuals who are engaged in various aspects of the social media industry. A number of journals are selecting papers from the conference for further development and publication.
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VIRALITY 