Im Internet nur noch fragmentierte Öffentlichkeit? Nicht unbedingt

James Poniewozik, TV-Blogger und -Journalist bei der TIME, über massenmediale Erlebnisse in der fragmentierten Online-Öffentlichkeit anlässlich von Susan Boyle, einer britischen Reality-TV-Entdeckung:

But there is one more interesting aspect of the growing Boyle phenomenon: it shows that mass-media experiences still exist in the fragmented-media era—they’re just different. [..]

The Boyle clip is one such example, and it’s a doozy. Mashable reports that the clip is on track to eclipse 100 million online views (if it hasn’t already by now). And that’s not counting replays on talk shows, news shows, and on and on—factor those in, and you’ve probably got a bigger audience than the U.S. viewership of the Super Bowl. Keep in mind, we’re talking here about a scene from a British reality show, something that would scarcely have gotten American airplay a few years ago. Now it’s arguably a bigger, more ubiquitous cultural phenomenon than anything on American TV.

und eine der wichtigen Erkenntnisse daraus:

It also means that more of the power, and the influence over how those moments are received, falls to the excerpters and commentators who reproduce, repost and embed the videos.