Viral Marketing and the Dissemination of Information

The development of new communication technologies has improved the way we, as journalists, disseminate information. The rate and the distance of which information is now able to travel is almost incomprehensible. Even with the fragmentation of audiences, journalists are able to reach MORE of the target public with what seems to be less effort. But is it....?

One of the negative effects of online journalism, especially with writing a blog, is that it is sometimes hard for the audience to decipher who is and who isn't a credible source. This makes readers weary (and for good reason) of the information they see on the Internet. Another negative effect is that the online journalist has to compete with the "noise" of technology. Individuals deal with "information overload" everyday and have to find a way to filter out information that is either not important to or does not impact the person directly. In return, there really isn't any good way for a writer to measure just how much content the reader is absorbing.

As I was surfing Advocate.com today, I came across an article called "Virtual Victories" that introduced a term I had never heard before: Viral Marketing. I knew the general concept of this "word-of-mouth" dissemination of information, but never knew exactly what to call it in terms of online marketing. According to the article, it has become widely used by political and civil rights group to garner maximum interest in current social issues. The only problem with this type of quick, high energy dissemination is that the message often burns out quickly.