The Making of an lnternet Sensation

The Making of an lnternet Sensation
We've oll received those web links from friends 'you must watch this - it's brilliant!'
Read how one such popular lnternet video was made.
It is a cold November evening and I am perched at the top of a tall stepladder
in a village hall. On the floor, 16 golden retrievers stare up at me curiously. They
are arranged in a square, four by four. I watch through the viewfinder of my
video camera. This, I think to myself, could make me famous.
I hadn't thought up the idea myself - it all came about at the behest of my
editor. We want you to write about viral videos, he had told me a couple of
weeks earlier. Go and find out why some videos go viral. What makes people
ro share them? lt sounded straightforward enough. He sent me a link to Chailie
Bit My Finger, a video of a baby biting his little brother. lt is currently YouTube s
most watched video of all time."l want you to make your own viral and become
internet famousi'he said. "lf this can get 1 35 million hits, you can do it tool'
To better understand what makes people share videos, lturned to Judith Donath
of MlT, who studies online social networks. She argues that the factors driving
people to share stuff over the web are not that different from the reasons apes
pick bugs out of each other's fur: it's a way of establishing social bonds. Other
researchers have argued that in human societies, language - especially gossip
- has taken on the social function of such grooming. Sharing videos via email
zo or within social networks is just the next step, Donath argues. "Sharing online
is equivalent to small talki'she says. "lt's a little gift of information. lt shows'l'm
thinking of you'!
Video sharing is also a way of making a statement. "ln addition, people use
videos as a way of showing their position in the 'information-technology
ecologyi'Donath says.'A video reflects on the person who sends itl'ln other
words, people will pass on a video if they think it's cool - because it makes them
look cool too. I have friends and colleagues who are cool, so I quizzed them for
lTlpl vo, maY find it useful to read
the questions but not the options
before you read the text - this
may lrelp you focus on the most
appropriate bits of the text.
[TDl Don't exPect to understand
.'..----] €v€[/ word or phrase in the text.
The general context may help
you to understand roughly what
unfamiliar words or expressions
mean.
tTip! The answer must say the same as .- what is in the text - don't choose
an option iust because it states
something true, if that truth is not
in the text. And don't choose an
option iust because it uses some
words from the text.
Title - what does the title tell you about
the text?
l5 'Such'meons you have to look bock for
something previously mentioned in tlrc text.
Moke sure what you find mokes sense in the
context of the 'such'sentence.
l6 Donath is quoted twice. Which phrose
in the text reflects the idea of 'futther
reason' in the question?
l8 'Sneezer' is exploined in the text
(Porogroph 6). Whot does it meqn? Which
of the options helps the writer in thb way?
I 9 Think obout the overoll nteoning of the
text before onswering this question.
20 I Test I Exam practice Reading Part 3
13
inspiration. Eventually, we hit upon a winning idea. I called it
PetsTeach Science. The a im is to demonstrate tricky concepts
:o ranging from quantum physics to chemical structure with
the help of man's best friend and other furry companions.
The next question was what to film for the first episode.
For what I had in mind, a degree of canine discipline was
required, so I contacted a group of dog trainers.They agreed
to help, and last month we made a film using 16 of their
dogs to illustrate the structure of the atom. Some of the
animals acted as the protons and neutrons in the nucleus,
while the rest circulated to mimic the electron cloud.
A few days of shamelessly begging all my friends and family
+o to disseminate the video resulted in fewer than 1,000 hits.
The big breakthrough came after a tip from Michael Wesch,
an anthropologist who studies the behaviour of visitors
to YouTube. One of the key bits of advice he gave me was
to send the video to a so-called "sneezer" - a media outlet
or blogger that can quickly disseminate your video to a
large number of people.'Almost every viral has a catalyst
moment at which it has a big leap of , say, 100,000 viewers