In this weeks lecture we looked closely at how exactly the distributed media network functions and how it differs from a centralised network. Distribution networks work extremely well in that they can both scale up and easily maintain low coordination costs are there is no pronounced hub. A hierarchical and vertically integrated network with a central hub will experience high coordination costs as it scales up. The more nodes joined will overthrow the central node if not. There is also a lot of pressure on the one central node to deliver content.

In this day people don’t want to respond to inert content they want to engage and challenge the content, which doesn’t sit well for monological media as their main process in gaining information includes framing an event in their own hands. Framing is extremely important in the process of telling a story as it gives the perception, point of view and propaganda to the audience. Compared with dialogical media you have the audience participating in all stages of framing and telling the story. This might be through filming the story via phone or taking notes themselves.

Memes are the building blocks of distributed media. Memes act as perception modulators. Influence the way people see reality. In distributed media a propaganda exchange looks like meme warfare. A lot of memes and meme warfare originate from 4chan. The reason for this is 4chan is a site with no filter and users don’t identify themselves so there is no negative output of posting. This creates an extremely fast feedback loop, if an idea fail and gets rejected there is immediate feedback.

Peters, M., 2020. 5 Ways Framing Can Influence Your Story. [online] Meetcortex.com. Available at: <https://www.meetcortex.com/blog/5-ways-framing-can-influence-your-story> [Accessed 20 April 2020].

tutor2u. 2020. Centralised Versus Decentralised Structures | Business | Tutor2u. [online] Available at: <https://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/centralised-versus-decentralised-structures> [Accessed 20 April 2020].