Strategically Communicating

In this week’s reading of Spreadable Media, the authors state, “This shift from distribution to circulation signals a movement toward a more participatory model of culture, one which sees the public not as simply consumers of preconstructed messages but as people who are shaping, sharing, reframing, and remixing media content in ways which might not have been previously imagined.”

Henry Jenkins, one of the authors, talks about Transmedia Branding and cites the video above as an example on his blog.

The video is a great example of content that is shaped by participatory model of culture. Originally created by Chipotle, the Chipotle Scarecrow video was re-edited by Funny or Die, an Emmy-award winning video and film production company, to demonstrate a different truth from the one originally produced by the multinational corporation.

Funny or Die doesn’t stop there. It invites viewers to watch and vote, fostering a participatory culture where viewers have an opportunity to affect how that content is shared and circulated.

In case you wanted to see the original Chipotle video, it is, unfortunately, “unavailable.”