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Viral Video Star

Viral Video Star

Date: May 13 2009

Themes: Pets, Tech

Grammar: Contractions and Abbreviations

Intro

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

When something random, like a picture of a kitten, or a low budget movie some kids made, becomes randomly popular among millions of people on the Internet, we say it’s gone viral.

That doesn’t sound very good, right? No one wants a virus! But videos on the Internet spread like viruses, from person to person. And sometimes tastemakers, or people with really popular websites that people think are cool, can help a video go viral overnight.

No one really knows what it takes for videos to go viral. Sometimes amazing videos by famous stars like this one by Justin Timberlake go viral, and other times dumb videos like this one get popular. Listen to Devan and Mason talk about what they think it takes to become a movie star on the Internet.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Devan

Devan

Mason

Mason

Devan:  How do they get videos to go viral? Like, where does it start, how does it spread, where do people usually…

Mason:  You know, it’s kind of a lot of magic. You just…you gotta make something that’s super neat and you gotta get a hold of enough people who have influence, right. Like, if I have something I think is cool. I have maybe 20 people I can send it to who they might think that’s cool. So then it just kind of stops there. But then there’s those people who know, like, ten thousand people and they can broadcast it to their friends, right, and then it’s just viral.

Devan:  And then they’ll just, like, upload it on their facebook and a bunch of people see it.

Mason:  Sure. But you know, puppies and people getting kicked in the nuts is generally going to help your viral potential a lot.

Devan:  Definitely. It’s just funny whenever I see some homemade funny video that some kid made in his basement in New Hampshire and then all of a sudden everyone in America has seen it within three days.

Mason:  Right. The thing that confuses me is all the video blogs.

Devan:  On YouTube?

Mason:  Yeah, yeah, pretty much all of ‘em are. That’s the go to source, right? There’s just these people who, they bought their laptop with a webcam and they just think, like, what they have to say is the most interesting thing ever.

Devan:  I know. And they have tons of subscribers too. I don’t know why people find those interesting. However, anyone hitting their head, that’s always a good laugh for me.

 

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Discussion

Devan asks Mason how videos go viral. He explains that it’s something that can be explained exactly. People just start to like a video for whatever reason and start sending it to their friends in emails or on sites like facebook, MySpace and twitter. If enough people share the video, it becomes viral.

It’s hard to say what people what want to share with their friends. But cute videos about pets are commonly popular, as are short silly videos where someone gets hurt.

What Mason and Devan don’t understand is why some video blogs get popular. Video blogs are just like regular blogs, only instead of writing, you just talk to a webcam. It can be pretty boring, but some video blogs are really popular on sites like YouTube.

What kind of videos do you share with your friends? What do you think makes a video go viral? What’s the last cool video someone shared with you?

 

Comments

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mahrad3

mahrad3

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

yes of course it is fun to make video and broadcost it:d my frnds and i did it in spades but we have never broadcast it to people we dont know or share it in net .we do it in  wind down times.for example we sing some comic and jockular songs or we act in some stupid videos about funny loves that happen in streets:D

02:03 PM Oct 02 2013 |

snmudallal

snmudallal

France

ok ok, listen to me devan u should stop seeing jason, he is not made for u.

02:54 PM Feb 13 2010 |

shoaibmarfatiya

India

I share video on face book, come on to see it!<!-Session data->

12:39 PM Dec 21 2009 |

Genjuro

Genjuro

Mexico

i never share videos with nobody, i don't like to do these things,

10:52 PM Sep 03 2009 |

sahib22

Yemen

ho

 

07:17 PM May 22 2009 |

sofree

sofree

China

I'll share whatever I'm interested in or my friends might like with them.  Actually I don't watch each videos shared by friends, some are just not my thing, some are totally commercials, very boring.

 

I'm quite sure how you broadcast is much important than how neat the videos are. It started in promotion, now on internet, it goes faster. Oh, on the other hand, porn videos or videos with sexual innuendo go viral very fast, especially of celebrities, like Paris Hilton and Edison Chen, they don't even need YouTube's help!

 

This is the last video someone shared with me in a Chinese SNS website:  http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/_oNej3TP244/           Well, we don't have YouTube now in China, blocked, sooo bad.

06:37 AM May 19 2009 |

clutchmann

clutchmann

Hungary

I think to make stupid "artificial" videos are bad things. I think you have to share such videos that are created in your life in your natural athmosphere. These can be more funnier than the forced videos with webcam.

05:55 AM May 19 2009 |

alirezafarzaneh1983

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

I usually share the videos I think are cool.When a video is cool and funny it spreads very fast and it goes viral.The last movie I got shared with was about a cute baby who falls over and cries. 

05:11 AM May 19 2009 |

Amido Hernan Rios

Colombia

I'm not that sorta boy who gotta cry out for being heard.

10:08 PM May 17 2009 |

freewilly87

Germany

I did a video with photos underlined with music when a friend of mine travelled for the USA for one year.

I think the creativity of a video makes it viral

11:25 AM May 17 2009 |

dung123

Viet Nam

I think that we should have got  the writing about this because when we have some thing don't understand or listen we can see it and then know more about it rite?

Thanks

06:15 AM May 17 2009 |

annieanna

annieanna

China

 

hehe !!!i have never seen a vedio like that !

05:56 AM May 16 2009 |

Marcelolic

Marcelolic

Brazil

I love to watch clips of bands on youtube or videos on martial arts,it is cool :)

10:40 PM May 15 2009 |

ciberd7

ciberd7

Brazil

I don´t share videos with my friends, but I´ve seen a lot of cool videos. There are some friend of mine who like to share their videos, otherwise, I think it could be a little dangerous if you share some things that will cause you prejudice or criticizing.

You gotta bear in mind what you broadcast on internet or you´ll be reason for some laughings and you life will turn upside down. Here in Brazil, there was a person who posted simple pics and got his stuff stollen and the police had so solve that case and it was a lot of danger to his family. So you gotta think before spreading your videos!

03:38 PM May 15 2009 |

bartek

bartek

Poland

I share with my friends videos of football goals, funny music and trailer of movies. I think that humor and often nonsence make a video go viral, but it's no rule for this. Video, who should go on viral, must be just original

07:31 AM May 15 2009 |

pifiag

pifiag

Peru

sometimes I broadcast funny videos and some short silly videos.

08:51 PM May 14 2009 |

Mira_Memoir

Egypt

I usually broadcast news about the upcoming videos of my favorite band, but only to fans. I think a video goes viral if it's understandable to different cultures, like a man getting hit in the nuts is funny in all cultures! The last video was the making of "New Divide" the soundtrack of the new Transformers movie: Revenge of the Fallen.

06:43 PM May 14 2009 |

omgnotagain01

Philippines

Well, if a person wants to make a YouTube video or wanna be a YouTube star, I think he gotta to make something super neat of course to make his character so kind

01:26 PM May 14 2009 |

mukashi

mukashi

Myanmar

I wanna try to make my own video. I gotta make my first own video in next month when I am going to Fukuoka. Of course I will share to my friends, Wanna see?

08:29 AM May 14 2009 |

1 person likes this

mayusheth

India

I like to watch funny video which has something interesting and entertaining ….....

05:54 AM May 14 2009 |

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