A history of online virality (HIVI)

This project (2021-24), led by Prof. Schafer at the C²DH and supported by the FNR, aims to reveal and historicise the heritage of online viral content.

The project at a glance

Start date:

01 Mar 2021
Duration in months:

36
Funding:

FNR (C20/SC/14758148)
Principal Investigator(s):

Valérie Schafer

About

Virality plays a central part in our current digital cultures, especially on social media, and in debates and controversies over fake news and online harassment. However it is not a new phenomenon; it has been embedded in Web practices since their very early days. Building on the legacy of past Web cultures as a means of shedding light on current trends and patterns, our project, entitled “A history of online virality”, aims to reveal, analyse, formalise and communicate about this intangible heritage and historicise these digital trends, which while
immensely influential at the time, ultimately proved ephemeral.
HIVI analyses the specific characteristics of online virality, distribution and dissemination through time and space, from the early Web in the 1990s to Instagram and Twitter. By monitoring and analysing how viral content is produced and circulates within several European countries, this research also helps improve our understanding of European digital cultures.
Combining close and distant reading, this historical research analyses the evolution of viral content on the Web and on social media, focusing on major trends (cats online, memes, etc.) and their digital “noise” and traces.
This project is methodologically challenging: indeed, it places significant emphasis on born-digital heritage (in particular Web archives) in addition to more traditional sources (e.g. press, audiovisual archives and oral interviews) and it raises stimulating issues in terms of interoperability between metadata, tools and multilingualism in Web archives, which should also strongly benefit the fields of archiving, digital humanities and digital history.

HIVI Website