The viral sports video that I have chose to share with you all is the video Kevin Ware breaking his leg during a March Madness game. I picked this video because not only did it capture over 61,000 views on Youtube, but also had many hits on Twitter, Vine, and Facebook. It was an injury that was talked about for days after it happened. In basketball we don't usually see injuries to this caliber and the fact that this happened during one of the most watched tournaments was amazing. As you watch the video, you will notice that most of the duration of the video is simply the reaction of his teammates yet; still the title of the video has brought in viewers to watch the video still to this day.
Just for kicks and giggles I typed in Kevin Ware to Twitter today, August 3, 2014. Kevin Ware broke his leg on March 31, 2014, so over 4 months ago. When I searched this what came up was a tweet from 36 minutes ago that said, "after finally watching the footage of Kevin Ware, I have decided to never jump again." In addition there were also numerous tweets comparing Kevin Ware to recently injured Paul George; both athletes suffered from the same injury. In the past 24 hours, 19 tweets showed up
that included both Kevin Ware’s and Paul George’s names. Searching #kevinwareinjury on Instagram there are 2,695 public posts with the most recent one being 23 hours ago.
Overall, I think these numbers go to show how long people will talk about a video that is released on the Internet. People are still watching a video that lasts 1 minute and 30 seconds 4 months later. Social media plays a big role in the viral spreading of videos. Today, videos put out on Youtube, they are then being talked about over social media for months and months.
Jenna, I think this video goes viral for many reasons. First, because of how horrific the injury is. I know I watched the videos a couple of times, not to see the injury itself, but to see what both Ware and George were doing before they landed. The crazy part about these injuries is that they were just landing. They weren't out of control of off balanced. It was just a freak accident that I hope doesn't happen to anyone. You did a good job of touching on social media and how it made the video go even more viral. With tweeting and the use of hashtags, pictures and videos can explode because people can search a single topic very easily.
ReplyDeleteI can still remember what I was doing and where I was at when this happened. Something like that just doesn't go away. As soon as that happened, so many people became Louisville fans. We all felt for the athlete and the team.
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