Susan Boyle, a Scottish local, rose to ultimate global fame literally overnight. On the night of April 11th, 2009, she stepped onto the stage of TV show “Britain’s Got Talent,” and performed the song “I Dreamed a Dream” from hit musical Les Misérables. Within a week, there were “103 million total video views on more than 20 different Web sites.”
(http://blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/2009/04/20/susan-boyle-breaks-past-100-million-online-views/)
Her rise to fame can be quantified by Google searches. If we look at search volume of the phrase “Susan Boyle” on Google, you see a huge spike happen in April 2009:
So how exactly did Susan Boyle suddenly become such a worldwide wonder? Let us look at this through media convergence:
We have one original message: “Unexpected talent in a common, tattered-looking 47 year old.” Most of us got this original message through YouTube videos, like the one embedded in this very blog.
Here are some of the many ways that we could have learned about Susan Boyle through a filtered message:
1. Directly from watching TV Show “Britain’s Got Talent”
Finding out about Susan Boyle through “Britain’s Got Talent” is probably the “purest” and most “original” message you can possibly get (that is, of course, if you were lucky enough to be sitting in the direct audience that night!). When watching the actual show, the real-time TV audience is not set up for any expectations. They are simply watching the show, and are introduced to Boyle with a context of other “Britain’s Got Talent” contestants.
Through this medium, an audience can experience a true “element of surprise.”
2. YouTube
Lynn Spigel talks about “Youtubization,” and TV being able to be consumed in “snackable clips.” These clips “appear for personal amusement, but are also entering into the popular vernacular as we e-mail bits of TV to each other as part of online conversations.”
(Lynn, Spigel. "My TV Studies . . . Now Playing on a You Tube Site Near You." Television & New Media 10 (2009): 149-53.)
This is indeed true. I saw friends post Susan Boyle’s YouTube link on their gchat status, facebook status, Twitter account, email, or through instant messenging. YouTube made Susan Boyle that much more portable and transportable.
For the person who finds out about Susan Boyle through YouTube, he or she is pretty much already expecting something spectacular, as they have been directed to these YouTube videos through friends.
3. Celebrity Gossip site Perezhilton.com
http://perezhilton.com/2009-04-12-susan-boyle
On April 12, the day after her performance, Perez blogs and embeds a video of Susan Boyle, then exclaims:
You MUST watch this whole thing!!!!!!
Susan Boyle is her name. She's competing on Britain's Got Talent.
She's 47 years old, and she wants to be a singer.
She attempts to do I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables.
Oh, boy.
It is something to be seen!
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Perez Hilton strips down all information and presents it in six lines. The message is highly condensed. The use of his words she “wants” to be a singer, and she “attempts” to sing the song almost contains a certain element of sarcasm. This can be seen as potentially snarky, which then alters the very original message and already creates a sort of biased perspective for audiences.
4. CNN Online
Some may have found out about Susan Boyle through CNN’s web site. On April 16, CNN did an interview with Susan. By that day, CNN quotes that “a clip of Boyle's performance had more than 11 million views on YouTube by Thursday.” By presenting facts and Susan Boyle’s personal quotes, CNN comes across as authoritative in tone and rich in information.
As we can see, depending on where we get this message, the original message has been altered. Media convergence is everywhere – even with something as familiar to us as Susan Boyle, this woman with the beautiful voice.
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