Kenyatta Cheese
Cocreator, Cofounder, Know Your Meme, Everybody at Once
Biography
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Kenyatta Cheese is a professional Internet enthusiast who creates technology-based media studies on the impact of media and technology on culture. He is Cofounder of Everybody at Once, a media consultancy, Cocreator of Know Your Meme, a primary resource for understanding web culture, and Founder of Unmediated.org, a blog that tracks trends in decentralized media. He is also one of the pioneers of web-based television, with projects such as WiFiTV, Browse TV, and vogbrowser. In previous iterations he has worked with the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology, Manhattan Neighborhood Network, and the online video network Rocketboom.
Kenyatta Cheese
Cocreator, Cofounder, Know Your Meme, Everybody at Once
SPEAKER FILM
Kevin Slavin and Kenyatta Cheese — The Audience Has an Audience
Kevin Slavin and Kenyatta Cheese — The Audience Has an Audience

Kevin Slavin and Kenyatta Cheese argue that people have "a fundamental feeling of wanting to be in sync with each other." When TV was invented, the way that humans are entertained was changed forever. Unlike theater or a concert, where the audience collectively watches something, TV provided isolated entertainmentÑentertainment that was, in some ways, devoid of an audience. Starting with the laugh track, which created the illusion of an audience, people have tried to connect with each other, to create an audience, ever since. Today, audience creation comes most frequently in the form of social media, like Twitter and Tumblr. People tweet, post, and share their opinions, hopes, fears, and the things they love about a show as it is happening. In doing so, the audience now has an audience, a group of people gathered around a shared passion who become their own community. They spark discussions and create fan art focusing on certain aspects of the show, and in that way, help change the story the show is telling.