Dissemination

The word “dissemination” is used in two distinct ways in communication scholarship: as a theoretical model and as a mundane term. According to John Durham Peters's conceptual classification, dissemination is the loose “seeding” of ideas that may (or may not) be harvested by audiences. When used as a mundane term, dissemination depicts the directed spread of information, ideas, or (most often) scientific knowledge from a central source to divergent audiences. While both uses refer to an intentional spread of messages from one entity to many, the theoretical construct is “thinner” as the sender does not aim to control the conditions (or outcomes) of resection. In contemporary digital culture, the two meanings of dissemination collide in the concept of “sharing.” Used as an overarching term for depicting a wide array of online activities, “sharing” incorporates a new incarnation of dissemination, tailored to fit the phatic, self-oriented, and algorithmic Web 2.0 culture.