The City of Syracuse and Syracuse University will be featured in cable news channel C-SPAN’s “Cities Tour” this weekend. C-SPAN Cities Tour staff visited numerous locations in the area to explore the unique history and literary culture of the area, including an interview with School of Information Studies (iSchool) faculty member Jeff Hemsley.
Hemsley was interviewed on camera and discussed his book, Going Viral, which outlines the factors that make content, like videos, go viral online. He discussed the flow of information and interconnection of online networks to one another, as well as explored the role of human attention, showing how phenomena like word of mouth, bandwagon effects, and interest networks help to explain the patterns of individual behavior that make viral events happen.
The C-SPAN team also visited the Special Collections Research Center in the Syracuse University Libraries, where curator William LaMoy highlighted the Gerrit Smith Collection and the anti-slavery movement in Syracuse in mid-1800s.
A segment with Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner kicks off C-SPAN’s Syracuse Weekend coverage today, and individual segments will air throughout the weekend with the full Syracuse programming shown on Saturday, Nov. 21, on C-SPAN2’s Book TV (Time Warner Cable channels 92 and 226) and Sunday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. on C-SPAN3’s American History TV (Time Warner Cable channel 227).
Besides the University, C-SPAN profiled a number of historic sites in the area, including the home of Matilda Joslyn Gage, the Harriet Tubman House, the Erie Canal Museum and the Salt Museum.
For more information, visit www.c-span.org/citiestour, where a special “Syracuse” web page will be available to view the programming after it airs. In addition, all video segments will be available indefinitely on the C-SPAN Video Library site at http://www.c-span.org .