For this blog assignment I will be focusing on the
third articulation, which focuses on “how media artifacts and messages are brought into being
and spread through a culture, community, or society, and is manifested in the
spatio-temporal dynamics of relations of creativity and production, relations
of distribution and circulation, and relations of consumption and
reception” (Herman). I will be
applying this framework in a comparative analysis, relating Martin Luther’s 95
Theses to the spread of “Pepe the Frog” memes in relation to Donald Trump’s
campaign
Although these two messages and communication strategies seem to be
unrelated, they actually have many similarities in the spreading of a message
to a vast audience. To begin, I will look at Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis and the
way in which his message spread. Luther started by posting his message to the
doors on the church. He then used pamphlets the spread his message, which
allowed his theses so spread to the masses. These were a better mode of
communication, as opposed to books as pamphlets are less expensive and a
lighter read. Martin Luther’s 95 these was considered the first message to go
viral. With these modes of communication messages are able to circulate quickly
and easily and it is easy for a message to be taken out of context when it
leaves the hands of the creator.
This concept is something that we see with the creation of “Donald
Trump’s Pepe the frog” memes. Pepe’s original creation was taken out of context
and recreated to represent part of Donald Trumps 2016 Presidential campaign. Not
only was this concept similar in both Luther’s Theses and Donald + Pepe memes,
but the social sharing of these messages and the ‘viral’ aspect of the message
was shared. The medium in which these messages were shared were largely
different, but the message still had the ability to be spread to the masses and
become viral. Donald Trump’s “Pepe” memes can be found easily on the Internet
today. These memes went viral through the use of social media such as twitter. This
message was sent and received through online culture, where as Luther’s theses
was sent and received through print.
Therefore we can see that although these two opposing messages and
mediums of communication differ, there are also similarities in the ways in
which a message can be spread and become viral over a vast area.
Hey Emily,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post and agree that there certainly are similarities with the spread of information despite the mean of communication. In the future do you think information will be able to spread more rapidly? or do you think that with social media we have hit the cap of information becoming viral?
Great question Zoey!
ReplyDeleteI think that with the constant innovation of new technology we will continue to find new ways to spread a message from person to person. Even with the new application called "house party", which now allows you to FaceTime up to 8 people at once, and connect with many many people who are using the app. This means of communication allows you to share a message like you may have with apple's "FaceTime" but now you can share that message with 8 people rather than 1 person in the same amount of time. I believe that communication will continue to evolve in new ways and more and more things will have the ability to become viral in a very short period of time… even shorter than what it is now!
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI like how you were able to explain how Pepe's Trump memes and Martin Luther's Theses are different yet similar by how they were able to be spread around (church postings vs. modern day social media). With this connection it allows us to further consider the difference and similarities of the time periods themselves.
I also enjoyed Zoey's thoughtful questions of the future of communication and I agree with your response that communication will constantly evolve in new ways!
Also I never heard of that "house party" app before so thanks for mentioning it, I'll have to check that out!