Luther and Pepe the Frog - Mode of Communicaiton/Affect/Accumulation

Luther communicated his 95 theses a long time ago, where the communication technology that we have today was unavailable, but the means to which the theses were communicated are similar to what is done today. On the contrary, the Pepe the frog meme is a mode of communication that is well known on the Internet today and is communicated through different social media platforms has the capacity to reach millions of viewers.

            As a mode of communication, Luther used the doors in the church in order to get the information that he had provided through the 95 theses to masses of people. He also used pamphlets as a mode of communication in order to get his knowledge and word across to larger amounts of people. This is a mode of communication that was a lot less expensive at this time versus having the theses printed in a book, but still was able to get the knowledge across to the masses. In terms of Pepe the frog meme, It is well known by many people and communicates a message to an audience through the use of social media applications. Memes are ways in which messages can be sent to individuals without blatantly preparing a message of explanation. The original message of the Pepe the frog meme was changed when additional individuals decided to use the Pepe the frog meme in a negative way during the election, which changed the meaning of the message of the meme entirely.

            Luther’s theses were created by him to spread throughout to masses of people so that they too could hear stories and theories that Luther created. This in turn created a sense of affect based on the information that is being communicated through the theses written on the door and the pamphlets that can be spread worldwide. The amount of affect that one can relate to or feel is impacted through the fact that there are only words and symbols but no personal feelings and non verbal communication, which Pepe the frog memes have incorporated. This makes it difficult for the encoder to decode the message of Luther through affect. The Pepe the frog meme created a sense of hate towards the original meme with the ways in which it was being used to represent the American election. It was able to create affect between the meme and the person that was making sense of the meme or creating it. The meme is able to expand widely among many individuals via the Internet, and has created a way of feeling for each individual that comes across the meme.

            Through the mode of communication, in this case pamphlets and the church door, Luther’s messages were able to be spread amongst the German people. Through these messages affective infinity was able to be shared with one another. They were also able to be accumulated overtime through the collection of pamphlets. This also refers to the accumulation of knowledge that individuals collect as they are exposed to more and more knowledge through the theses.  To accumulate these theses was a harder task than accumulating memes are today. Since memes can be replicated and duplicated it was easy enough for a producer of the Pepe the frog election version to change the wording and the looks of the meme. It also enabled the creator to spread the meme worldwide and for an accumulation of memes that are similar to this one or re-created over the Internet and social media websites.