The second articulation of shows how media modes of production have a strong relationship with the modes of communication affect and accumulation. All three of these modes understand social practices in a different way. The mode of communication shows practices of creating meaning, mode of affect show practices of emotion that arises and sticks with the meaning and mode of accumulation which is a practice of accumulating social capital and power through media. This articulation can be used to analyze the presence of Pepe the Frog meme that is present over the internet throughout the current US Presidential election.
Pepe the Frog started as a simple, childish illustration which represented comics on a life style of post graduate students trying to get their lives together. With the internet being a mode of circulation and allowing for anything posted publicly to be consumed publicly comics and images like Pepe are reproduced and given new meanings with the same media. Socially through being circulated, it has been used and compared in many different context’s adapting to new versions of the frog such as Smug Frog, Angry Pepe, Nu Pepe, and most recently Trump Pepe. By associating Pepe with Trump modes of communication in creating meaning arise from circulation. Pepe is now see and associated with ‘anonymous white nationalist’ and Trump support.
The image below shows the image of Trump Pepein a parody poster which played off the words of Hilary Clinton in a speech denoting the supports as ‘basket of deplorable.’ It wasn’t long before the image circulated mocking this statement and including Pepe as one of the supporters. The power of the internet circulation and messages that were associated with Pepe during the campaign demonstrated power of articulation and creating meaning through social practices.
As we have discussed in class, modes of production allow for meaning to be created through many different mediums and adapt to new meanings through social practices. Through creating memes and having them convey meaning it creates new ways of communication and interaction between people over the internet and constant adaptation to messages and social contexts.
I like how you gave us an idea of how Pepe the Frog came to be and how the Internet as a “mode of circulation” allowed this meme to be recreated and reproduced. It very clear that Pepe has been interpreted in many ways and one of those was the way in which Trump Pepe was created. It is clear to see that the idea of McLuhans “the medium is the message” is shown through the use of memes and the mode in which people use to communicate a message shapes the way the message si sent and received.
ReplyDeleteHi Kailyn,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in that not only Pepe the Frog meme, but many other memes can be circulated in a fast manner and thus changing the meaning as the meme gets transferred. This is done through the mode of communication, when ideologies are able to be spread worldwide like memes there is space for the meme's original meaning to be skewed by the end user. This is demonstrated in the Pepe the Frog meme that was transformed into a hate symbol during the 2016 election, which was not the original purpose of the meme and has thus changed the meaning of this meme completely.
Great post! you made interesting points when it came to the meme started out just as a meme but then once it was quickly circulated, people were able to use their own ideas which easily changed the meaning of that meme. Pepe was interpreted in different ways especially when used towards Trump which got instant negative feedbacks. That one meme was able to be turned into a harmless joke then to something that people found discouraging.
ReplyDeleteThis a great post, i believe with you that the meaning of meme can change based on how its perceived by a certain audience. Similar to all types of communication perception and denotation may be different than the meaning, and because of the lack of verbal communication something that is perceived as a joke can be changed into something that is more aggressive.
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