Luther, Pepe and Accelerated Circulation

The distribution and circulation of media can seriously impact its intended emotions, meaning’s, and messages. I will be explaining how two media examples – Martin Luther’s 95 These and Pepe the Frog in regards to the 2016 Presidential Debate relate to the third articulation. The third articulation “concerns how media artifacts and messages are brought into being a spread through a culture, community, or society […….] ” (Herman). This specific articulation is viewed within social media on a daily basis. It is described as the circulation of information and media artifacts. Articulations and connections are what make up media ecologies and assemblages as they merge specific aspects towards the process of media production. We see in both Martin Luther’s 95 theses and Pepe the Frog the transformation of not only the production but also the changes that occur to media and responses. The way that meaning is interpreted through social practices such as “likes, retweets and reblogs”(Standage, 54).In the Tom Standage reading, we learn that Martin Luther’s 95 These, was the first message to get exposure in 1517- this was right after Luther’s incident regarding the Catholic church message. This theses gained exposure through the re- published and distributed pamphlets. His letter spread through community from one person to another becoming viral so quickly that he essentially forfeit the content which happens to be an issue we see today with social media and the internet – that content can be altered if it leaves the hands of the original content creator, a concept similar to “broken telephone”.The Internet meme, Pepe the Frog or “sad frog” was popular a few years ago and has recently became popular again with the Presidential debate. It arose whenTrump tweeted a version of the meme in regards to his campaign. Pepe began to have a negative impact on society when linked to Trump as these memes began to quickly come to life and go viral. I have attached another news article that expresses how the popular meme is now viewed as a hate symbol once associated with Donald Trump – “abusing the image of a cartoon character, one that might at first seem appealing, to harass and spread hatred on social media”(Elliot). Yes, this meme may have spread hatred but it also spread Trump and created more discussion about him during the campaign which may have lead to his success – he used social media as a step up knowing that society engages with memes. Therefore, this relates back to the third articulation and how a message can quickly circulate and become popular in a way that was unintended from its original meaning.http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/popular-trump-meme-pepe-the-frog-labelled-hate-symbol-1.3092496Herman, A.  (2016). Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo. 8 November 2016. Lecture. Standage, T. (2013). Writing on the Wall: Social Media- The First Two Thousand Years. p. 54 Williams, A. (2016). How Pepe the Frog and Nasty Woman Are Shaping the Election. The New      York Times.  

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