Throughout the past couple of classes, we have discussed the notion of media assemblages. As stated in the blog post assignment, a media assemblage, or media ecology, can be described as "an assemblage of media forms and communicative practices which creates a specific media environment...media assemblages and ecologies are constituted by several distinctive sets of articulations". I believe that within the set of articulations, the third articulation best describes the relation between Martin Luther's 95 Theses and the viral meme character, "Pepe the Frog". The specific meme that I have chosen for this assignment is "Pepe the Frog" as Donald Trump, within his presidential election this year.
The third articulation can be described as "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". In relation to Martin Luther, his messages were able to be circulated throughout society by people who would share his messages.
Similar to Martin Luther's information, the Donald Trump "Pepe the Frog" meme became viral over social media as he tweeted it over twitter to his followers and supporters. These users that follow him began to retweet at a fast rate this meme allowing it to become viral. Users then began to create their own "Pepe the Frog" memes in support of Donald Trump's presidency campaign. In relation to the third articulation, the meme was able to be sent and received throughout online culture. The meme became a political symbol used by Trump supporters in order to spread their shared beliefs throughout the public domain of social media.
Great post! I especially liked the part where you talk about users being able to create their own Pepe the Frog memes to show their support of Donald Trump. Thinking about the concept of creativity had me wondering if creative freedom can help or hinder a campaign. Creativity has the ability to go both ways - people can use the same style of meme and creativity to show support and help the campaign, but then on the flip side there is the ability of non-supports to use their creative power to hinder a campaign. I had not thought about the freedoms of internet in creating memes in this sense before. A question I would have is do you believe creativity and the use of memes in a political platform/campaign is then a good strategy? Perhaps to relate to a younger demographic. Or do you think the ability to manipulate and create your own content is more of a negative aspect of the internet?
ReplyDelete