The Relationship between Martin Luther and Donald Trump

From the outside Martin Luther’s 95 Theses that helped spark the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century and the spread of “Pepe the Frog” as a white ethno-nationalist meme in the context of Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign seem to have nothing in common. Nonetheless, when looked at together through the study of media ecologies we can see many similarities. Media ecologies are constructed through three articulations, however my focus of this study will be on the third articulation which concerns how media artifacts and messages are brought into being and spread through culture, community, or society, and is manifested in the spatio-temporal dynamics of relations to creativity and production, relations of distribution and circulation, and relations of consumption and reception. Although their messages were very different and took place in very different times, both of these media texts went viral through their ability to spread across time and space.

Martin Luther was seen as a media pioneer who made strategic use of the media of his time in order to spread and promote his message across society. Luther never could have imagined that simply by posting his 95 Theses on the door of the church that it would end up being spread across the nation at such a rapid speed in the form of a pamphlet. Luther quickly figured out how to exploit the media of his time. He “did not set out to split the Christian church, but that was the ultimate effect of the campaign he had started, in which the social sharing of his works played a vital role” (Standage, 2013, p. 53). Luther’s 95 Theses were considered a pioneering example of how media can be used by “would-be revolutionaries to coordinate their actions, synchronize opinion and rally others to support their cause” (Standage, 2013, p. 63). To summarize, Luther’s 95 Theses were spread from community to community through its ability to transgress space and time. They were produced by printers in the form of pamphlets, were circulated and distributed through printing thousands of copies and having those copies carried by merchants to other towns therefore being able to be consumed by anyone who has access to them and can read them. It is through this analyzation that Luther’s 95 Theses can be seen as similar to the spread of “Pepe the Frog” in relation to Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign.

Internet allows users to create and produce, circulate and distribute, and consume and receive information more quickly than anything before. With the click of a button, something can be put on the internet and will be on there forever. This allows things, such as memes, to go viral much quicker than Luther’s 95 Theses. Pepe the Frog was initially an innocent meme, however has now been “almost entirely co-opted by the white supremacists who call themselves the “alt-right”” through its relationship to the 2016 Presidential campaign of Donald Trump (Chan, 2016). Once Trump retweeted an image of Pepe the Frog that referenced him, the meme took on a totally new meaning as a white ethno-nationalist meme and lead to the “mass influx of pro-Trump Pepes” because “Pepe had been a symbol of the disenfranchised, social outcasts”, otherwise known as Trump’s “natural audience” (Williams, 2016). Furthermore, Pepe the Frog has become a symbol of white supremacy through “adding swastikas and other symbols of anti-Semitism and white supremacy” (Chan, 2016). The massive spread of Pepe the Frog as a representation of white supremacy lead to it being added to the Anti-Defamation League’s list of hate symbols (Mele, 2016). It is unfortunate for the original version and meaning of Pepe the Frog that it is now be considered a hate symbol simply because of the internet and people using their creative power to change the original meaning. In reference to the third articulation, Pepe the Frog as a symbol of Donald Trump’s campaign was quickly disseminated across the internet due to its extreme accessibility and easiness to share. The memes were created and produced by white supremacists and Trump supporters, were circulated and distributed over a variety of channels including social media platforms, television and news articles, and were consumed and received by anyone with access to these channels, particularly those in support of Trump.

Although these two examples of media texts going viral happened centuries apart and use very different media ecologies of print and social media, they are nonetheless both understood through their being spread throughout cultures, communities and societies. Both media texts exemplify the ability to transgress space and time in order to share and spread their message. Luther’s 95 Theses and Pepe the Frog are both manifested in the spatio-temporal dynamics of relations of creativity and production, relations of distribution and circulation, and relations of consumption and reception. 

References

Chan, E. (2016). Donald Trump, Pepe the frog, and white supremacists: an explainer. Hillaryclinton.com. 

Mele, C. (2016). Pepe the Frog Meme Listed as a Hate Symbol. New York Times. 

Standage, T. (2013). Writing on the wall: Social media -- the first 2,000 years. New York: Bloomsbury.

Williams, A. (2016). How Pepe the Frog and Nasty Woman Are Shaping the Election. The New York Times.