CS 371A Social Media and Social Life

This week's discussion was focused virality especially in regards to the women yelling at the cat meme and Martin Luther's 95 theses, specifically through the lens of media articulations presented in text and in class. I have chosen the third articulation of how media artifacts and messages are spread through culture and society. With Martin Luther's 95 theses the main alley of distribution was that of nailing the 95 theses to the wall of the Roman Catholic Church and using the printing press to spread his message amongst his followers. The 95 theses were spread from person to person through the use of these mediums and led to one of the biggest media campaigns done in those times. Each paper held the 95 theses that contradicted the Catholic Church and intrigued individuals who read them on pieces of paper or on the wall of the Catholic Church. The printing press played a big role in helping Martin Luther distribute his 95 theses and became one of the most popular mediums o...

 This week, the course content allowed us to explore media assemblages or otherwise known as media ecologies. Essentially, our mission is two examine two pieces of media that have gone "viral" in history and draw connections to them from a critical lens. This critical lens is should be supported by one of three articulations depicted within the lesson. As students that exist in this era of technology, this assignment can better help us understand why different media texts are received differently by various "audiences". Likewise, it raises the question of why these texts that "go viral", are more successful than others that do not.      The ways in which humans are able to communicate with each other are fascinating and ever-changing. As society progresses further and further with technological advancements, bodies are receiving, absorbing, and distributing media differently every day. It is rather interesting to analyze how different media texts have been...

      For this week, I have decided to analyze the third articulation, in comparison to Martin Luthers 95 theses. I will first look at Martin Luther's 95 theses,  then take a closer look at the famous meme of "Woman Yelling at a Cat." Even though these articulations are different they both have similar messages and can create different meanings.     Martin Luthers 95 theses was first written as a criticism of the catholic church and its practices but it quickly went viral in a way that it was unintended too. As mentioned by Standage, they began to circulate in the form of manuscripts, then later in pamphlet form to the wider public. This was a new phenomenon and criculated way beyond the expectations of Luther. Such phenomenon opened Luther and the rest of the publics eyes to how quickly word can spread, drawing attention to the power of decentralized, person to person media systems (Standage 54).      A more relative and recent example of so...

 For this week's blog assignment, we were asked to analyze and compare Martin Luther's 95 Theses and the famous "Woman Yelling at the Cat" meme in relation to one of the three articulations of media assemblages and ecologies learnt in class. My focus will be centred around the third articulation which focuses on how media, its artifacts and messages are spread throughout culture and society through various spatio-temporal dynamics.   Martin Luther's "95 Theses" became a widespread movement against the Roman Catholic Church. Luther's work revolutionized Western society and culture and is argued as "one of the most successful media campaigns in history" (Mohn, 2016). In 1517, he set out to inform the masses in Germany of his concerns within the Church by nailing his 95 Theses to church doors. Luther made excellent utilization of the new media at his disposal such as the printing press, illuminated manuscripts and satirical w...

Hi everyone, For this week’s response, I will demonstrate the concept of media assemblages by examining how two media texts gained mass attention in varying time periods. Slack and Wise (2007) explain that assemblages draw attention to the affective nature of societies’ network of connections. Thus, I will dissect how a medium’s means of production affects the mode of communication, affect, and accumulation.  For instance, before the internet, media had different modes of circulation through society. The means of producing media primarily consisted of copying and printing written material. Therefore, its distribution was dependent on social practices that physically moved it through space and time. For example, Standage describes how Martin Luther’s 95 theses was able to go viral, ”the ‘Ninety-Five Theses’ spread with astonishing speed through the German-speaking lands as the list was copied and republished by printers in different towns” (Standage, 2013). Therefore, I would argu...

  For the last blog post, I have chosen to do articulation number three which concerns how media messages are brought into being and spread throughout a culture, community, or society and how it is manifested in the dynamic of creativity and production, distribution and circulation, consumption, and reception. In order for any message to be spread throughout a community, the message must be shared by numerous other people. The two examples that will be discussed here are Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and the famous “Women yelling at a cat” meme that is the must notable case of something going viral in our digital age. In most cases, the videos or posts that go viral now, are ones that were not intended to go viral in the first place. This is very similar to Martin Luther’s Theses as he first wrote these to refute the indulgences that the church was selling to people, telling them that if they buy it, it absolves them from future sins. They could also purchase these indulgences for dead...

  I will be reflecting on how the third articulation is demonstrated in two examples of media texts going viral that came from different media ecologies of print and social media. I will first analyze Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and then delve into the famous meme of “Women Yelling at a Cat.” Despite some apparent differences, these two media texts exemplify the creation of culture and connect to the third articulation, even though they are from entirely different eras.    In 1517, Martin Luther condemned the Roman Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences (Mohn, 2016) by nailing his 95 theses to the doors of churches in Germany. He wanted to inform the European masses about his concerns within the Roman Catholic Church. During his time, he utilized new media that was at his disposal, such as liturgical vestments, illuminated manuscripts, and satirical woodcuts (Mohn, 2016), to create a “viral” uproar in his local community. The third articulation concerns how media artifacts a...

  For this week’s blog post we have been given the task of connecting one of the three articulations discussed in class to the viral texts: “Martin Luthers 95 theses” and the “Women Yelling at the Cat Meme”.  As we have learned in lecture, all three articulations (message means/ agents: communication/ affect/ accumulation: production/ circulation/ consumption) become significantly reconstructed due to the socio-technical affordances of “web 2.0" (blog, wikis, podcasting, photo and video sharing) that created an architecture of mass participation- opposed to an architecture of mass consumption. With this knowledge, I was able to identify a clear connection between the two media texts and the first articulation. This articulation looks at the message content, the medium form and channel for dissemination, as well as the agents involved in production, distribution, and consumption.  Beginning with Martin Luther’s 95 theses, his work was predominantly communicated through wri...

     In the final blog post of CS 371, I will be looking at Articulation 2 and how it is reflected in both Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme. Both have gone “viral” and therefore received a large amount of traction and attention from many. The second articulation describes how producing media enables individuals to communicate with others, how emotion is portrayed in certain media, and how one can receive power and wealth through the production of media.  Martin Luther was able to spread his ideas and main messages through the use of nailing his work to the church doors, the distribution of pamphlets, and the distribution throughout the public (for example, individuals reading out loud to one another) (Mohn, 2016). While media technology played a significant role in this, Martin Luther’s opinions, views and understandings were the driving force behind the popularity of his work/message. In other words, his message resonated with a larg...

     In this blog post, two examples of texts that have "gone viral" in different time periods will be examined. I will be looking at these two viral texts through the lens of the third articulation discussed in class. This articulation deals with "Spatio-temporal locations" or more specifically the where and when these pieces of text and media are produced, distributed, and received. The first text that will be looked at is Martin Luther's "95 Theses" which came about as a response to being sold indulgences by the catholic church (Standage, 2013).  The second of these texts that will be looked at is the iconic woman yelling at a cat meme that is actually derived from a freeze-frame from the show " The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills " as well as a Tumblr post from 2018 featuring an apathetic looking white cat in front of a plate of food (Ritzen, 2019).     To begin, Martin Luther wrote the "95 Theses" in the early 1500s as a form ...

      For this week's blog post, I have chosen to examine the "Woman yelling at cat" meme and Martin Luther's 95 Theses concerning articulation #3. The spatio-temporal locations of production and creation had witnessed an expanse of collaboration; those of which had been previously unheard of without advanced technologies within each of these time frames.       Luther's " pamphlets were distributed at markets and taken by cart to other cities and read aloud publicly for those unable to read" (Mohn, 2016). People used their own resources of walking, orality, and in-person social engagement to create an open space of public debate. By way of distribution and consumption, any literate and illiterate person could converse on the subject of Luther's 95 Theses. Print was the primary source of communicative distribution in his time, and by nailing his 95 Theses to a church door, Luther encouraged the sharing of his content from person to person; the recip...

       For this week's post, I choose to do articulation number three which is about how media is able to create messages/artifacts which are then speared out among mainstream society and how they came to be under the influence of spatio-temporal dynamics. The two examples that will be explained throughout the post are both viral media texts. The first media text that this blog post will examine is Martin Luther's 95 Thesis and the second being the famous "woman yelling at the cat" meme. Media text that has gone viral is not limited to the powers of the internet rather is due to specific media artifacts/messages thus having something that has gone viral simply means that it contains certain artifacts/message that have resonated and connected among a large diverse group of individuals. Both media texts have gone viral for various reasons and they vary due to the lack or advancements of the digital age      Martin Luther's "95 Thesis" became popular due ...

Brinton    One of the most important contributions to the field of communications is the theory of the medium being the message, posited by Marshal McLuhan. This sentiment is echoed in the articulation concerning the message, technological means, and social agents. Long before the internet, there was a simpler method of communication: writing. Writing was originally meant to be one-of-one, rarely imitated but never duplicated. It was that way for a long time, before the notable invention of the printing press, which Martin Luther made excellent use of to post his theses against the Catholic Church's use of indulgence and other points of concern. This was the message Luther directed to anyone who would or could read. The social agents in this scenario would be the receivers of this information as well as those who chose to reproduce it, through the technology of the printing press. This identifies the technological means, as the press popularised the text and thus amplified the...

  In class we discussed the concept of media assemblages or media ecologies which are a collection of forms and practices that facilitate a specific media environment. A media ecology can be understood and analyzed by the use of three distinct articulations.  The articulation of focus is #3, which focuses on how the medium is brought to life, and how it is spread through a culture, community or society to best deliver the message. This means taking advantage of spatio-temporal concepts of media distribution, creation and consumption. What this means is that by spreading the message in a creative manner using space-biased media in a time where there is no internet to facilitate virality, you maximize the potential for your message to reach as many people as possible. This is what Martin Luther did with his 95 Theses collection . A book that discussed Luther’s issues with the church selling indulgences to finance the building they were using, and as a result may be considered di...

Media assemblages or media ecologies are constituted by several distinctive sets of articulations. Media ecology is an assemblage of media forms and communicative practices which create a specific media environment (Standage, 2013). Each assemblage consists of three imbricated or overlapping articulations. The three articulations become significantly reconfigured because of the socio-technical affordances. For this blog, I will focus on articulation #3 and describe the way it is manifested in two examples of media texts “going viral”, drawn from Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme. Articulation #3 describes how media artifacts and messages are distributed through culture, community, or society (Standage, 2013). These messages are manifested by the spatio-temporal locations of production/creation; distribution/circulation; and consumption/reception. Martin Luther’s 95 Theses is a list of 95 propositions written in 1519 by Martin Luther. The document proposed ...

Taylor Holmes     The first articulation focuses on how a message is distributed, who contributed to its creation and dissemination, what format it is presented in, and who is on the receiving end. Beginning with Martin Luther's 95 Theses, his information was mainly presented via the written word in a pamphlet. It was copied in "manuscript form," and was posted on the church doors. Luther was angry that the church was selling indulgences, as it was exploitative. The work was translated into different languages to augment the spread of Luther's message (Standage, 2013, p. 52). The work was distributed via peer-to-peer connections. It was shared that "fourteen days have passed when these propositions were known throughout Germany," which is very fast for that time (Standage, 2013, p. 53). Some paid a little bit of money for the pamphlet. There was a massive demand for Luther's pamphlet leading to a greater number of copies (Standage, 2013, p. 54). New medi...

  The two examples of media that exemplify the third articulation of media assemblage are drastically different. The third articulation of media assemblage questions how a specific medium spreads throughout society. For a medium to effectively circulate a message, consumers must share the message with other consumers. The technological advancements of the 21st century have allowed mediums to share a message with millions digitally. Before internet technologies, for a message to go viral, the medium would have to be purchased by a consumer and physically shared by that individual. An example of media that was virally shared in the non-digital age is Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses. This 500-year-old text was written by Martin Luther, to inform the European masses about his concerns with the church. Martin’s Theses were credited for beginning the European Protestant Revolution of the 16th century. Luther produced purchasable pamphlets that were available in Latin and German. Howev...