Blog Post #3 Articulation 2 & 3 - Jackson Rawlin

    For this blog post, I have decided to reflect mainly on how articulation 2 and 3 are manifested in Martin Luther's 95 Theses as well as the "Woman Yelling at a Cat" meme. Beginning with articulation 2 the creation of Martin Luther's 95 Theses and the "Woman Yelling at a Cat" meme saw the use of different production mediums that simultaneously allowed for communication and symbolic meaning. The meanings inside Martin Luther's 95 Theses were able to be communicated to the world thanks to his use of the printing press to create them and print them primarily on pamphlets. From there he was able to physically nail his theses to the door of a German Roman Catholic Church for all to see. He was also able to spread his messages by producing multiple copies of his pamphlets and bringing them from town to town distributing and reading them aloud (Mohn, 2016) (Articulation 3). Parallels can be drawn from the way that the "Woman Yelling at a Cat" meme was created and distributed. Using the medium of the Internet and a meme-generating software, the original creator was able to take two images that had zero relation to one another and create a mode of communication and a mode of affect. Social practices of emotion and embodiment can be taken at face value with this meme which depicts a distraught woman pointing and yelling at a cynical looking cat that seems confused defensive (Articulation 2). Much of the meaning is inferred from the social cues picked up from the meme and with the addition of context from written words allows for specific meaning to be understood. Furthermore, just as Martin Luther was able to spread around his theses through multiple copies thanks to production from the printing press, the same is done today with the Internets ability to spread around multiple copies of this meme on social media. Both of these examples of media texts were able to have their meanings communicated thanks to production. Author Mohm further allows for a parallel to be made regarding this train of thought. She explains how Martin Luther's media campaign was one of the most successful ever, and that if he was alive today, he would be using Twitter (Mohn, 2016). This is because of the way that the Internet and social media allows for communication to be spread, just as we can see from the production and spreading of the "Woman Yelling at a Cat" meme.

    As for articulation 3, the way that Martin Luther's 95 Theses and the "Woman Yelling at a Cat" meme were brought into being and spread through cultures and communities are similar. Primarily seen through circulation and distribution, both examples of media texts reflect Luther's unwittingly created person to person media system where participants were able to further distribute and decide which messages to amplify through sharing (Standage, 53). The way that Luther went about spreading his messages is seen today on a much larger scale thanks to the Internet and social media. Instead of having to go to the next town over to show somebody the "Woman Yelling at a Cat" meme and have its meaning communicated, the same effect can be had by simply sharing it to them online through Instagram for example. Also, with the "Woman Yelling at a Cat" meme being a popular template, people using the Internet can create their own messages to communicate and distribute online for all to see. With social media as a key tool today for circulation and distribution, the idea behind Martin Luther's vision of spreading his messages are possible in ways that he would never have been able to imagine.