Blog Post #3 Articulation 3 - Erin Cusack

In this week's blog post, I will be taking two examples of media texts that have gone "viral" in two different time periods. These past weeks we have been reviewing how different media assemblages are constituted by specific sets of articulations. I have chosen the third articulation to apply to my two examples, the way media messages are created and shared through culture, community or society. 

The two examples that will be outlined are Martin Luther's 95 Theses and the famous meme of the women for Real House Wives, yelling at a white cat making somewhat of a smug face. 

Martin Luther's 95 theses are known as "one of the most successful media campaigns in history." (Mohn, 2016). Luther nailed his theses, full of both text and images, to the wall of the Roman Catholic Church, creating one of the first mass messages. With the use of the printing press, Luther was able to share his message of the bible being the primary religious authority, which evidently lead to the Protestant Reformation (Mohn, 2016). The New York Times article written by Tanya Mohn commented that it wasn't necessarily the message Luther said, but more how he said it (2016). This moment was a turning point for mass media since at this time the printing press was not considered popular then. The third articulation focuses on the dynamics between creativity and circulation. Luther's 95 theses are the prime example of disseminating one message to a mass crowd using the production of the printing press. 

The meme of the woman yelling at a cat provided by Dr. Herman, is a compilation of a picture taken from The Real Housewives show. The image is of the women yelling was taken out of context, similarly with the complacent-looking cat. The two pictures were taken two separate times and then put together. The meme has been edited numerous times with different text, making it have a new meaning each time. Today, messages can circulate and be consumed faster than others, the women yelling at the cat meme has been shared numerous times, and if you were to ask someone, "hey, have you seen this?" They're likely to say yes. 

The third articulation is manifested in both the meme and Luther's 95 theses since they have gone through the process of distribution, consumption and circulation. Luther's 95 theses was a starting point for mass communication and circulation, and the popularity of the women yelling at a cat meme shows how far sharing of media has come.