Blog Post #3- Articulation 3 (Harpreet Sodhi)

     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 to the strategic use of print media, writing and most importantly the printing press. His words and thoughts were powerful enough to move and inspire crowds of diverse people and due to how his words were able to distribute quickly and widely directly correlates to its success (Mohn). Luther was not pleased with the unfair power dynamics that the Church held over society and wanted this to change, in order to do this he protested using the power of print and put up his written protest on the doors of the Church. Due to his written protest he was able to shift his message from  time-bias to space-bias which allowed his message to be shared significantly more. Due to the popularity of his message and the fact that it was written down this allowed other individuals to translate it into other languages more easily and accurately as they had something to refer back to. Not to mention due to the printing press copies of his original protest were able to be copied and distributed among the masses which resulted in his message to reach different cultures, societies and communities (Standage, 2013). Therefore one of the contributing reasons to the success of Martin Luther's "95 Thesis" was due to the strategic use of print media. 

    Although, Martin Luther's "95 Thesis" was one of the more "viral" messages in that day and age, with the use of print media there has been a significant increase among viral media texts one recent day example that this post will focus on is the "Woman Yelling at a Cat Meme" which originally became famous on the social media platform, Twitter. This meme was originally two different photos that were then edited together. Soon after, the meme was reposted by many and also edited to make multiple versions with customized and relatable captions. Standage argues that the 95 Thesis's popularity can be measured by how many times the text was reprinted and how many languages it was possibly translated into (Standage, pp 54). This measure of popularity is extremely similar to how the Woman Yelling at a Cat Meme"can be measured, one is able to look at the amount of reposts, shares and different versions of the meme that exist. Similarity both messages popularity is due the fact that the text is written down whether that be paper or digitally- essentially both messages have some level of permeance. As well as both media text's allowed other's to relate and be shared to the masses which directly caused them to go viral. The "Woman Yelling at a Cat Meme" demonstrates that messages are able to be virtually be distributed and consumed and reach the masses in this day and age similarly to the printing press and the use of print media back in the day.