Blog Post #3 - Jinee Lee
For this week's blog post topic, I'll be investigating how the third articulation is being manifested in both the "95 Theses" as well as the modern "Woman Yelling At A Cat Meme". Their virality can be identified to embody the same causation for their popularity at very different points in history. The third articulation looks at how cultural artifacts and meanings are spread under the influence of spatio-temporal dynamics. Both media pieces do this differently in the digital age but however accounts for their viral spread.
Luther's "95 Theses" became widespread as his thoughts and words were enough to move the crowd as well as his impeccable ability to utilize the printing press, his stamina, and detail-oriented skills to distribute quickly and widely (Mohn). His creative work revealed the power of a person-to-person media system in which distribution and sharing were taken care of collectively in the unprecedented age of print (Standage 54). These characteristics that meet the relations of creativity/production, relations of distribution/circulation, and relations of consumption/reception led to the historic Protestant Reformation sparked by Luther. The "95 Theses" very clearly transcend time and space contributing to its popularity and influence.
A more modern example is the "Woman Yelling At A Cat Meme" which had its debut on Twitter after Smudge the Cat and Taylor Armstrong yelling was shared online. The meme was reposted and remixed quickly, spreading to other platforms such as Reddit and YouTube. According to Standage, Luther's equivalent metric for popularity would have been the number of times a pamphlet was reprinted (Standage 54). In analyzing the cat meme and how many times people re-edit, redistribute, and remix the meme, this could count as a reprint of the publication, demonstrating the relations of creativity, production, and distribution. Like Luther's pamphlets, the Cat meme went viral because it appealed to people and was able to be shared with the masses regardless of time and space.
Mohn, Tanya. “Long before Twitter, Martin Luther Was a Media Pioneer.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/arts/design/long-before-twitter-martin-luther-was-a-media-pioneer.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=wide-thumb&module=mini-moth®ion=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0.
Standage, Tom. “How Luther Went Viral: The Role of Social Media In Revolutions.” Writing on the Wall, MyLS, 2013, pp. 48–63.
Hello Jinee,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I have a couple of points to add to your discussion of how the third articulation of media forms and communicative practices is manifested in Martin Luther’s 95 theses. Luther’s message was able to spread through cultures and communities not only through the use of the printing press, as you mentioned but also through the translation of the text from Latin to German. Without this translation of the thesis to German, Luther’s theses would not have been able to be read and understood quickly in the German-speaking parts of central Europe. As well, the printing press enabled pamphlets containing the theses to be mass-produced, which lead to the consumption and reception of the message across Europe.
Hi Jinee
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post this week!
These two media texts gained widespread popularity at very different times and through different mediums. Both of these examples also demonstrate how the effective use of a certain medium can reach a large audience through vast distances. Both Luther’s and the cat meme were replicated and distributed. The women yelling at cat meme even provided many remix’s that would not have been done without the crazy popularity of the meme.
I liked and agreed with your conclusion that these two texts went viral due to the way they were both able to appeal to a wide audience and transcend both time and space.
Great post!
Anahita
Hi Jinee,
ReplyDeleteGreat addition to this discussion! It definitely made me think about how my involvement in the making of content going viral.
The example of Martin Luther's 95 theses can definitely be compared to the "Woman Yelling at Cat" meme when it comes to how these "artifacts" were distributed and how popular they became. The singular difference between the two is the amount of time that had passed since the 95 theses when it came to the release of the "Woman Yelling at Cat" meme. While the 95 theses didn't have it at the time, the meme was equipped with the internet and social media to help its spread and wide reach. With that, while they are much of the same in their ability to connect with larger audiences, I'm sure the meme reached a much larger audience in a much quicker time than the 95 theses.
Best,
Keelin Levasseur
Hey Jinee,
ReplyDeleteFor my blog post, I also chose to connect the third articulation to these two examples of viral media. You did a really great job of explaining how the meme has been remixed by social media users over the years. As you stated, the meme was originally a combination of two completely unrelated photos that together, curated a unique message. This remixing of humour that takes place on the internet has allowed memes to become recognizable to millions of people. Your comparison of Standage's metric of popularity to the virality of memes is very accurate. Memes often take the content from an original medium and edit it in some way to create a funny message. Thus, remixing the original medium. Great post!