Blog Post 3 - Shanna Alliman

I will reflect on how media assemblage, the third articulation, is manifested in two examples of media texts “going viral” that drew on different media ecologies of print and social media. The first is Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and the second is the famous meme “Women Yelling at a Cat”. Both of these media texts show the creation of culture even though they are from completely different times. 

In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors of churches in Germany “condemning the Roman Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences” (Mohn, 2016). He used the resources of his time to create this “viral” uproar in his local community. The third articulation, media assemblage, is present through the circulation and distribution of copies. As copies were bought as well as passed through people Martin Luther “revealed the power of a decentralized, person to person media system whose participants took care of distribution…” (Standage, p. 53). Through the shares, recommendations and copies Luther created this media uproar (Standage, p. 53). The third articulation is present through Luther’s ability to create this “media storm” through the distribution and circulation of pamphlets that resulted in him becoming the most published author in his time (Mohn, 2016). 


Now a look at the second meme, “Women Yelling at a Cat”, which has become viral through social media. The meme consists of two different images that were put side-by-side to create this meme. One image is of a woman from the reality show ‘The Real Housewives’ yelling, while the other is of a confused-looking cat at a dinner table. Social media has become a way for media texts to be distributed and circulated with a click of a button. Allowing media texts to go viral within a few hours. This media text certainly differs from that of Martin Luther’s but it goes to show how media texts can go viral in both time periods. This meme has been reproduced many times with different texts added to create different scenarios for the image. Media assemblage is present in this viral text through the ways in which meme culture can be quickly distributed through social media. 


Both of these forms of viral texts show the distribution and circulation of media texts despite their different times and forms. Seeing as we are way more technologically advanced compared to when Martin Luther’s 95 Theses was going viral. However, as demonstrated both of these media texts show the different media ecologies of print and social media. These both demonstrate how culture creates public spaces of debate and how distribution and circulation are present.

Comments

  1. Morgan BrownNovember 28, 2021 at 2:37 PM

    Hi Shanna,

    I enjoyed reading your post! I focused my blog post on articulation #1, so it is interesting to obtain a deeper understanding of how articulation #3 relates to both Martin Luther's 95 theses and the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme. The spatio-temporal dynamics of these two examples enabled different versions of virality for both. As you pointed out, it is interesting to consider how the time and setting enabled the ‘media storm” for Luther’s 95 theses, and how social media and the internet has enabled the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme to go viral. The production and distribution of Luther’s 95 theses was through pamphlets and printed copies, whereas with our current technological advancements, the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme was produced and distributed completely online and through digital media.

    Great post!
    Morgan

    ReplyDelete

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