Blog Post #3 - Simone Shanks
For this week’s blog post, I will be relating Martin Luther’s “95 Theses” and the “Woman Yelling at Cat Meme” to the third articulation. Both of these media texts are known for going “viral” and shows that the term viral is not limited to the internet and is more made up of specific characteristics. Having something go viral relates more to having certain media artifacts or messages being shared across a wide range of people. Some of the characteristics needed to go viral can be related back to some of Baym’s Seven Key Concepts for Understanding the Affordance Powers of Communication Technologies such as having reach, interactivity, storage, replicability, and mobility (Baym, 2015). The concept of going viral pairs well with the third articulation as it focuses on spreading a message across a wide range of people for different communities, societies, and cultures to consume.
Firstly, looking into Martin Luther’s “95 Theses”, we can see the huge effect that the printing press had on the storage and reach of Luther’s message. Luther was unhappy with the power of the church and decided to protest in form of print where he posted it on the church’s door. By choosing to print his message rather than speak it, he was able to shift it from being time-bias to space-bias and as a result, it was able to be largely shared. Soon enough, more and more people got a hold of his message and even started to translate it into different languages such as German to further increase its reach (Standage, 2013). Essentially, it was the printing press that allowed Martin Luther to go viral. Aligning perfectly with the third articulation, Luther’s “95 Theses” was received and consumed in many cities, markets, and communities thanks to its distribution and circulation.
The “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme was actually a mashup of two photos. The image of the women came from a scene in The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and the image of Smudge the cat came from a Tumblr post. Social media has definitely made it a lot easier to have your content go viral as it allows things to be shared across the globe in a matter of seconds. Once this meme began to draw some traction and popularity online, many internet users started to edit it and add their own captions and distribute that version. Through the use of digital evolution, this meme relates to the third articulation as we can see that it had high distribution and circulation, consumption and reception, as well as interactivity much like Martin Luther’s “95 Theses”.
Although when we think of social media, our minds automatically go to platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram where we saw the “Woman Yelling at a Cat” meme go viral. The hope of my blog post was that through using the third articulation, to show that Martin Luther’s work is also an example of social media in his time. Just like online, his protest was shared and edited among friends, families, communities, and much more thus encouraging creativity and production. When media artifacts and messages are in a visual/tangible format, they become more susceptible to going viral as they can be easily passed around and each community/culture can interpret it and make it work for them.
Great post Simone,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed that fact that you discussed what going viral meant and some of the characteristics that come with. I think it really helps to emphasize the point that something does not need to be posted to the internet just go viral. With Martin Luther's 95 Theses, he used the medium of printing his message and including art . He has his message spread to multiple cities and even read aloud for people who couldn't read. He used the resources he had to the best of his ability. As for the "woman yelling at the cat" meme, I think it is important that you established that people can edit and remake this meme themselves. It shows how social media users played a large role in the production and consumption of the meme.