Martin Luther, "Woman Yelling at a Cat Meme", and Articulation Three

Amelia Loader    

 

 For this blog post assignment, I will be addressing the ways in which the two viral media texts-Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and “woman yelling at a cat meme” are both intertwined with articulation three despite some of their differences. I will first provide an overview of each media text; I will then briefly discuss the overlaps between the two and then I will discuss the prevalence of articulation three in each text.  

 

    In her New York Times Article “Long Before Twitter, Martin Luther was a Media Pioneer” author Tanya Mohn discusses how Luther effectively used the media of his time (books, prints, and music) to successfully challenge the norms and central items of the Catholic Church – his 95 Theses (2016). The Manhattan, Atlanta, and Minneapolis museums demonstrate how Luther utilized new media that was at his disposal- “Liturgical vestments, illuminated manuscripts, and satirical woodcuts” (Mohn, 2016). According to Mohn, Luther’s 95 Theses was a “revolution in terms of media usage”, his success was largely attributed to the ways in which his reformation pamphlets were “written, printed, and spread quickly to the public” (Mohn, 2016). His reformation pamphlets were very much detail oriented and incorporated “beautiful decorative title pages which were used to accentuate space and design- essentially make it a “recognizable brand” (Mohn, 2016). Luther’s theological words, his attention to detail, the design of the reformation pamphlets, and the ways in which they were distributed and read publicity to different cities and communities makes 95 Theses viral.  Because of this, Luther was able to create a media storm, and it is most likely that he would utilize Twitter had it been available in the sixteenth century (Mohn, 2016).

 

    Fast forward to a world in which social media and internet culture dominates our communicative landscape, we can now look at the “woman yelling at a cat” meme and the ways in which this communicative medium went viral. According to Daily Dot, Stacey Ritzen notes that the meme first gained popularity back in 2019 around mid-June when twitter user @MISSINGEGIRL tweeted a post with two images side by side- one of RHOBV Taylor Armstrong yelling and smudge the cat sitting at a dining room table with the caption “these photos together are making me lose it” (Ritzen, 2019). Memes represent humorous images with personalized captions that spread rapidly by internet users- a way to express culturally relevant ideas and the thoughts/feelings of a specific audience. It was not long after the post was uploaded that it went viral and individuals “naturally began captioning the pair or images” (Ritzen, 2019). Captions range anywhere from “me accusing my cat of cuddling with other people when I come home drunk after a bottomless brunch” to “Girls when they see a spider” “the spider” (Ritzen, 2021).  Much like how Luther utilized the media that was available to him, so did @MISSINGEGIRL- combining reality tv, instagram, twitter, and editing photos to create a message- albeit, drastically different than that of Luther’s 95 theses. The commonality we can see here is the ways in which both @MISSINGEGIRL and Luther created a recognizable brand and followed articulation three of media assemblages.

 

    According to Dr. Herman, articulation three refers to how “media artifacts and messages are brought into being and spread through a culture, community, or society” (October 28th, 2021). We can look at how both these viral media texts, Luther’s 95 Theses and “woman yelling at a cat” meme” represent this specific articulation. For Luther, his frustrations and opposition on the clergy selling indulgences was a huge aspect of his work (Standage, 2013, pp. 56). He was able to articulate this message through material objects and use of language that were available to him at the time. There was also a social practice that went along with his work- those who could not read or understand his writing were given the opportunity to hear it through someone else, a similar process of the spreading of messages in online culture (Mohn, 2016). This also exemplifies what Dr. Herman notes in that articulation three is “manifested in spatial-temporal dynamics of production, distribution, circulation, and consumption (October 28th, 2021). There was a specific way in which Luther’s message got across in the age of the printing press- similar in certain aspects to how the meme spread. Ultimately, it can be argued that regardless of the difference between print and social media, the way these media texts went viral is due to the utilization of certain medium formats being used as a communicative tool for social practice.

-Amelia Loader

Sources

Herman, A. (2021, October 28th). CS371A Social Media and Social Life Fall 2021 [PowerPoint slides]. Communication Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University. Retrieved from MyLearningSpace.

Mohn, T. (2016). Long before Twitter, Martin Luther was a media pioneer. Retrieved November 26th, 2021, from 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&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0

Ritzen, S. (2019, August 12). How an unlikely marriage of memes gave us 'woman yelling at cat' The Daily Dot. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from. https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/woman-yelling-at-a-cat-meme-origin/

Standage, T. (2013). Writing on the Wall: Social Media; The First 2,000 Years. Bloomsbury USA