Common Sense Vs. Kim K

As we all know, the constant need to update our social networks and view our timelines is a habit in the 21^st century but actually makes virality through sharing, viewing and liking happen. Communication technologies have changed over time and this can be easily understood through the comparison of Thomas Paines pamphlet called Common Sense and Kim Kardashian’s Paper Magazine Cover 2014. Kevin Alloca states that in order for something to become famous, it specifically has to concern itself with three elements, tastemakers, community of participation and unexpectedness in which are evident within both Common Sense and Paper Magazine.

Thomas Paine is known for the publication called Common Sense. The publication became viral as it was distributed hand-to-hand and shared by word of mouth amongst family and friends. (Standage 141) In addition to sharing amongst friends and family, Paine allowed for more copies to be made by other printers, thus making it that much more popular. (Standage 143) Individuals enjoyed reading Common Sense amongst places like coffee houses and shops without the use of the Internet in which is very different than virality in the 21^st century.

            Kim K breaks the Internet in 2014 as she poses naked for the cover. Instantaneously it became a trending topic on Twitter and prompts hundreds of photoshopped parodies throughout Instagram. Within one hour of a simple share of the photo it allocated for 462,000 likes and 15,000 comments… and that’s just one hour. (knowyourmeme.com) Even though this was a year ago, it is still subject to virality as it was the Halloween costume of many individuals such as Kelly Ripa just a couple weeks ago. This notion of virality through the amount of likes and comments allocated within an hour demonstrates just how different the 21^st century is than that of the 18^th century pamphlet.

The first articulation demonstrates how modes of productions are a mode of communication, mode of affect and mode of accumulation. Common Sense and Paper Magazine both hold meaning and involve the use of encoding and decoding skills to interpret the further meaning beyond the surface. Specifically in Paine’s use of commas and in Paper magazines reference to the original photo of Carolina Beaumont, in 1976 for the book Jungle Fever. For mode of affect, both Common Sense and the Paper elicit a response from the reader as Paine goes to great lengths to evoke emotion and spark discussion of independence and the magazine uses shock value of nudity to gain attention. Lastly, mode of accumulation is present in both as they gained social control by getting the attention of the American population.

The second articulation includes the production, distribution and consumption of the medium. For Paine’s Common Sense, this was very unique and exuded authenticity since he chose to produce and distribute the information through an alternative media. The pamphlet is easy to make and easy to understand making the consumption of the information effortless. For Paper magazine, this was very different but still extremely effective. The production included props, cameras, photographers and of course Kim Kardashian. The distribution and consumption were initially through the actual magazine itself but then made easily accessible through Twitter, Intsagram and any other site as it went viral.

All in all, we can see how virality within the 18^th century and 21^st century are much different than each other through the examples provided. Although consumption and reception are still present either way the message is given to us, changes in technology lead to changes in distribution.