Ermahgerd & Common Sense

Media mode of production is the assemblage of media forms and communicative practices, which create a specific media environment.  These media modes of production are constituted by two specific conceptions. The first articulation looks at how media modes of production both social practices of creating symbolic meaning (amode of communication), social practices of emotion and embodiment of that attached to meaning (modes of affect) and social practices of accumulating capital and power (mode of accumulation). The second articulation constitutes how media artifacts and messages are brought into being and spread. These articulations manifested themselves in two very different examples of social media going viral, while holding the same concepts. The virality of social media in the 21^st century like that of the Ermahgerd memes greatly differs from that of social media, like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense that was seen in the 18^th century. 

Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense helped sparked the American Revolution in the early 1770’s and was one of the most influential publications of its time. Common Sense went viral in the literal sense of the term as a result of it spreading to many places quickly, through being shared with friends, neighbors and family through hand-to-hand passage. Paine also enabled more printers to publish his Common Sense (Standage, 143), which allowed for more wide spread distribution.  With two separate publishers vying for business from the pamphlet the interest was only heightened. In relation to the first articulation, we can see here with Paine that creation and production is not the same thing. Although Paine was the creator of Common Sense, he was not the only producer of it. Common Sense was read as church sermons, and extracts of it appeared in newspapers throughout the colony.  This enabling of others to product the pamphlet is one of the biggest reasons it went viral.  The communities of participation are important in the circulation and distribution of Common Sense.

Although Common Sense and the Ermahgerd meme take place in very different points of history, the theory behind virality shows why both went viral in our society. According to Kevin Alloca, for something to go viral it must contain three main elements: tastemakers, communities of participation and unexpectedness. Both Common Sense, and the Ermahgerd meme, possess these qualities, albeit in different ways. The Ermahgerd meme spread through various online tastemakers like the website Funnyjunk, as well as the meme base cite Derp. From there communities across the web began participating in the creation, and distribution of the meme, where variations are now even applied over animal photos.  When the photo was uploaded, in no way was there the expectation that it would become a meme known across the globe, giving the last element of unexpectedness. We can see how the first articulation is also very relevant to 21^st century social media.

18^th century virality relied heavily on physical production and sharing of information, often with a strong message or purpose behind the message. Although it shares many similar ideas to Alloca’s definition of what something needs to go viral, the reach in terms of distance the information travels for Common Sense I that the Internet has the ability to bridge more multiple networks in its digital space. The speed of spread is, although fast for the 18^th century, not as fast as what digital communities can provide.  One of the greatest differences I perceive between 18^th and 21^st century social media is based around the second articulation, and the mode of affect. The mode of affect is about emotion, and Common Sense tapped into this mode of affect far greater than most of our social media today can. A lot of our social media is concerned with entertainment, whereas a big part of virality in the 18^th century was the affect it stirred in readers.

As we can see with both Common Sense, and the Ermahgerd meme, there are many differences in the virality of social media today, versus then. Common elements run throughout each, but ultimately digital spaces give us the opportunity to take being viral to a whole new level.