PERSON OF THE WEEK: WHO IS MARTIN LUTHER?

YES you read that right, Who is Martin Luther? not Martin Luther King JR.  Standage's Chapter How Luther went viral is really interesting because this chapter discusses on how the start of the Reformation can be examined back to Luther's viral social sharing of his “95 Theses". So Martin Luther,  was a German professor of theology, composer, priest, monk, and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. 

So for some back story so when did the Protestant Reformation emerged? The period was from: 1517 – 1648. But according to Standage. The notion of printing played a big part of spreading the Reformation.  It allowed for written word to be copied and shared a lot more faster, across the country. Whereas pamphlets became a powerful media for people such as Luther, where ideas can distributed to a widespread audience.

So because of the printing press, Luther was able to reproduce his content where it can be copied, shared and The 95 Theses  Martin Luther posted on his church door in Wittenberg, printed and passed from hand to hand, spread rapidly across Germany and within a month were known across Europe.

This relates to our modern day where popularity is based on likes, retweets or comments. This can be found in Luther’s day, where we can understand how popular a pamphlet was by how many times it was reprinted or if the bookstore was sold out. This can even help spread more attention and allow more people to want to get a hold of that pamphlet.