In terms of looking at our society through a media lens, assemblage can describe the connection between technology and human beings. Media platforms, such as FaceBook, Instagram, Tik Tok, etc. are all virtual representations of this connection, since we are able to share our personal profiles online. Through the process of making a post, and then actually posting it, humans need many forms of technology, such as devices, internet, wifi, etc. The keyword assemblage allows us to think about the dependence humans have on technology as well as the complex nature of technology and media platforms. For instance, in class we were able to see how making a simple tweet incorporates many different concepts, or “a variety of heterogeneous elements,” (Wise, 16). Every form of media can be broken down into the parts that allow that specific platform to function properly and sufficiently. By breaking media platforms down, we are able to see their assemblage.   

I think that assemblages are seen everywhere-such that an assemblage refers to a distinct relation between individuals and the material world. The material world may be described as different social media platforms/entities, however it can also exist as companies, different technologies (cars, pencils, etc.). Specifically, these relationships produce agency where without one component of the relation, the task (such as going on instagram,) cannot be completed. Assemblages lead to a cascade of pre-existing entities to help better understand the ‘assemblage’ between an individual and the material thing. Therefore, assemblages exist in assemblages due to the chain of history that is tied to the individual, as well as the material thing. In class, we are looking at tiktok as a means of assemblage due to its reciprocity and interactiveness with the user. To have tiktok as it exists today, there needs to be the corporation, funding, people who consume the media, people who publish media, people who promote the media, original thoughts and ideas, etc. Tiktok is an element of the assemblage between, in this case, the individual and the app tiktok. However I wonder if this assemblage will still exist once new media moves along and tiktok is no longer the prevalent, or most used apps amongst adolescent, or just people in general?

Assemblage within the media is when both technological aspects and human interactions create an action that is produced on a media platform. For example, as spoken about in class, a single tweet can be directed and broken down into its simplest concepts such as characters, a thought, a device, a profile, internet; to only list a few. There are several technological and human characteristics throughout the process of making a single tweet because every action has a sub-action that needs to occur prior to the bigger action. Another example that helps me to understand the concept further is making and posting a YouTube video. When creating a YouTube video, not only is a thought and idea required but a YouTube profile, will follower interactions, a router for the internet, a device to upload the video, a description about the film that might contain URLs, there is an endless opportunity to simplify the process. Overall, assemblage has put into perceptive how many aspects go into doing simple actions such as sending a single tweet. 

According to the reading assemblage is “the arrangement and organization of a variety of heterogenous elements” (16). Assemblage can be applied to a variety of aspects in media as most media has many working parts and elements to it. Assemblage also points out how these different elements have human and non-human parts. In my group we looked at the assemblage of the website Wikipedia. We were able to break down all the working parts that make Wikipedia operate efficiently. Some of these parts were the authors, having access to internet, a technological device, letters/symbols, etc. By breaking down what makes Wikipedia what it is, we were able to take a look at its assemblage and what aspects of that assemblage have agency. Agency plays a large role in assemblage as some parts of the equation have more power and pull than others. One of these parts that I thought had agency was the authors since they bring the knowledge and ideas to the website. Without the authors the website would have no content and therefore not exist. Assemblage is in media all around us and helps us to look at the different aspects of media.

Assemblage is an assortment of things pieced together to create something else. The example that helped me best understand this was the exercise in class where we dissected the things needed to create a tweet. We pulled out any part we could think of like wifi, routers, characters, feedback systems, and many others. These all come together to form what is needed to make a tweet. We know these things are needed because if one part is lacking the experience we know as tweeting something out would not be the same. An error in assemblage can cause the domino effect to take place depending on what the error occurs in. The question in technology these days is whether to let technology fix these errors and give them the agency to do so or to have humans always checking through these aspects of technology so that the domino effect doesn’t occur. These errors are what occur when social media apps such as Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook go down and aren’t able to be used.

Assemblage, as stated in the reading, can be characterized as the arrangement and organization of a variety of heterogeneous elements and references the consideration of media as arrangements of humans and nonhumans. Assemblage, when laid out, illustrates the relationship of networks between media, users, and its components. When dissecting apart the components of media platforms, for example, we can see the relationship between each entity and the parts that make up social media as a whole. This can be done both literally or symbolically. For example, an online campaign on body image is formed by having a goal/concept, logo/phrase, image to be shared, a platform to post on, and a body of people to start the movement. Beyond this, technical components such as the internet, devices, bits and bytes, and so forth could be counted, but what too can be accounted for is the need for a style of image/content. The assemblage of like-minded posts/ photos, therefore, reflects the agency of the cause and those who participate in it and can be considered a component piece. Once an assemblage of components that make up this campaign is formulated, the intended effect is projected. Like agency, assemblages ultimately have meaning, and this meaning is unable to be expressed until the assemblage is complete. I think laying out the pieces of an assemblage is a good representation of the connection between agency and networks, which can strengthen causes once recognized.

The text on assemblages provides a interesting lens towards dissecting the media that we frequently interact with.  Using this lens forces us to pick apart the individual pieces that come together to make a large “assemblage” or platform such as YouTube. On the Youtube platform there are many what the text calls “arrangements of humans and nonhumans” all of these individuals pieces and their interactions with each other make the YouTube platform what it is. These individual pieces of the YouTube assemblage include the many humans who make YouTube content, the respective audiences of these creators, the comment section, devices to access the platform, internet access, letters, words and more. While dissecting these pieces is interesting the text also points out that “Assemblages are not static structures” and that “it is not enough to dissect or map an assemblage’s elements. We must consider its capacities: what an assemblage can do”. One unique element of many social media platforms, Youtube included, is the capacity for interaction between the audience and the creators of media. In more traditional forms of media, such as television, this interaction did not exist in the same way as  it can now. Previous forms of audience-media producer interaction was usually do as direct, immediate or easily accessible. With platforms like YouTube an individual audience member can directly communicate with a media creator such as through the comment section. This in turn can impact the work produced by the media creator thus creating a type of mutualistic relationship that would not be possible without all the individual pieces of the assemblage working together.