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Introduction
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What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet and is subject to change over time: traditionally, memes consisted of a combination of image macros and a concept or catchphrase, but the concept has since become broader and more multi-faceted, evolving to include more elaborate structures such as challenges, GIFs, videos, and viral sensations.[1] Internet memes are considered apart of internet culture.[1] Internet memes describe a comical artifact of internet culture and spreads through online spaces via a visual medium.[2]
The first resemblance of internet memes comes from emoticons.[3] In 1982, Scott E Fahlman introduces the sideways smiley face formed by punctuations.[3] Fahlman's intention was to create emotion and expressions with the use of digital imagery.[3]
Evolution and propagation
editInternet memes spread online through influences such as popular culture.[4] In addition, memes can be subjected to in-jokes within online communities such as Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, and 4chan.[5][4] This refers to the memes "in-groupness" as it communicates a exclusive cultural knowledge unbeknown to general users.[6] In common internet memes, there is a basis for cultural relevance in certain text and imagery associated with memes.[7][4][8] On the macro level, internet memes must be encoded and decoded.[7] Through the spreading process, memes invokes studium and punctum memetrics.[7] Punctum is the aesthetic affiliation to a piece of imagery, thus invoking a reaction.[7] It is the affect of the image.[7] In utilizing affect as a visual vernacular, internet memes create a culture of unspoken referential importance.[5][4] By using explicit cultural knowledge, internet memes provide affect as the emerging communication.[8][7] Studium is the entertaining aspect of internet memes.[7] With the combination of studium and punctum memetrics, individuals perceive and spread memes from their cultural significance to types of memes.[4][7]
Academically, researchers model how they evolve and predict which memes will survive and spread throughout the Web.[9] The phenomena of viral memes is a users to users experience the represents participatory culture on online platforms.[10]
By Context
editCommunicating Political Satire
editInternet meme's are a medium for communicating comical images and or phrases for mass online audiences.[3]
Social Movements
editInternet memes provide significant contributions toward social issues.[7] Memetric structures have enabled social movements to become spreadable pieces of information.[7]
During the 2010 "It Get's Better" movement for LGTBQ+ empowerment, memes were continuously used to promote and uplift LGTBQ+ youth.[11] The Human Rights Campaign equal rights symbol became an internet meme in defending the legalization of same sex marriage.[12] The Ice Bucket Challenge became a viral meme in promoting and raising money and awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.[7]
Culture
editGender
editThe foundation of internet memes and their humor consist of heteronormative ideologies and stereotypes.[13] Internet memes are interrupted through different cultural lenses that influence the likelihood a users finds a particular media text comical.[4][7] Viral memes are commonly associated with humor reflecting societal norms and perceptions.[13] Thus, gender in memes are formatted archetypes focusing on stereotypical references to gender.[13]
Internet memes depict women as technological and or sexual oblivious.[13] The stark juxtaposition is shown through memes as men being the knowledgeable ones in both technological and sexual endeavors.[13] Other gender specific meme type is the jealous girlfriend.[13] In heteronormative relationship memes, the women is seen as the unreasonable and crazy girlfriend whereas the men are poised and unfazed.[13]
Women create sectors of humorous memes and continue the participatory culture of memes.[13] The memefication of "a binder full of women" created ironic content that re-directed the narrative towards post-feminist content through political commentary.[13]
- ^ a b Börzsei, L. K. (2013). Makes a Meme Instead. The Selected Works of Linda Börzsei, 1-28.
- ^ Davison, P. (2012). The language of internet memes. The social media reader, 120-134.
- ^ a b c d Kulkarni, A. (2017). Internet meme and Political Discourse: A study on the impact of internet meme as a tool in communicating political satire. Journal of Content, Community & Communication Amity School of Communication, 6.
- ^ a b c d e f "View of "There's no place for lulz on LOLCats": The role of genre, gender, and group identity in the interpretation and enjoyment of an Internet meme | First Monday". journals.uic.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
- ^ a b Stryker, C. (2011). Epic win for anonymous: How 4chan's army conquered the web. Abrams.
- ^ Meyer, John C. (2000-08-01). "Humor as a Double-Edged Sword: Four Functions of Humor in Communication". Communication Theory. 10 (3): 310–331. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2000.tb00194.x. ISSN 1050-3293.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Phillips, Whitney; Milner, Ryan M. (2017), Harrington, Stephen (ed.), "Decoding Memes: Barthes' Punctum, Feminist Standpoint Theory, and the Political Significance of #YesAllWomen", Entertainment Values: How do we Assess Entertainment and Why does it Matter?, Palgrave Entertainment Industries, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 195–211, doi:10.1057/978-1-137-47290-8_13, ISBN 978-1-137-47290-8, retrieved 2021-03-28
- ^ a b Miltner, K. M., & Highfield, T. (2017). Never gonna GIF you up: Analyzing the cultural significance of the animated GIF. Social Media+ Society, 3(3), 2056305117725223.
- ^ Castaño Díaz, C. M. (2013). Defining and characterizing the concept of Internet Meme. Ces Psicología, 6(2), 82-104.
- ^ Bauckhage, C. (2011, July). Insights into internet memes. In Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (Vol. 5, No. 1).
- ^ Gal, N., Shifman, L., and Kampf, Z. (2015) ‘“It Gets Better”: Internet Memes and the Construction of Collective Identity’, New Media & Society, Vol. 18, no.8 pp. 1–17.
- ^ Vie, S. (2014) ‘In Defense of “Slacktivism”: The Human Rights Campaign Facebook Logo as Digital Activism’, First Monday, Vol. 19, no. 4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Drakett, Jessica; Rickett, Bridgette; Day, Katy; Milnes, Kate (2018-02-01). "Old jokes, new media – Online sexism and constructions of gender in Internet memes". Feminism & Psychology. 28 (1): 109–127. doi:10.1177/0959353517727560. ISSN 0959-3535.