Elad Segev, Asaf Nissenbaum, Nathan Stolero, Limor Shifman, Family members and you will Companies out of Internet Memes: The connection Between Cohesiveness, Uniqueness, and you may Quiddity Concreteness, Log out of Desktop-Mediated Communications, Regularity 20, Thing 4, , Pages 417–433,
Abstract
This research utilizes a huge-scale quantitative studies to disclose architectural designs out meetville of websites memes, focusing on dos pushes one to bind them together with her: the fresh new quiddities of any meme family unit members as well as the simple popular features of the new broader memetic industries. Playing with articles and you will circle study from 1013 meme instances (also films, photographs, and you will text message), we explore memes’ commonplace quiddity models and you will generic enjoys, and the ways that it connect with both. Our very own findings show that (a) large cohesiveness of meme families try of the a greater individuality of the universal properties; and you can (b) brand new concreteness regarding meme quiddities is actually of cohesiveness and individuality. I discuss the ramifications of those results for the knowledge of web sites memes and you will participatory culture.
Websites memes, items of digital blogs you to pass on within the online in various iterations, has has just sparked scholarly attention around the multiple areas ( Bennett Segerberg, 2012; Milner, 2012; Shifman, 2013). While most education take an effective qualitative method to exploring the cultural meaning of memes, in the following article i apply higher-scale decimal analysis to help you inform you some laws and regulations and you can regularities underpinning that it basically crazy areas. Memes was an integral part of this new mundane “internet diet plan” of a lot Individuals, casually popping up inside visits in order to systems such as for example Youtube, Fb, and Reddit. The memetic active try far from getting superficial. They want disparate pages internationally to do inside performance, starting and releasing posts inside the several distinctions with each other divergent platforms, while maintaining its attraction and you can common qualities.
So it papers aims at shedding white about precisely how Internet sites memes are nevertheless tied together even after the vibrant and you may lively contexts of articulation. With its very first part i put the background for the expedition from the showing the stress involving the options that come with individual meme hours, meme family members, in addition to whole memetic system. We explain internet memes as the groups of digital textual equipment written and you can given by of a lot members, that are sure together because of the a few forces: (a) a shared quiddity that is particular to every nearest and dearest, constituting its one essence; and you can (b) far more standard features off means, stuff, and you can posture that mark on the exhibitions of “meme people.” Strengthening with this abstract variation, i present in the second part the brand new aims guiding this research: to incorporate a synopsis and you may studies of your own prevalent quiddities and generic options that come with web sites memes and to analysis the relationships anywhere between them. In particular, you want to consider the relationship between your cohesiveness off meme group (we.age., the latest the quantity to which instances resemble one another), the fresh new individuality of your general features underpinning him or her, together with concreteness of the quiddities joining her or him. To handle these types of requirements, i employed stuff research to the a wide test out-of meme instances, upcoming additional analytical and you can community research. On the concluding point, we speak about exactly how all of our analysis, in accordance with the theoretic distinction between quiddities and you may general qualities, sheds white towards dualities out-of “networked selves” constituting contemporary digital cultures.
Meme Group and you can Binding Quiddities
The term meme is actually created by the Richard Dawkins from the Self-centered Gene ( 1976) to explain small equipment out-of culture you to definitely spread out of person to person by duplicating or replica. Based on so it 1st conceptualization, memes could be conceptual info, messages otherwise practices. Memetic diffusion is dependant on a mixture of repetition and you will version: Given that power to replicate memes in various contexts try fundamental to their achievements, re-manufacturing needs to be flexible sufficient to adjust to modifying factors. This state off flux causes a propensity to explain memes only retrospectively, once they has actually propagated. Thus, such as, the original four cards from Beethoven’s 5th Symphony were identified as a beneficial meme only once they moved to several parts of new world and you can were provided inside the many cultural artifacts spanning advertisements, children’s programming, and you will video ( Blackmore, 1999).