The Four Terms of Memetic Analysis

The Four Terms of Memetic Analysis

Memes (unlike other works of digital culture) tend to be shared among friends, family, and colleagues because they are immensely rich, complex in their messaging, and have elements that resonate with others they care about. These three aspects of memes are why they are part of our digital communication, and it is relatively complex to explain why they are memorable. Scholars and experts in digital culture and communication need help to talk meaningfully about these foundational works that we post on our social media accounts and other places where we connect with the people we care about online. One reason for this struggle is a lack of the correct language to express the critical part of the complexity of the modern version of memes. It is essential to examine memes through a critical lens with the proper focus and depth of understanding of why these digital creations are useful interaction tools. The rest of this article highlights the common language that I use in my “Memes and Society” course to help students discuss memes more objectively, precisely the four terms we use in the analysis of memes (content considerations, cultural markers, intellectual properties, and visual components)

Content considerations (unlike content or trigger warnings) are the aspects of the memes that will most directly impact the community’s understanding of the memes. It would include any distressing element within the meme that could be preface with a warning for the audience to consider. It goes into a little more detail about why the audience would find it distressing and how using this distressing element would impact the audience’s interpretation of the memetic artifact and that specific memetic element. Beyond distressing, a scholar should think about those elements within the meme that would be contentious within the community. It is easy to point to religious doctrine, political talking points, and hot button social issues as prime examples of such contentious elements. However, every community can have contentious matters that are not broadly known (e.g., green versus red chiles in New Mexico). Using overwhelming rhetoric is the last content consideration that should be addressed as something that would impact the audience’s interpretation of the meme. The average person might think about the crafting of heavy-handed emotional content as the prime example of this type of content consideration, as emotional communication tends to be one of the simply ways to move an audience to act. However, we need to address logical fallacies and puffery, and the use of these elements tends to exaggerate positions found within the meme. This concept is not to suggest that memes present the truth of the subject they cover; instead, it is in service of understanding how message manipulation takes place within memes. Memes follow the basics of rhetoric (as any other form of communication) and present messages (for better or worse) in a pleasing package that can be easily shared with others. These three content considerations focus on how meme content creators can manipulate audiences. The next concept that can be used for memetic analysis focuses on how meme content creators craft digital guideposts for finding common communities.

Cultural markers are the symbols of a culture’s “concrete aspects that create a feeling of belonging and identity. They can apply to any culture, whether it’s a nationality, ethnicity, or even a corporate culture.” Mostly, these symbols are part of the institutions that develop our shared connection to society. American students pledge allegiance to the flag, play sports with others in our neighborhood, eat apple pie from a bake sale in the town square, and experience other aspects of American culture throughout their hometown. It takes more than identifying that cultural markers exist within the meme. A good analysis will attempt to understand the connection between the cultural marker in the meme and the meme’s message. Questioning why that marker was used in the meme provides a more straightforward description of the central message of the meme, thus addressing why the meme is meaningful to the community. It is important to note that cultural markers tend to present intangible connections within the meme, as these markers are often grounded in the composite abstract values (e.g., honesty, fairness, and freedom) and more concrete beliefs (e.g., we should not lie, everybody should do an equal amount of work, and people should be able to go where they please) of the community as visual representations of those values and beliefs (e.g., George Washington, the scales of justice, and the “Don’t Trend on Me” flag). All of these visual representations invoke the collective imagination of the community, where the next point of analysis comes from the creative efforts of society.

Intellectual properties are the titles, characters, symbols, sounds, and storylines from films, television shows, graphic novels, games, and other creative works that are part of popular culture and mass communication. Incorporating these elements into a meme adds to the complexity of the message within the meme. There is often some lore associated with these titles, characters, symbols, sounds, and storylines that can work to expand the messaging within the meme (i.e., these works can pull from their legacy of content that adds a more profound moral, mythology, or narrative that adds a missing piece to the meme that other elements could not incorporate effectively). It is easy to point to something like how Spongebob Squarepants has been effectively incorporated into many memes due to its rich history of episodes, understandable storylines, and a diverse cast of characters that are easy to add into memes. Beyond the meaningful meditation of these sights and sounds, the fanbase of these properties is actively reinterpreting the originally produced work into something more of an “inside joke” that can be shared outside of the fandom. Doctor Who, Sherlock, Supernatural, and Game of Thrones fans use the metaphorical language from the shows into posts that those fans share with others. Like cultural markers, using intellectual properties goes beyond recognizing that they are in the meme (i.e., who they are and where they came from) and should focus on the rationale for its inclusion into the meme (i.e., what does this element add to the meme and why was it added).

The final point of analysis is the use of other visual components outside the scope of the previous three. These components are the other optical features within the memetic artifact that would not be culturally significant but can be identified by their impact on the meme’s design. This analysis of the visual components was definitely influenced by Paul Lester’s work in visual communication. There are thirteen different elements and foundations of design that can impact the presentation of the meme. They are:

The focus on these thirteen concepts allows those studying memes an avenue to discuss the aesthetics of the memes and why those aesthetic decisions by the meme creator help make the meme compelling beyond the messaging. The question when focusing on the visual components of the meme is how those design elements and foundations add to the meme being meaningful and memorable.

The last point to note is why the term content consideration was used in the analysis instead of the more commonly accepted term trigger warning or content warning. It would be too simple to explain it as the cultural baggage associated with the term adds an unnecessary limitation to the analysis process. It forces a “tunnel vision” on the researcher to examine only the problematic nature of the meme instead of a holistic overview of the meme’s message and the meaningfulness of the meme. Content considerations should expand the epistemological net that one casts when studying digital artifacts of this nature. A broader overview can highlight areas that could be overlooked with a thinner reading of the work.