Use Of Memes Research Articles

What do you meme? – Meme-Making as a research method

ABSTRACT Memes have emerged as a prevalent and influential aspect of contemporary culture and their use is a significant feature of social and relational communications. Yet scant research exists within Higher Education on the use of memes to assist in the research of reactions, emotions, and perceptions. The use of meme-making as a qualitative research tool is grounded in visual research methods. This paper explores a framework for using meme-making as a research tool within Higher Education and considers two case studies that demonstrate how meme-making can been used to capture and communicate the experiences of students. Through these case studies, meme-making was revealed to introduce an element of levity and humour whilst being versatile, flexible, and easily dovetailed to other qualitative approaches. Familiarity with the medium and construction process drew upon an instilled sense of ownership revealing the method to be accessible across a diverse participant base.

Memes Adoption in Basic Medical Science Education as a Successful Learning Model: A Mixed Method Quasi-Experimental Study.

Basic medical sciences are of a solid abstract nature.Pharmacologyis a challenging discipline delivered in all healthcare-related curricula with different aims and goals. Memes are one of aiding instructional designs proved to surge students' performance and satisfaction with the educational process. Apart from assessing medical students' and faculty's perception of meme use in pharmacology learning, the current study aimed to explore the criteria of preferences and factors associated with successful memes' adoption in this discipline as one of the most challenging basic medical sciences. A biphasic study was conducted among second-year undergraduate medical students and faculty members. The study involved assessing the perceptions of staff and students, and thematic content analysis was performed on the narrative responses of the participants to explore factors contributing to the success of learning memes. Additionally, students' performance was also analyzed. The use of memes in pharmacology was well perceived by medical students, with a mean satisfaction rating of 4.5/5 for high-achieving students and 4.33 for low-achieving students. Memes were associated with a performance surge (p = 0.022). Six themes emerged as criteria for a successful learning experience of meme use: previous scientific background on the meme topic, scenario context of the meme, learning concepts tackled by memes, the simplicity of meme's message, the relevance of meme's message to practice, and the modality of meme's use in the topic of education. Regarding the perception of meme use in pharmacology learning, four themes emerged:the mode and engagement oflearning experience mode,thefeasibility of meme use in pharmacology learning, students'attitudestowards further meme inclusion in their study, andtheperceived impact ofmemeson students' cognitive skills. The use of memes in pharmacology yields positive learning outcomes. A careful selection of memes is required to ensure a successful learning experience.

Students' Attitudes towards Memes in Writing Report Text

The objective of this study is to investigate how students' attitudes in writing report texts by using meme media as well as the reasons that led to certain attitudes that occurred. The research design used was descriptive qualitative. The participants in this study were 32 students of the class IX superior of SMP 1 Muhammadiyah Medan who were selected using the purposive sampling technique. There are two ways of data collection techniques used, there are questionnaires and interviews. While the data measurement scale used is Likert scale. The results showed that students' attitudes were positive towards the use of meme media in writing report texts. As for what causes students' positive attitudes, they feel happy, entertained, comfortable, and increase their interest in learning to write report texts. Most students are active consumers of popular culture, and memes are often part of popular culture. Therefore, the use of memes in learning to write helps students feel more connected to the learning material as it utilises cultural elements that are familiar to them. The results of this study shows that memes are effectively used to boost students' attitude in writing report texts. The researcher recommend teachers choose memes that are suitable for learning in order to create a comfortable and enjoyable learning atmosphere.

Investigating the impact of erroneous use of memes on effective communication

In the ever-evolving digital age, the influence of memes on effective communication cannot be overstated. However, their widespread popularity has also led to a proliferation of erroneous and misleading content. Guided by cultural evolution and evolutionary game theories, this study delves into the impact of the erroneous use of memes within this dynamic landscape. It explores the cognitive effects of encountering such memes on receivers and investigates the factors contributing to the dissemination of erroneous memes. This research identifies key factors contributing to the creation and spread of erroneous memes, such as confirmation bias, emotional appeal, sensationalism, social media algorithms, cognitive biases, and social reinforcement. In addition to its findings, the study provides practical recommendations for memetic literacy and responsible meme creation and sharing. This study contributes to knowledge by advancing our understanding of memes as a unique form of digital communication and their role in shaping public discourse.

Pedagogical memes: a creative and effective tool for teaching STEM subjects

The rise of memes has transformed the way people communicate and share information online, presenting a unique opportunity to leverage technology in the service of education. We explore the potential of memes as an educational tool for supporting STEM education and increasing student engagement. We aim to provide a theoretical framework for using pedagogical memes in education and showcase examples of educational activities and assignments using memes. Further, we discuss the use of memes as an instructional tool in education and propose a multimodal meme-based education framework. We specify the pedagogical memes using a metamodel based on the ‘Relate-Create-Donate’ framework and Engagement Theory, combining collaborative learning and multiliteracies with the taxonomic levels of engagement. We provide the learning scenarios which include the use of pedagogical memes in a classroom for teaching STEM subjects. To support the proposed models, we present a case study of a mathematics teacher using memes to teach calculus and a qualitative evaluation of the effectiveness of using memes in the classroom. We evaluated the potential of pedagogical memes using the six conditions outlined in the Conditions of Excellence, and Revised Bloom's Taxonomy, and discussed limitations of using memes in education.

“Tears have never won anyone freedom:” a multimodal discourse analysis of Ukraine’s use of memes in a propaganda war of global scale

Abstract Purpose This paper analyzes memes posted by @Ukraine to X, formerly known as Twitter, from the account’s inception in 2016 through September 2023 to examine the function and utility of memes as tools of propaganda in global conflict. Methods A multimodal discourse analysis of more than 100 memes was conducted by a small research group to separate the memes into thematic categories in an exploratory fashion. Then, a small subset of the research group conducted a recursive analysis on the images and text in a handful of memes selected purposively to determine what types of ideological appeals were present. Results Our findings align with observations made in previous studies that internet memes might be used to bolster national unity and might be employed to bolster pleas for sympathy from wealthy, more powerful allies, in this case in the West. The essential propaganda ideals were those of democracy, friendship, and independence on the side of Ukraine while Russia is framed as a dictatorship. Practical Implications A small number of the memes referenced in our paper garnered global media attention. Though we do not make any claims about broad media effects relating to the memes studied here, garnering the attention of major U.S. publication seems clearly to have been a goal of some of these memes. For those who wish to find a key to the playbook for a nation’s propaganda strategy, its social media memes are a great place to begin. Social Implications It is apparent in this study that governments might use memes to cover all their propaganda bases, so to speak. Ukraine’s memes appear to serve mainly to reinforce messages of national unity and messages of connection with the West. Originality Though others have studied @Ukraine’s tweets, this is believed to be the first to focus exclusively on memes posted to the feed. This study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how wildly varied memes can communicate core concepts of a propaganda strategy, perhaps with the hope that a few will “hit” with desired media outlets, if only to bolster propaganda efforts.

From Humor to Strategy: An Experimental Survey on Internet Memes in Social Media Marketing

Purpose: The paper addresses the issue of the use of Internet memes as a marketing communication tool in social media. The effectiveness of this type of communication is an important issue due to the large role of memes in digital culture, and at the same time the small number of studies on the use of memes in marketing communication. Design/methodology/approach: To verify the research hypotheses, a survey with an experimental design was conducted among 153 respondents. For the purposes of the study, effectiveness was understood as the ability of a message to induce the passage of the recipient through all stages of perception of the persuasive message, with the last stage being the acceptance of the sender’s outlook. Findings: The results of the study allowed us to draw conclusions about greater effectiveness of marketing communication using Internet memes in comparison to marketing communication without memes. The level of consumer interest in Internet memes turned out to be a differentiating factor in the perception of the form of marketing communication. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of the study is the non-representativeness of the research sample. The practical implications of the study include guidance on the use of memes when conducting marketing communication on the Internet, taking into account preferences of the target group. Originality/value: This paper not only contributes importantly to the limited literature on Internet memes in marketing activities, but also turns the spotlight onto the characteristics of consumers who are the potential target group of such communication.

МИМ У НАСТАВИ: КА ВИСОКООБРАЗОВНОМ КОНТЕКСТУ

The subject of the paper is the analysis of memes in the teaching context of higher education, with a focus on their functionality in the teaching process, from the adoption of new material to the renewal and synthesis of the acquired knowledge. Due to the fact that the meme is one of the theoretically insufficiently studied phenomena in the teaching context, in this paper we approach it through the diachrony of its study in the theory of art, and the process of its introduction into the teaching context from the role of an auxiliary teaching tool to the curriculum of university study programs fully aimed at the study of meme creation and the study of meme in the context of social and humanities studies. In the final part of the paper, we provide a concise overview of our empirical research into the functionality of meme in university literature teaching, from which we derive certain conclusions specific to the use of meme in this educational domain.

Exploring the Use of Memes in Learning about Norwegian Culture and Language in a Foreign Language Learning Context

The aim of this study is to investigate the criminal discourse of the Sweden Democrats through an ideational analysis of their criminal policy programme. The study applies an analytical tool drawing on systemic functional grammar. Analysing nuclear participants and using readability index, the article explores the question of how model readers are constructed in the text. The conclusion is that the Sweden Democrats focus mostly on material processes that refer to physical violence (very rarely on other types of crime). The party’s view on criminal policy is focused on support for the police force. The Sweden Democrats’ descriptions largely adopt the perspective of crime victims, while the model reader is a law-abiding and well-educated citizen.

War memes: language transformations after the Russian invasion of Ukraine

The study of media viruses and memes that have emerged as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine represents a relevant interdisciplinary approach that brings together philology, cultural studies, history, psychology, social communications and social sciences. Memes ("bavovna", "zeleni cholovichky") have become not only symbols-viruses, but also effective means of mass communication and expression of national identity. The study of memes includes the following aspects: a selection of headline titles with a meme component, analysis of their semantics; disclosure of the social and cultural context and history of events that led to their emergence; study of perceptions and reactions to memes, their impact; determination of the role of memes in order to form public consciousness. The study of the "bavovna" and "zeleni cholovichky" memes was carried out on the basis of online media headlines in Ukrainian, Polish, Lithuanian and English, which provides a wide range of analysis and clarification of the impact of these memes on different cultures and societies, interpretation of events and realities related to the war in Ukraine. The use of memes as components of media headlines demonstrates the importance of the information space and its impact on the perception of geopolitical events and threats. The media use these symbols to emphasise the seriousness of issues, shape positions, and provoke discussion. This approach helps to understand better the important factors of society, the relationship with historical events and political realities, the specifics of the emergence of new memes, algorithms for their transformation into viruses, and the peculiarities of development, spread and transformation in social media.

Censorship Crisis

The following research studies the use of memes on the social platform Twitter with regards to celebrity representation. Specifically, it analyzes two memetic posts by Elon Musk and the representation tactics behind them, using elements of multimodal analysis and critical discourse analysis. Subsequently, the study looks at the reception of these posts via comparative content analysis with custom classification to determine how successful the tactics behind these posts are and whether there is any evidence observable in the reception regarding censorship on Twitter after its purchase by Elon Musk. The comparative study comes in a form of quantitative analysis of the first 150 responses to each of the two posts. The study does not only demonstrate instances of attempts at diminishing the distance which the inherent power of a celebrity personage on social media creates, but also how successful these attempts are and whether they manage to distract the audience from the personage in question and their power over them.

Мем-манипуляция как инструмент информационных войн

This article analyzes the phenomenon of “meme-manipulation”, which is interpreted as a popu-lar and in-demand tool in modern society for conducting various kinds of “information wars”. The history of the origin and conceptual understanding of the concept of “meme” is considered. A special phenomenon of “meme-manipulation”, defined as the use of memes in manipulation practices, is singled out and discussed. The high efficiency of meme-manipulation in conducting various kinds of information wars is revealed. The mechanism of both the manipulation itself and its specific type, which is meme-manipulation, is revealed. A philosophical analysis of modern society is carried out from the point of view of the use of meme-manipulation in political and social processes.

The left can meme

While the use of memes as a persuasive strategy by the alt-right in the 2016 election gave rise to the notion that the left had been thoroughly outflanked in the meme wars, this project argues that the left can meme. Attending to the mimetic practices of anti-fascist, anti-capitalist and anti-racist online publics reminds scholars and practitioners that reactionary forces do not monopolize memetic persuasion. We are interested in how left-wing publics constitute themselves and gain adherents through memetic labour or the work of inventing, sharing, remixing and commenting on images, objects and slogans. This exploratory essay charts a nascent rhetorical research agenda on leftist meme culture, tracking previous interventions such as the anti-fascist meme Gritty and speculating on generative terrain for scholars interested in examining the memetic labour of the left. This essay posits that if we are interested in actualizing more democratic and egalitarian futures, providing assessments of left-wing publics’ strategies might be one useful contribution to the struggle.

The Narration of the Relationship between Developments of Memes Culture and the Internet and Analysis of Memes Advantages in Diffuse

With the rise of the Internet and the establishment of online social platforms, there are more and more online information exchanges among netizens. As a product of the rise of the Internet, Memes culture has made an indelible contribution to virtual communication. This paper focuses on the development of memes culture and comprehensively describes the development of memes by studying and comparing domestic and overseas kinds of literature. In this article, the development of memes is summarized in three stages, with a summary of three eras of web development. It is divided into the first generation of memes whose main elements are characters, the second generation of memes represented by emojis that imitate faces and expressions, and the third generation of memes with narrative features. The emergence and development of the first, second, and third generations of memes do not correspond to the emergence and development of Web1.0, Web2.0 and Web3.0, but they are inseparable. At the same time, the article analyzes the reasons for the popularity of memes from five aspects: fast communication, narrative, low creation threshold, entertainment and identity. This paper also points out two problems in the development of Memes culture, namely, the weakening and degradation of language expression ability caused by the excessive use of memes, and the proliferation of vulgar online culture caused by the prevalence of memes

The Use of Religious Memes on the Internet in Islamic Preaching by Millennial Da’i in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia

Digital media development has encouraged religious scholars to utilize memes for religious teaching distribution. Muslim scholars or Ulama have also used memes to disseminate Islamic teaching in their preaching activities. This study, therefore, discusses the use of religious memes in Islamic preaching by millennial Ulama in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. This study used a qualitative approach, and the data was gathered through focus group discussion, in-depth interviews with millennial Ulama, and the netnography approach. The use of netnograpgy was intended to examine the millennial ulama activities in online space when they use social media sites for their interaction while they deliver Islamic preaching. The results of this study show that millennial Ulama has intensively used memes to provide Islamic teachings. Islamic teaching that is distributed through memes can be categorized based on five Islamic pillars. The content of the memes includes Islamic teaching relating to tawhid, the invitation to perform five times daily prayer, fasting during Ramadhan month, paying zakat or alms, and performing Hajj. The millennial Ulama also shares memes that contain various Dua that can be recited in Muslim daily life. We conclude that the distribution of Islamic teaching through the use of memes has supported the distribution of Islamic teaching wider geographically, and the memes also help the spread of Islamic teaching across geographic.

The Official Dictionary of memes: a multimodal project

The Official Dictionary of Memes (ODM) is a multimodal project consisting of a non-traditional dictionary that will include images, videos, GIFs and sounds of the most popular memes that can be found nowadays on webpages and social media. The main purpose of this project will be to build bridges between generations when it comes to Internet culture, in particular in the creation and use of memes. As an academic project, the first part will describe the type of dictionary presented, including its details and characteristics in terms of mode, target audience and structure. In the second part of the presentation, the criteria by which the nomenclature of the dictionary will be chosen will also be discussed. In addition, it will be explained the methodology used to collect and build the dictionary entries with the most up-to-date and frequent memes found on social networks and meme pages. In the third part, the selection of sources and their references will be justified. Furthermore, their presentation and how reliability is ensured will be explained. In the fourth part, it will be discussed how the information will be displayed in the dictionary. To do so, it will deal on the one hand with the microstructure, in which it will be explained the deeper structure of the entries, and on the other hand with the macrostructure, in which it will be exposed the surface format of the entries together with the selected abbreviations and symbols that will be found in each one. Examples of entries with graphical content will be presented, as well as the model webpage of the dictionary, for a better understanding of the project. Finally, the bibliographical references used will be presented.

Meaning extensions of internet memes

AbstractThis paper explores the constructional properties of internet memes by conducting a case study ofIf 2020 was a(n) X(IYWX) memes within the framework of Viewpoint Spaces (Dancygier & Vandelanotte, 2017). By looking into constructional properties and viewpoint interactions at multiple conceptual levels evoked by the juxtaposition of text and an image, this paper aims to shed light on cases where extended meanings emerge as the cognizer’s expectation on the conventionalized use of the meme is flouted. IYWX memes reveal the meme maker’s stance toward the year 2020, either evaluative or depictive, with the help of the conditional construction and the pictorial presentation of X. This study also accounts for a third type, in which the de-conventionalized construal relies on the meme viewer’s expectation of the meme’s structure. This specific type is intriguing because it indicates that the conventional use of internet memes can be extended just as verbal constructions can.

Primary Perspectives in Meme Utilization as a Digital Driver for Medical Community Engagement and Education Mobilization: Pre-Post Study

Memes have gone "viral," gaining increasing prominence as an effective communications strategy based on their unique ability to engage, educate, and mobilize target audiences in a call to action through a cost-efficient and culturally relevant approach. Within the medical community in particular, visual media has evolved as a means to influence clinical knowledge transfer. To this end, the GetWaivered (GW) project has leveraged memes as part of a behavioral economics toolkit to address one of the most critical public health emergencies of our time-the 20-year opioid epidemic. As part of a multidimensional digital awareness campaign to increase Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)-X waiver course registration, GW investigated the results of meme usage in terms of impressions, website traffic, and ultimately user acquisition, as determined by web-based training enrollment and attendance outcomes. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of implementing humor-based promotional content versus the traditional educational model, and how the translation of the increase in engagement would increase the participant count and website traffic for GW's remote DEA-X waiver training. The approach to this study was based on 2 time frames (pre- and postcampaign). During April-July 2021, we developed a campaign via advertisements on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the GW website to expand outreach. These memes targeted medical professionals with the ability to prescribe buprenorphine. The time frame of this campaign measured engagement metrics and compared values to preceding months (January-March 2021) for our GetWaivered website and social media pages, which translated to registrants for our remote DEA-X waiver training. By the end of July 2021, a total of 9598 individuals had visited the GW website. There was an average of 79.3 visitors per day, with the lowest number of daily visitors being 0 and the highest being 575. The use of memes may provide a medium for social media engagement (likes, comments, and shares) while influencing viewers to pursue a proposed action, such as e-training registration.

Racism detection using deep learning techniques

With the pervasive role of social media in the socio-political landscape, various forms of racism have arisen on these platforms. Racism can manifest in various forms on social media, both concealed and overt. It can be hidden through the use of memes or exposed through racist comments made using fake profiles to spread social unrest, violence, and hatred. Twitter and other social media sites have become new settings in which racism and related stress appear to be thriving. Racism also spread based on characteristics including dialect, faith, and tradition. It has been determined that racial animosity on social media poses a serious threat to political, socioeconomic, and cultural equilibrium and has even put international peace at risk. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor social media as the primary source of racist opinions dissemination and to detect and block racist remarks in a timely manner. In this study, we aim to detect tweets containing racist text by performing sentiment analysis using both ML and DL algorithms. We will also build a webpage using Flask framework and SQLite for users to interact with the model.

Exploring the Use of Austin’s Theory of Illocutionary Acts in Different Social Interactions

This paper reviews how Austin’s illocutionary act theory is used in face-to-face communication and online communication. In the aspect of face-to-face interaction, this paper places attention on the use of polite language and interaction in ESL (English as a second language) classrooms. In terms of online interaction, this paper explored interaction on Facebook and the use of memes, emoticons, emojis and stickers. After reviewing several research, this paper concluded that when talking face-to-face, the level of formality, gender, and cultural background affects people’s polite language. In ESL classrooms, the power, distance and rate of imposition affect teachers’ and students’ choice of language. However, the result of speech acts preference on Facebook is conflict. Previous research pointed out that memes can be categorized as communicative speech acts. Evidence shows that positive emoticons are preferred, which can improve friendships and vice versa. The review of literature contributes to further studies on the illocutionary act analysis of ESL classrooms in China and the communicative effectiveness of memes on the receivers.