[Air-L] Meme Tracking

Tue Jun 13 04:49:28 PDT 2017

On Tue., 13 Jun. 2017 at 8:48 pm, Thomas Ball <xtc283 at gmail.com> wrote:

> *"My idea of community is the one FIsh talks about..."*
>
> Fish? Please clarify the reference.
>
> Thank you,
> Thomas Ball
>
> On Mon, Jun 12, 2017 at 11:20 PM, fiona andf <fiona.andreallo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> re; Meme tracking.
>> I am an inter-diciplinary digital visual culture scholar and I submitted
>> my
>> thesis a few weeks back focusing on digital memes and selfies(UTS, Sydney;
>> 'The semeful sociability of digital memes'). I am interested in visual
>> social interaction and communication in social media.
>> In my thesis I relied heavily on Shiftman's work to investigate memes as
>> what might be described a form of vernacular creativity (Burgess).
>>
>> I think this thread was originally about tracking digital memes so I want
>> to go back to that. Milners( Supervised by Baym) thesis might be of
>> interest when considering tracking as he investigated memes across a
>> number
>> of platforms. Many scholars have thought for a while that vernacular is
>> based in the platform that the activity takes place. In my thesis I
>> focused
>> on the concept of digital meme communities in the context of evolved place
>> and space in online contexts. ( my idea of community is the one Fish talks
>> about)
>>
>>  Shifman highlights  that digital memes are always groups of content. So I
>> guess what I am getting at is that you are considering tracking the
>> movement of memes through online spaces then I think it would be essential
>> to track groups and spreadability in some way rather then tracking a meme
>> because the conversation is essentially part of the community the memes
>> and
>> to remove a meme from its context then also changes the meaning.
>>
>> Hope that is of some help when thinking about tracking digital memes.
>>
>> Fiona
>>
>> Fiona Andreallo
>> Lecturer USYD
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 13, 2017 at 9:00 AM, Jean Burgess <je.burgess at qut.edu.au>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > As the images posted to this list for the LOLs illustrate, these issues
>> > are very well rehearsed among vernacular experts. But they are very well
>> > rehearsed among scholars of internet culture as well.
>> >
>> > I second the recommendation to read Limor Shifman’s book on the subject,
>> > and if nobody else posted it, see also the Culture Digitally Festival of
>> > Memeology, which features many of the leading meme scholars
>> > http://culturedigitally.org/festival-of-memeology/
>> >
>> > The “festival” includes “Memeology Festival 05. Memes as Ritual, Virals
>> as
>> > Transmission? In Praise of Blurry Boundaries” also by Limor Shifman,
>> which
>> > is a very short piece that covers many of these questions.
>> > http://culturedigitally.org/2015/11/memeology-festival-05-
>> > memes-as-ritual-virals-as-transmission-in-praise-of-blurry-boundaries/
>> >
>> >
>> > On 12/6/17, 6:47 pm, "Air-L on behalf of Taylor-Smith, Ella" <
>> > air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org on behalf of
>> E.Taylor-Smith at napier.ac.uk>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >     Hi all
>> >
>> >     If we are interested in studying what people are doing on the
>> Internet
>> > (what they think they're doing etc.), then we can't ignore that people
>> > share images -especially images with words in -that they call memes.
>> >     The books coming out of the Why We Post project take this line and
>> are
>> > rewarded with all sorts of insights about the contemporary use of memes
>> in
>> > various cultures. E.g. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/why-we-
>> > post/discoveries/14-memes-have-become-the-moral-police-of-online-life
>> >
>> >     Miller and Sinanan's book about Facebook use is a good place to
>> start
>> > Miller, D. & Sinanan, J. (2017). Visualising Facebook. London: UCL
>> Press.
>> > http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/visualising-facebook
>> >
>> >     If we're interested in the relationship between Dawkins' ideas and
>> the
>> > concept of an internet meme, I have a couple of pointers that might
>> help.
>> >     It seems to be that media scholars use the term meme to study how
>> > content spreads across the Internet, by focusing on the content of the
>> > content -virality, while virality is a metaphor -people do the
>> spreading,
>> > not the content.
>> >
>> >     For Dawkins (in the meme) "the idea of purpose is only a metaphor"
>> > (The Selfish Gene).
>> >
>> >     When Godwin introduced the Internet meme idea, he seemed to be
>> taking
>> > this concept of virality in order to introduce a counter-meme (Godwin's
>> Law
>> > of Nazi Analogies). In this case, the meme's purpose is Godwin's
>> purpose.
>> >     https://www.wired.com/1994/10/godwin-if-2/
>> >
>> >     Many definitions of meme emphasise humour
>> >     e.g. “a piece of culture, typically a joke, which gains inﬂuence
>> > through online transmission.”
>> >     Davison, P. (2012). The Language of Internet Memes. In M. Mandiberg
>> > (ed.), The Social Media Reader (pp. 120–34), New York: New York
>> University
>> > Press
>> >
>> >     If we lose our sense of humour while studying or discussing memes,
>> we
>> > will not be able to understand them at all.
>> >     Probably best not to underestimate the role of humour in any
>> > communications, but especially online.
>> >
>> >     Hope this helps.
>> >
>> >     -Ella
>> >
>> >     Dr Ella Taylor-Smith
>> >
>> >     School of Computing
>> >     Edinburgh Napier University
>> >     10 Colinton Road
>> >     Edinburgh, EH10 5DT
>> >
>> >     Email: e.taylor-smith at napier.ac.uk
>> >
>> >     http://www.iidi.napier.ac.uk/e.taylor-smith
>> >     http://about.me/EllaTaylorSmith
>> >     @EllaTasm
>> >
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