Multimodal Literacies MOOC’s Updates

Internet memes as multimodal texts

One important site of multimodal communication in both my life and that of my students’, which I am particularly intrigued by, is the Internet meme. Internet memes are groups of digital items sharing certain similar qualities, that are subsequently widely shared by Internet users (Shifman, 2013).

Internet memes, as digital discursive artefacts, are multimodal texts that often use a combination of text, image and sometimes video to convey a message. They are part of the social worlds of my students as many of them are active on social media and engage in practices such as sharing and liking Internet memes. Internet memes include parodies of music videos, which my students also regularly watch. Catchphrases and “memetic vernacular” are also popularized by Internet memes, which students tend to subsequently use in their daily lives. Some examples of Internet memes include the parodies of the popular Korean music video “Gangnam Style”; also in Asia, an Internet meme gaining popularity is called the (rather inexplicably) popular “PPAP” song. Phenomena like LOLcats are examples of early Internet memes. Some Internet memes can be analyzed as pieces of “low” or “popular” Art in the tradition of Warhol. Image macros, like the popular LOLcat series, have been analyzed and compared to silent films, which also use “caption” (intertitles) and visuals.

I think it would be interesting to look at what kinds of communicative loads (Bateman, 2014) are taken on by Internet memes, what makes it popular, and whether there are differences between Internet memes that are popular globally and those that are popular in local contexts.

Traditional notions of literacy would probably not take into account the epistemological practices that underlie the creation and consumption of digital artefacts like Internet memes. Internet memes often contain subversive and anti-hegemonic messages so children need to be equipped with the right skills to “read”. Critical multimodal literacy would also probably aid them in their understanding of Internet memes.

 

  • Ilyes Haidara
  • Zulma Rueda
  • Sophie Strang
  • Seung-kyu Choi
  • Samaa Haniya