E-relevant web text sites (EWT sites) are a relatively new phenomenon featuring banal yet remarkable user-generated texts on dedicated websites. This thesis analyses the sociosemiotic dimension of EWT sites in enabling neo-phatic communication: communication based on the relatable nature of EWT content and user-friendly medium, affording communicative acts without the requirement for in-depth discussion. Rather than fostering serious exchange, neo-phatic communication aims to establish a form of contact less brief than a greeting but akin to its purport, developing from banal but shared experiences. Analysis of the signification process involved in EWT sites, through a sociosemiotic framework based on Peirce’s second trichotomy of signs (icon, index, symbol) and the frame analysis of Goffman, shows that the sites’ semiotic structure belongs to a neo-phatic kind of communication unique to computer-mediated communication. This study illustrates how content with minimal substance might be under-valued as a means of understanding modern communication behaviour.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Comunicação, Programa de Pós-Graduação, 2015. / Submitted by Ruthléa Nascimento (ruthleanascimento@bce.unb.br) on 2015-06-26T14:55:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_NataliaBotelhoHorta.pdf: 5546880 bytes, checksum: f2259894d7c99e2e367e7daa861f7b20 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Viana(raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2015-07-03T12:31:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_NataliaBotelhoHorta.pdf: 5546880 bytes, checksum: f2259894d7c99e2e367e7daa861f7b20 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-03T12:31:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_NataliaBotelhoHorta.pdf: 5546880 bytes, checksum: f2259894d7c99e2e367e7daa861f7b20 (MD5) / Esta dissertação intenciona investigar o meme da internet, um fenômeno cultural que se estabeleceu na rede como uma forma de comunicação, baseada na recriação excessiva, coletiva e paródica de imagens, textos verbais, vídeos, entre outros, que se espalham de forma viral. A partir de uma perspectiva semiótica, na leitura de Charles S. Peirce, Iuri Lotman, Mikhail Bakhtin e Ludwig Wittgenstein, o trabalho procura compreender o fenômeno como uma linguagem da internet. Mais que um suporte físico passivo para a transmissão de mensagens, a web é entendida aqui como um meio de comunicação, uma esfera sígnica na qual a comunicação e a geração de sentido são possíveis – na qual a cultura torna-se possível. Dessa esfera emerge o meme, que nesta pesquisa é tomado como uma forma de expressão e concepção de mundo que apresenta certa regularidade, sua “gramática”. Assim, também delineamos na presente investigação as categorias que compõem essa linguagem (e forma de pensamento) e as dinâmicas estabelecidas em seus jogos de significação. / This dissertation intends to explore the internet meme, a cultural phenomenon that has been established on the Web as a communication mode, based on excessive, collective and parodic recreation of images, verbal texts, videos etc., which spreads virally. From a semiotic perspective, based on Charles S. Peirce, Iuri Lotman, Mikhail Bakhtin e Ludwig Wittgenstein, this work aims to understand the phenomenon as an internet language. The Web, therefore, is more than just a material passive information carrier. In this dissertation, it is understood as a mean of communication, i.e., a sphere of signs, where the communication process and the generation of meaning are possible – where the culture becomes possible. From this sphere emerges the meme, which in this work is conceived as an expression manner and a way of apprehend the world that has its regularity, its “grammar”. This research establishes the categories which compose this language (and way of thought) and the dynamics set in its meaning games. / Este trabajo propone investigar el meme de la internet, un fenómeno cultural que se estableció en la red como una forma de comunicación, fundamentada en la recreación excesiva, colectiva y paródica de imágenes, textos verbales, videos etc., que se difunden de manera viral. A partir de una perspectiva semiótica, en la lectura de Charles S. Peirce, Iuri Lotman, Mikhail Bakhtin y Ludwig Wittgenstein, la investigación busca comprender el fenómeno como un lenguaje de la internet. Más que un soporte físico y pasivo para la transmisión de mensajes, la web es entendida como un medio de comunicación, una esfera de signos en la cual la comunicación y la generación de sentido son posibles – donde la cultura se hace posible. De esa esfera emerge el meme, que en este trabajo es comprendido como una forma de expresión y concepción de mundo que presenta cierta regularidad, su “gramática”. Así, también definimos en la presente investigación las categorías que componen ese lenguaje (y forma de pensamiento) y las dinámicas establecidas en sus juegos de significación.

This thesis is concerned with exploring political Internet Memes within the discourse of the debate leading up to the Swiss referendum “For the Effective Expulsion of Foreign Criminals” (Durchsetzungsinitiative). During the campaign, an unprecedented amount of political agitation occurred online, which resulted in the distribution of a number of Internet Memes. A corpus of 25 Memes with content opposing the referendum was built and analyzed from a medialinguistic perspective with focus on their multimodal nature and their argumentation. As research on political Memes in the German language area has previously not been conducted, this study fills the need to apply German Bildlinguistik and multimodality theory on the investigation of a current online-phenomenon. To this purpose, the theoretical tools of multimodality theory, political communication studies and discourse analysis were applied. While the focus of this analysis lies on the collected data, the role of political memes within Web 2.0 in general were also investigated. The investigation of the corpus shows that images are just as important to the building of an argument as textual elements are and should be given equal investigative attention. Political Internet Memes are very well integrated into their medium, namely Web 2.0. They actively engage the readers in their argumentation with a number of semiotic resources, such as vernacular language or vectors pointing at the reader. This makes Memes very apt instruments within the online political discourse.

"I daresay you haven’t had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There[21]. This thesis examines an artificial proto-culture of e-Puck robots to examine which factors affect the transmission of memes, in the form of sounds imitated back and forth between the robots, to determine which factors promote or inhibit meme diversity and spread. Meme theory posits that the development of cultural artifacts such as ideas, myths, religions, etc. arises naturally from cultural information transfer by imitation. It has been suggested that 'copybots’, robots programmed to imitate each other, would eventually lead to the emergence of something recognizable as culture[13]. This thesis describes part of a research project which sought to use e-Puck robots to implement a copybot based system to examine this proto-culture emergence. The group implemented an Artificial Culture lab for experiments using the e-Puck robots. Here the focus is on the imitation of sound patterns (the memes) within a group of e-Pucks to examine which factors promote or inhibit meme diversity and spread. Other parts of the research group examined the imitation of movement patterns, human perceptions (and preconceptions of robots), and abstract societal level modeling. Within is described a simulator and a series of experiments on the imitation of sounds using that simulator that examine the factors affecting meme transmission in homogeneous populations and evolving heterogeneous populations. These experiments show that they key factor in promoting meme diversity and spread is simply the frequency with which imitation occurs. They also show that memory size plays a smaller role and selection strategy (for choosing which meme to imitate) plays a lesser role still. "If you’ve done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe." Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe[1].

This research is based on the assumption that social media sites – such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – have changed the way in which memes (culturally transmitted ideas) are transmitted or spread. Qualitative research is used in this study, particularly a literature study that applies and weighs the theories against a purposive sample of selected film examples between 2009 and 2010, to answer the question: what is the relationship between social media sites and the spread of memes? To answer this question, the way in which social media aids the spread of memes is analysed. It is argued that social media has provided the most fertile environment for the replication of memes to date. Also analysed is the way in which social media sites are represented in films, as well as the ways in which the offline lives of the characters are affected by their social media profiles, specifically as depicted in films Julie & Julia (Ephron 2009), Trust (Schwimmer 2010), and Catfish (Joost & Schulman 2010). Lastly, it is argued that one can construct an entirely new persona, or merely experiment with different aspects of who you are, on social media sites. This online persona can be influenced by the memes one chooses to spread online. Naturally, all memes carry connotations, values and judgements. These memes collaborate with one’s profile and, thus, the connotations attached to the memes one shares are then associated with one’s online persona (profile). This research is deemed relevant, also in a South African context, because the spread of memes does not respect national or international boundaries. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Visual Arts / MA / Unrestricted

E-relevant web text sites (EWT sites) are a relatively new phenomenon featuring banal yet remarkable user-generated texts on dedicated websites. This thesis analyses the sociosemiotic dimension of EWT sites in enabling neo-phatic communication: communication based on the relatable nature of EWT content and user-friendly medium, affording communicative acts without the requirement for in-depth discussion. Rather than fostering serious exchange, neo-phatic communication aims to establish a form of contact less brief than a greeting but akin to its purport, developing from banal but shared experiences. Analysis of the signification process involved in EWT sites, through a sociosemiotic framework based on Peirce’s second trichotomy of signs (icon, index, symbol) and the frame analysis of Goffman, shows that the sites’ semiotic structure belongs to a neo-phatic kind of communication unique to computer-mediated communication. This study illustrates how content with minimal substance might be under-valued as a means of understanding modern communication behaviour.

Orientador: Rita Melissa Lepre / Resumo: A presente pesquisa revela a preocupação com a assimilação de valores morais pelos alunos do Ensino Básico, especialmente os adolescentes do Ensino Médio. O objetivo desse estudo foi conhecer e compreender as possíveis contribuições dos memes, uma forma de linguagem e comunicação muito difundida atualmente na internet, como forma de auxiliar os estudantes a compreenderem valores morais. Julgamos importante refletir sobre a necessária atenção que a comunidade escolar precisa oferecer à relação dos alunos com os novos dispositivos virtuais que possibilitam o acesso e compartilhamento de informações em larga escala. A criação e utilização de memes, já considerado um gênero textual, permite aos professores obter importantes informações sobre as compreensões dos discentes sobre a escola e conhecer seus valores morais expressos de forma direta ou indireta nessa linguagem. Nesse sentido, podem se converter em poderoso instrumento pedagógico que auxilie na mediação para a construção de um projeto de educação e desenvolvimento moral. Os memes são instrumentos concretos de análise social e interpessoal, embora sejam virtuais. Representam um novo gênero que reflete uma nova forma de sociabilidade, em um novo espaço, que pode nos dizer muito sobre a sociedade e os valores morais os quais estamos construindo. Com o objetivo de conhecer e analisar os memes produzidos por alunos de uma escola pública do Estado de São Paulo, durante as aulas de história, no intuito de propor um projeto trans... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The present research reveals the concern with the assimilation of moral values ​​by the students of Basic Education, especially the adolescents of High School. The objective of this study was to know and understand the possible contributions of memes, a form of language and communication that is very widespread today on the internet, as a way to help students understand moral values. We believe it is important to reflect on the necessary attention that the school community needs to provide students with the new virtual devices that enable access and sharing of information on a large scale. The creation and use of memes, already considered a textual genre, allows teachers to obtain important information about the students' understandings about the school and to know their moral values ​​expressed directly or indirectly in that language. In this sense, they can become a powerful pedagogical tool that helps in mediation for the construction of an education and moral development project. Memes are concrete instruments for social and interpersonal analysis, although they are virtual. They represent a new genre that reflects a new form of sociability, in a new space, that can tell us a lot about society and the moral values ​​that we are building. With the objective of knowing and analyzing the memes produced by students of a public school in the State of São Paulo, during history classes, in order to propose a transversal project of moral education, we have been developing a parti... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The owner(s) of a brand decide the attributes of the brand, such as name, color, shape, logotype and values. They have the power and control on what they are communicating to the consumers.  However, consumers can freely interpret any information that is being communicated towards them and shape their own perception of the brand. Internet memes can be categorised as a type of satirical communication method that can be used by consumers. The purpose is to explore how satire through the medium of internet memes affect brand image. This research used a qualitative research approach with a cross sectional research design, in the form of semi-structured interviews. The sample consisted of people from the age 20-30 that had knowledge about memes to some degree. A total of 15 interviews were implemented and took approximately 30 minutes each to execute. The conducted research gave insight to how satirical memes can potentially affect consumers perception of brand image. What was discovered was that satirical memes had the potential to possibly affect certain aspects of both the cognitive and emotional components of brand image. When the participants had a neutral or negative pre-determined brand image it was possible to see a negative shift in their perception of this brand image through negative reinforcement. While on the other side, when participants had a strong and positive pre-determined brand image, the satirical memes affected them differently, as they did not make them negative towards the brand but became critical instead. These alterations showed that there was the potential to affect the participants purchase & usage situations and through the satirical memes effect on the different cognitive and emotional components, could possibly change the perception of a brand image as a whole.

The purpose of this study is to examine memes on the internet linked to covid-19 to see what opinions, themes and discourses are presented. Hopefully this study can contribute to increase the understanding of the meme-culture, but also the meaning and function memes has in a crisis context such as the pandemic. This study is conducted by a thematic coding which makes it possible to identify the most common themes in the popular community r/Coronavirusmemes on Reddit. The following theories are used as a theoretical framework in this study; critical analysis, semiotic analysis and participatory culture.

This thesis seeks to analyse a critical juncture in the aftermath of the Brexit vote; Theresa May’s Brexit negotiations. This was a highly contentious time for politics in the UK, eventually leading to an extension on the initial deadline being granted and May’s resignation from the post of Prime Minister. By examining these negotiations through the lens of user-generated memes, the researcher finds a contemporary way to understand the interactive role citizens play in contributing to political discourse. This thesis asks how such discourses are playing out over social media visuals, and in turn, which symbols are being utilized to reflect these discourses. After a thorough investigation of the symbolism at play, ranging from flags to diversity, the researcher concludes that memes make a valuable and creative contribution to political discourse, and should not be disregarded as facetious; indeed their humour allows a fresh take on a serious issue. This thesis takes inspiration from a Research Methodology assignment written as a pilot for this study, entitled, “Exploring discourses of the Brexit negotiations through social media visuals: A visual analysis and discussion of research methods”.