Orientador: Professor Dr. Sérgio Amadeu da Silveira / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Humanas e Sociais, 2016. / O contexto das redes de relacionamento online da contemporaneidade trouxe novas formas de interação entre os indivíduos. Atualmente, o uso de memes, por exemplo, é frequente e inunda as diversas plataformas da internet. Esse trabalho pretende explorar duas vertentes emergidas e inter-relacionadas desta realidade permeada pelo uso das novas tecnologias de informação e comunicação. A primeira proposta consiste em esclarecer a dinâmica e as características dos memes por meio de um levantamento teórico que abrange a utilização do termo desde os tempos que antecedem a internet. Outra problemática abordada nesta pesquisa refere-se às questões que envolvem o direito da propriedade intelectual no contexto da cibercultura. Esse ponto se apresenta como uma relação complexa, visto que, enquanto a internet se permeia pela lógica da liberdade, há indícios de que a propriedade intelectual seja reconhecida por seu caráter regulador. Para corroborar essa discussão, há neste trabalho o intento de debater até que ponto os memes agridem os direitos da propriedade intelectual e, mais ainda, até que ponto a regulação dos direitos autorais é capaz de interferir na criação e incessante propagação desse fenômeno tão representativo da cultura remix no ciberespaço. / The context of online social networks in the contemporaneity brought new forms of interaction between individuals. Currently the use of memes, for example, is frequent and flood lot of Internet platforms. This essay aims to explore two aspects emerged and interrelated in this reality permeated by the use of new information and communication technologies. Thus, the first proposal is to clarify the characteristics and dynamics of memes supported by a theoretic research comprising the use of the term in a period that precedes the internet era. Another problem indexed in this research refers about the issues involving intellectual property rights in the context of cyberculture. This point is presented as a complex relationship because while the internet is permeated by the logic of freedom, intellectual property seems to be recognized by your regulatory character. To support the discussion, this essay also has the purpose to debate which are the limits of disrespect of memes against the rights of intellectual property and even more so, how this regulation of copyright are able to interfere in the creation and relentless spread of this so representative phenomenon of the remix culture in cyberspace.

Submitted by Marina Totina de Almeida Lara null (m.almeidalara@hotmail.com) on 2018-03-02T14:21:19Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_defesa_Marina Lara.pdf: 4921793 bytes, checksum: 0285f7af5a9b6f77ff40c82a7f8da3c6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Maria Rodrigues null (milena@fclar.unesp.br) on 2018-03-05T18:07:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 lara_mta_me_arafcl.pdf: 4921793 bytes, checksum: 0285f7af5a9b6f77ff40c82a7f8da3c6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-03-05T18:07:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 lara_mta_me_arafcl.pdf: 4921793 bytes, checksum: 0285f7af5a9b6f77ff40c82a7f8da3c6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-01-24 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Os avanços tecnológicos observados na contemporaneidade modificaram as formas de interação, produção, configuração e interpretação de enunciados. Essas modificações atingem diferentes campos de atividade, como o didático-pedagógico, que, hoje, possui fronteiras além do espaço físico escolar. Neste cenário, esta pesquisa de mestrado coloca em foco “novas” modalidades de ensino/aprendizagem praticadas na internet, nas quais estão presentes gêneros discursivos incomuns na esfera didático-pedagógica. O corpus selecionado são posts com fins didáticos do blog do Cursinho Pré-Vestibular Descomplica. A análise é centralizada na presença de gêneros que produzem humor – em especial, o meme – nestas práticas de ensino/aprendizagem. Interessa-nos a presença do humor como recurso didático nas relações de ensino e as modificações possíveis desta presença pensando em um histórico sobre as relações em ambientes de ensino/aprendizagem. Neste contexto, outras discussões foram suscitadas, como o próprio entendimento do meme como gênero do discurso, como memórias discursivas do espaço escolar, da imagem de aluno e de professor e o “uso” de gêneros do discurso no ensino de língua materna. O que pôde ser percebido, por meio das análises, é que os materiais disponíveis e suas respectivas formas de apresentação dialogam com o que temos tido, nas últimas décadas, nas salas de aula dos cursinhos presenciais do país: docentes que utilizam piadas e outros recursos humorísticos em seus discursos. No blog esse discurso humorístico toma novos formatos, comuns em outros ambientes na internet, como os memes, que fazem referência direta ao universo dos jovens na atualidade. É por meio, a princípio, do meme – entre outros gêneros que produzem humor, como as gifs¬ – que se dá voz ao professor nestes enunciados na rede. As análises apontam, ainda, para sentidos ambivalentes produzidos pelo humor nas relações de ensino. Este trabalho tem como base teórico-metodológica escritos do Círculo de Bakhtin e seus desdobramentos na Análise Dialógica do Discurso, em especial estudos sobre gêneros do discurso, enunciados verbo-visuais e as relações entre humor e discurso. A pesquisa é de natureza qualitativa e a metodologia compreende o cotejamento de textos. / The technological advances observed in contemporaneity modified the ways of interaction, production, configuration and interpretation of utterances. These modifications reach different activity fields, like the didactic-pedagogical, which has boundaries beyond the physical school space. In this scenario, this research focuses on “new” modalities of teaching/learning practiced on the internet, in which are present discourse genres that are uncommon in the didactic-pedagogical sphere. The selected corpus are didactical posts from the vestibular preparation course Descomplica. The analysis is centered on the presence of humor generating genres, especially the meme, in these teaching/learning practices. It is of our interest the presence of humor as a didactical resource in the teaching relations and possible modifications of this presence when we think about the history of the relations in teaching/learning environments. In this context, other discussions were raised, like the own understanding of meme as a discourse genre; the discursive memory of school space, student and teacher; and the “use” of discourse genres in mother tongue teaching. What could be perceived, through the analysis, is that available resources, and their respective ways of presentation, dialogue with what we had, in the last few decades, in the face-to-face vestibular preparation courses in Brazil: teachers who use jokes and other humor resources in their discourse. In the blog, this humor discourse takes new formats, common in other environments in the internet, like memes, which make direct reference to the universe of contemporary youth. It is through, primarily, the meme (among other humor genres, as gifs) that it is given voice to the teacher in these online utterances. The analysis point to ambivalent senses produced by humor in teaching relations. This work has as theoretical and methodological base the production of Bakhtin Circle and its deployments in Dialogical Discourse Analysis, especially the studies about discourse genre, verb-visual utterances, and the relations between humor and discourse. This research is of qualitative nature and the adopted methodology consists on text collation.

The aim of this study is to examine knowledge processes in online spaces. It focuses on threeparticular cases: the Bonfireside Chat podcast, the community around the computer game Europa Universalis 4, and the Supernatural fandom. By applying the frameworks of Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice and Hall’s (1980) modes of reading, it examines how these spaces and their communities engage with their respective media artifacts. It concludes thatthese processes display high levels of complexity and literacy, and that a deeper understanding of such processes is useful in developing future educational efforts, online as well as offline.

Internet memes are exemplary forms of user-generated content in the age of social networking and user participation. This study draws attention to the work of an intersectional feminist community on Instagram who make use of this platform to discuss their personal politics via image macro memes. The community is made up of femmes who typically blend politics, pop culture, and a personal perspective into their content. This practice is identified as a contemporary feminist use of new media and is explored in relation to a theoretical reading of the current Third Wave of feminism as “embodied politics”. The theory of “disciplinary power” by Michel Foucault, and connections between disciplinary power with systems of oppression and social media are also employed to construct an understanding of feminist memes as a means of embodied resistance to disciplinary norms. This study seeks to explore how Internet memes are harnessed as a feminist mode of discourse, and why feminist meme creators (or “memers”) are motivated to use memes in this way. Therefore this research locates an intersection between digital culture and feminist use of new media. The research explores the possibility that Internet memes can serve as a creative and effective mode of feminist discourse in resistance to various forms of marginalisation - which occur both online and offline.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur digitala memes kan skapas för att fungera som inlägg i pågående debatter. För att göra detta analyseras tre av de fotobaserade memes som skapades med anspelningar på Pepsis omtalade reklamfilm ”Live for Now” från 2017. Vidare studeras på vilka sätt dessa memes fungerar identifikationsskapande samt hur identifikation kan fungera övertygande. Detta analyseras med hjälp av en hermeneutisk retorisk metod tillsammans med visuell och postmodern retorikteori. Analysens resultat visar att memes som medium tilltalar en stor publik och appellerar såväl till känslor som värderingar och kan på sådant sätt skapa identifikation. Dess argumentativa styrka står dock att finna i de dolda budskapen, vilka enbart uppfattas av mottagare med särskild förförståelse. Här bidrar särskilt humor och stilfigurer till att skapa identifikation.

In this thesis, I’m working from the premise that postmodernism hitherto has been associated with the left. The next line of argument is, however, that this relation is contingent and that there is no necessity in postmodernisms association with left-wing ideas and political ambitions. To challenge this assumption, I intend to demonstrate that the Alt-Right, a far-right movement, at least in some respects can be considered as postmodern. If there is indeed cause to think of the Alt-Right as postmodern, then we would have to rethink postmodernisms political inclination. I intend to operationalize this by looking at the Alt-Right’s views on the changeability of politics and the social world, and pop culture, through the lens of a set of postmodern ideas. In particular, postmodern ideas concerning language, discourse and culture, and in doing so get a grip on whether it is correct to view the Alt-Right as postmodern or not. If a connection between the Alt-Right and postmodernism indeed exists, then we would have to rethink the necessity in the left-wing nature of postmodernism.

Corporations attempting to enter the realm of memetic media often find themselves lost and embarrassed; the chaotic nature of meme culture as a global way of expression on the internet has proven difficult, and communities like Reddits r/FellowKids enact vernacular criticism on corporations who attempt to use memes in order to reach their target audience. This study aims to reach higher knowledge of successful corporate engagement in memetic media through a text analysis of discussions between users on Reddit and the interplay on Twitter where users engage in vernacular ways with the Wendy’s Twitter account. Drawing on branding theory and Goffman’s dramaturgical model, the study draws conclusions on how users of a vernacular community engages the Wendy’s Twitter account in different ways. It shows how an authentic identity is ascribed to the corporation through vernacular means, and how the prevalence of vernacular play forces the corporation to surrender message control in order to gain authenticity. It further suggests that an authentic corporate identity in vernacular communities requires the corporation not to act like one; preferring fast, playful communication rather than slow, institutional responses. Implying that the correct plan of action is not to have one, the study further understands the paradox of crafting a marketing strategy not based on controlled communication, and suggests further research into vernacular communities and citizen creative control in memetic media.

EMS personnel tend to face higher burnout rates than those in similar professions, which makes them more likely to make mistakes, engage in safety-compromising behaviors, and get injured. This project examines humor used in the form of Internet memes as a coping mechanism. Internet memes are modifiable, replicable units of cultural transmission that are passed and gain influence through the Internet. I applied the Maslach Burnout Inventory to EMS related memes on the website Reddit. I found that memes that dealt with burnout typically referenced non-traumatic factors as being the source of burnout, and that these memes would often lead to conversations that allowed EMS personnel to share their experiences with one another. I concluded that internet memes can provide a way for EMS personnel to express their feelings anonymously and through a façade of humor, and can also let other people who may be going through similar experiences know that they are not alone.

Internet memes have in recent years become a prevalent phenomenon which brands have now started to use in their marketing communication efforts. Previous brand personality research suggested that communication style can change a brand’s perceived personality from a consumer’s perspective. The purpose of the thesis was to investigate if there is a difference in how brands are perceived depending on whether memes or more traditional images are used in marketing communication. The theoretical framework for this thesis was Geuens et al. (2009) A New Measure of Brand Personality. An experimental design was applied by having a total of 98 respondents answer one of two surveys. The respondents were exposed to a meme or a more traditional advert from the dating app, Tinder, and then asked to answerer questions regarding the brand’s personality. Hypothesis testing was conducted to see if any significant differences between the groups could be found. Results showed that respondent did perceive the brand differently on two dimensions of brand personality depending on what image they saw. However, lack of internal reliability in multiple dimensions in A New Measure of Brand Personality, questioned the scales applicability. The thesis contributes to a better understanding of how memes can be used in marketing communication.

The goal of this work is to present attitudes of two contemporary authors who are in the center of the evolutionary-origin-of morality debate, that is theories of Richard Dawkins and Frans de Waal. The critical reflection of their works on this topic will center around the building blocks of morality and the supposed "moral sense", which according to the dutch primatologist humans to some extent share with some of their living evolutinary relatives. In case of Richard Dawkins we are about to review his meme theory and parasytical character of some elements of culture. Morevoer there will be presented accounts of the dual inheritance theorists, which in authors opinion can reunite both presented authors and thier attitudes, i.e. put the parasytic/independent character of memes in accordance with the building blocks of morality approach. This approach in turn can explain many phenomena of human contemporary morals and their limits. Keywords: Morality, evolution, dual inheritance theory, coevolution, memes