Raja SINGAPOREAN INTERNET MEMES Ubiquity: The Journal of Literature, Literacy, and the Arts, Research Strand, Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring/Summer 2018, pp. 7-48 Ubiquity: http://ed-ubiquity.gsu.edu/wordpress/ ISSN: 2379-3007 Singaporean Internet Memes in Visual Culture © Pavithra Raja National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Correspondence concerning this article should be directed to Pavithra Raja, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Nanyang Walk, Singapore 637616 Contact:
[email protected] Ubiquity: The Journal of Literature, Literacy, and the Arts, Research Strand, Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring/Summer 2018 7 Raja SINGAPOREAN INTERNET MEMES Abstract Internet memes have been studied as digital artifacts in pop polyvocality (Milner, 2013b; Yoon, 2016), and for vernacular creativity (Burgess, 2007; Milner, 2013a; Tannen, 2007). Educators’ engagement with memes is crucial to aid young students’ critical readings of them (Knobel & Lankshear, 2007). In late-authoritarian Singapore, memes have been studied for their popularity and as outlets for expression (Sreekumar & Vadrevu, 2013; Liew, 2015). In this study, I examined memes related to education using theories and methods of social semiotics (Kress, 2010; Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996), and Machin and Mayr’s (2012) Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis to understand discursive and social practices surrounding Internet memes, and education, a perennial issue for Singapore. The analysis suggests Singaporean memes exhibit dense networks of intersemiotic meaning, sharing features of comic and sequential art in portraying local educational issues related to public pedagogy and hegemonic discourses. Intertextuality and humor featured in cultural representations, with global memetic vernacular and local languages. In the context of art education, meme literacy may help teachers equip students with skills to respond knowledgably to online visual culture.