BP 3: Project focus on theory of science Memes & Digital Culture Roskilde University Department of Communication and Arts International Bachelor in Humanities Group member: Student number: Exam deadline: Jamila Bendix 65888 17/12/2019 Malte M. Kofoed-Christensen 65852 Aliya Jensen-Darko 65821 Alina-Stefana Pohariu 65856 Giacomo Venturoli 66621 Matilde Tomasini 65827 Genevieve S. Højelsen 65851 Supervisor: Remzi Ates Gürsimsek Institut for Kommunikation og Humanistisk Videnskab Kommunikation 1 Abstract In a time where digital culture is moving faster than the research investigating it, it can be difficult to grasp the events occurring and tracking their lifecycle. The event of ‘Storm Area 51’ has been one of the more recent examples of this. Through memes from said event we will be using a social constructivist perspective to ground our ontological position. This position will also be the grounding point for our theories which include, but not limited to, multimodality and social semiotics. The chosen memes have been analysed using the aforementioned theories. An aspect of memes that are revealed during the analysis, is the fact that they possess underlying themes such as power relations. The conclusion to the analysis reveals that memes are complex signs that cover different aspects of digital culture such as the constant stream and spread of content that either goes on and fade or gets recontextualized in different contexts with new meanings. Keywords: multimodality, social semiotics, memes, digital culture, participatory culture 2 Indholdsfortegnelse ............................................................................................................................................................................. 4 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 4 1.2. PROBLEM FORMULATION ............................................................................................................................... 6 1.3. MEMES AND DIGITAL CULTURE .................................................................................................................... 7 1.3.1. Layering in Memes ................................................................................................................................ 9 1.3.2. Memes Online ...................................................................................................................................... 12 1.4 AREA 51 AND ITS HISTORY ........................................................................................................................... 13 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 17 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................................. 17 2.1. SOCIAL SEMIOTICS ...................................................................................................................................... 17 2.1.1. Interpretive Communities ................................................................................................................... 19 2.2. MULTIMODALITY ......................................................................................................................................... 20 2.3. INTERTEXTUALITY ....................................................................................................................................... 26 2.4. SPEAKING INTO THE SYSTEM ....................................................................................................................... 28 2.5. CULTURE IN THE DIGITAL WORLD .............................................................................................................. 32 2.5.1. Digital Culture .................................................................................................................................... 32 2.5.2. Participation ........................................................................................................................................ 32 2.5.3. Remediation ......................................................................................................................................... 33 2.5.4. Bricolage ............................................................................................................................................. 34 2.5.5. Principal Components ......................................................................................................................... 35 2.6. SUMMARY OF THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................. 35 3. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................................... 36 3.1. THEORY OF SCIENCE: SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH ....................................................................... 36 3.1.1. Dimension - Text & Sign ..................................................................................................................... 37 3.2. RESEARCH DESIGN ...................................................................................................................................... 38 3.3. ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK ......................................................................................................................... 39 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 39 4. DATA ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................................... 39 4.1. BEFORE AREA 51 - MEME 1 ......................................................................................................................... 40 4.2. DURING AREA 51 - MEME 2......................................................................................................................... 47 4.3. AFTER AREA 51 - MEME 3 ........................................................................................................................... 55 4.4. ANALYSIS CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 60 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 63 5. DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................................... 63 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 68 6. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 68 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................................ 70 3 1. INTRODUCTION This project aims at identifying the various semiotic resources of a meme and at explaining the way in which these create meaning within a specific social context of the digital culture. By identifying the multimodal and intertextual elements of an image-macro and the ways in which an image-macro is assembled through the processes of remediation and bricolage, this paper has the intention of achieving a better understanding of the subjectivities belonging to a culture of participation and of the meanings that these subjectivities build and share. Rage comics scattered around 9gag, the SuperWhoLock fandom located in Tumblr, content created from Reddit, spread around Facebook and Instagram. All these mentioned examples, manifest the creation, spreading, and overall enjoyment; of what generally could be called memes. Memes can be seen spread across platforms on the Internet, whether it be a popular social media platforms such as Instagram, or down to the niché site of 4chan. In these contexts, memes can be viewed as communicative tool as a part of a larger digital culture. A form of communication spread through different media, most commonly seen as pictures, but can also be created through other media such as; gifs, videos, texts, sound samples, with more. Many popular memes are in the form of a picture with a text, at the top and bottom, corresponding to what the picture or memes is trying to communicate. Often the purpose of the communication is something relatable, which then turns into something humorous for the individual, as it is accompanied by an image that expressed this relatable emotion. Some exemplary memes from Reddit are shown below as examples of relatability. These have been chosen on the basis of showing different ways of constructing memes. The memes are showing their relatability by appealing to emotions in the subjects via screenshots and texts. 4 Reddit, 2019 Memes have been transformed, and keep transforming, from making comics, to using stills taken from popular culture, such as a screenshot from SpongeBob SquarePants or the movie How to Train Your Dragon. Memes have grown with the Internet and the digital culture and