The rooted studies identified five chief kinds of meme quiddities one to joined era to your same friends: Target, particular profile, universal reputation, action, and you will phrase. Adopting the difference between tangible graphic quiddities and you will conceptual textual ones (Lewis, 2012 ; Spitzberg, 2014 ), i built a measurement to own quiddity concreteness. The original a couple groups-stuff (for example Mentos within the “Diet plan Mentos”) and you may specific characters (for example Bert inside “Bert is Evil”)-try extremely visible and you may real. General letters (like the some kitties into the “LOLcats”) and you will actions (such as the dancing motions in the “This new Progression regarding Dancing”) are nevertheless obvious, however their expression you may change from that for example to another. In the long run, in the place of visible stuff, phrases could be the minimum real or even the most abstract of all kinds. After that office, we mentioned the latest part of hours during the per household members one to contains has actually out-of each one of the categories. For each and every meme instance inside the a family had to include about one type of quiddity. The fresh new quiddity concreteness height are received for every meme loved ones mainly based into the adjusted scores of the 5-quiddity communities: target and you will specific character (1), general character and you can actions (0), and you may terms (?1).
Quiddity systems
During the RQ1 i requested exactly what are the prevailing type of quiddities one to join meme family with her. The study indicated that action is the most frequently used quiddity from the take to (42.2% out of meme hours), accompanied by terms (38.5%). Particular character (29%) and you can target (23%) was in fact less frequent, with universal profile (fifteen.7%) behind trailing. You should keep in mind that all of our results reveal that the fresh chief quiddity are mostly distinct from the newest simple attributes lookin in the the fresh codebook for the majority meme household. Indeed, for the ninety% of your meme families, the brand new quiddity was particular which means that was not as part of the universal services. Such as for example, from the “Star Conflicts Son” family unit members, the act regarding assaulting with laser swords are a highly specific quiddity, for example cannot feel captured by universal top features of the latest codebook.
In RQ2 i questioned and this themes, versions, and participation formations was common (and you will limited) for the contemporary internet sites memes. We found that prominent people (26.5%), dining (19.1%) and you can new mass media (sixteen.3%) was basically the most famous subject areas; nationality (dos.6%), current events (3.2%), and you may functions and you can a job (step 3.3%) have been minimum of preferred subjects. In terms of intercourse, male users (59.4%) was portrayed twice more frequently because the females participants (27.3%). Kids and young adults (38.7%) featured extremely, while older people was basically at least portrayed (5.6%) with respect to age group. Caucasian people (forty-two.5%) had been by far the most represented cultural classification, whenever you are Latina or Latino users minimum of (0.2%). In the end, in terms of setting, very hours was basically images (56%) or movies (42.6%) in lieu of sheer textual memes (1%). Typically, such results validate many findings made in this new qualitative degree demonstrated above, where memetic sphere is actually described as ruled of the more youthful, light boys. Regarding themes, media-oriented playfulness seemingly have become far more significant than engagement with government. Therefore centered on descriptive analytics at least, politics is pretty limited on the memetic industries. Yet, while the unfolded lower than, circle analysis will tell you a advanced tale.
The fresh new cohesiveness off common features inside the meme family members
Due to the fact in depth above, one of several aims regarding the investigation were to take a look at new the quantity out-of cohesiveness out of meme family members with respect to its common features (RQ3). Shape dos shows the new circle out of memes discussing equivalent posts attributes. To create this new artwork research clearer, we inform you right here just four meme families that share several otherwise significantly more want Dating apps dating reviews qualities. How big is this new node means its network studies, to phrase it differently, how many other meme period they offers articles attributes having. Like, the initial meme off “Exit Britney By yourself” is the largest node, revealing at the least a couple posts functions having 56 (of 83) most other meme instances. “Graffiti” and you may “Birmingham” try each other instances of the latest “Pepper Spraying Cop” meme friends. These represent the littlest nodes on the system, sharing one or two stuff services which have one or two most other meme days. The fresh new width of wrap represents exactly how many common characteristics. Such as for example, the new ties between cases of the latest “Hop out Britney Alone” are extremely heavy, which means he is very similar to each other in terms out-of stuff. The first meme and its circumstances share doing nine (from 16) stuff properties along.