Memes

Check our wiki on this topic

Memes

Wiki

Memes are “a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of content, form; created with awareness of each other; circulated, imitated and transformed via the internet by many” (Phillips, 2016).

Virality

Wiki

The spreading of digital content, such as images, videos, or links, in a short period of time through online media such as Social Networking Sites (SNSs) and electronic mail, shared by a large number of people.

a meme showing a character next to a graph labelled "stonk"

The Conflicted Interests of r/WallStreetBets: Political movement or “degenerates gambling?”

Article

Lucie Chateau

29/01/2021

14 minutes to read

What are "memestocks" and why have they disrupted the market? A look inside the subreddit whose short-stocking strategy has shaken up the world of finance and how its memes function to bind the community together.

Jacksepticeye disapprovingly pointing at the small subscriber gap between PewDiePie and T-Series

For legal reasons that's a joke: how memes bolstered YouTube's biggest subscription competition

Article

Paige Christianne Andres

12/01/2021

15 minutes to read

The PewDiePie vs. T-Series feud took the internet by storm from late 2018 to early 2019. Here is how PewDiePie utilised meme marketing to try and hit 100M subscribers before T-Series.

"[CLICK HERE]": how mobile game commercials use Facebook's algorithm

Article

Szymon Zbiegniewski

11/01/2021

9 minutes to read

Mobile game commercials abuse Facebook's algorithm to increase the number of players. How do these commercials make use of various mechanics to reach this goal?

Using Memes for the Greater Good: A Tale of LGBTQIA+

Article

Ege Okant

Alem Bekle

Giovanni van Leeuwen

Suyun Jeon

19/04/2023

12 minutes to read

This article takes a look at two internet memes, expressing LGBTQAI+ content. Through linguistic landscaping, the three arrows of the memes will be analyzed, to showcase the in-depth meaning, a humorous yet specified meme has.

‘5G users be like’: (In)visibility as evidence in 5G conspiracy memes

Article

Mijke Akkermans

09/08/2020

16 minutes to read

For several years, conspiracy theorists have promoted the idea that 5G waves are harmful for one's health, now even relating this to the coronavirus. This paper explores how memes are used to define (in)visibility as evidence within this theory.

Coronavirus memes: Laughing the apocalypse away

Article

Jana Nuiten

David Scholl

18/05/2020

10 minutes to read

As the coronavirus pandemic has taken hold, coronavirus memes have emerged. In memes, people find an outlet for being humorous and coping with the harsh circumstances they are living in at the moment.

An Instagram feed shows an alert about coronavirus, followed by a post that reads "we will feel alive again"

Memeing under Covid-19: On the phatic internet and collectivity

Article

Lucie Chateau

20/04/2020

16 minutes to read

This article looks at how our online communication practices have changed under the Covid-19 crisis. It looks at collective memeing, text chains and Boomer Images to reflect on what connections are being made in these extraordinary times.

Coronavirus and digital culture

File

The coronavirus has devastating effects around the world: it has stopped or at least seriously diminished offline social life. At the same time, the coronavirus produces enormous social activity online.