Our very own grounded studies recognized five main categories of meme quiddities you to united instances into the exact same household members: Target, certain profile, simple reputation, step, and you will terms. Adopting the difference in tangible graphic quiddities and you may abstract textual of them (Lewis, 2012 ; Spitzberg, 2014 ), i created a dimension to own quiddity concreteness. The original one or two classes-items (instance Mentos when you look at the “Diet Mentos”) and you will specific characters (eg Bert from inside the “Bert was Worst”)-try highly noticeable and you can tangible. Common letters (such as the various cats when you look at the “LOLcats”) and you can steps (including the dancing motions in “The brand new Advancement regarding Dance”) will always be visible, however their manifestation you will definitely move from that including to some other. Fundamentally, in lieu of noticeable stuff, phrases are definitely the minimum concrete and/or extremely abstract of all the classes. Next section, we mentioned the latest portion of occasions when you look at the each family relations that consisted of possess from each of the categories. For every single meme such as for instance inside the a family group was required to contain at least one type of quiddity. The newest quiddity concreteness top try acquired for each and every meme relatives centered into the weighted countless the five-quiddity organizations: target and particular profile (1), general profile and methods (0), and keywords (?1).
Quiddity types
Into the RQ1 i asked exactly what are the prevalent form of quiddities you to definitely bind meme families with her. Our studies revealed that action is one of commonly used quiddity regarding the shot (42.2% of meme period), accompanied by keywords (38.5%). Certain character (29%) and you may object (23%) was less incontri indù frequent, having generic character (fifteen.7%) at the rear of trailing. It’s important to observe that the results reveal that the newest fundamental quiddity is actually mainly different from the fresh new general characteristics looking into the the newest codebook for the majority of meme family. Actually, from inside the 90% of meme families, this new quiddity is actually particular and thus was not as part of the general qualities. Particularly, in the “Superstar Battles Boy” family, the new act from assaulting having laser swords try a highly particular quiddity, and thus couldn’t getting seized by general options that come with new codebook.
Inside RQ2 we expected and therefore templates, models, and you will involvement formations try common (and marginal) in the modern internet sites memes. I learned that prominent people (twenty-six.5%), dining (19.1%) and brand new news (sixteen.3%) was basically the most famous topics; nationality (2.6%), newest situations (step 3.2%), and you will work and you can employment (step three.3%) was in fact minimum of prominent information. Regarding gender, male players (59.4%) was illustrated twice as often because the girls professionals (twenty seven.3%). Family and young people (38.7%) featured most, if you are elder professionals was indeed at least represented (5.6%) with respect to generation. Caucasian members (44.5%) was in fact the most portrayed cultural classification, when you find yourself Latina or Latino people the least (0.2%). In the long run, with regards to function, most instances was indeed photos (56%) or movies (42.6%) in lieu of absolute textual memes (1%). In general, such findings corroborate a number of the observations built in brand new qualitative education discussed more than, where memetic industries is referred to as ruled of the young, light men. Regarding layouts, media-depending playfulness seems to have started far more significant than simply engagement which have politics. Thus predicated on detailed statistics about, politics is rather marginal regarding memetic sphere. But really, since the unfolded below, community research will inform you a far more advanced story.
Brand new cohesiveness of common properties during the meme group
While the intricate over, one of many seeks with the studies was to take a look at the latest extent away from cohesiveness from meme group with respect to its generic qualities (RQ3). Figure dos shows the fresh new community off memes discussing comparable stuff functions. To help make the fresh graphic data better, i show right here just five meme family you to definitely show several or a great deal more characteristics. The dimensions of the new node means their circle training, this basically means, what other meme times it offers stuff attributes that have. Such as for example, the original meme of “Log off Britney Alone” ‘s the premier node, sharing at least several articles properties that have 56 (off 83) other meme hours. “Graffiti” and you may “Birmingham” is each other instances of brand new “Pepper Spraying Cop” meme family relations. They are the tiniest nodes from the circle, sharing several posts attributes with several most other meme occasions. Brand new thickness of your tie means the amount of shared attributes. Such as, brand new ties anywhere between cases of the new “Hop out Britney By yourself” are heavy, meaning that he or she is nearly the same as one another in terms out of posts. The original meme and its own occasions express around 9 (from 16) articles properties collectively.