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What’s in a Meme?

What’s in a Meme?. UWSMC3 Connie Rock. What is a Meme?. An idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. A shortening of mimeme , from the ancient Greek: “something imitated”. Or …. A meme is an information packet with an attitude.

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What’s in a Meme?

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  1. What’s in a Meme? UWSMC3 Connie Rock

  2. What is a Meme? An idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. A shortening of mimeme, from the ancient Greek: “something imitated” Or … A meme is an information packet with an attitude. -- Daniel Dennett, Philosopher

  3. Where did the concept originate? First coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976). It is staring us in the face. It is still in its infancy, still drifting clumsily about in its primeval soup, but already it is achieving evolutionary change at a rate that leaves the old gene panting far behind. That “soup” is human culture; the vector of transmission is language, and the spawning ground is the brain.

  4. What is an Internet Meme? A concept that spreads via the Internet. May be a link, video, picture, website, hashtag, or a word or phrase. How does it spread? Via social networks, blogs, direct email, new sources, other web-based services. What are qualities of a meme? Memes are complete, distinct, and memorable

  5. What Works, What Doesn’t? Things to avoid: celebrity mug shots (stale from overuse), drug stories (too many moms and employers on Facebook), and protest signs. Things that work: Beautiful images, happy-looking animals, people reacting stupidly to world events on Twitter, numerical lists, funny auto-corrects, Ryan Gosling, corgis, outlandish Florida articles, and the apocalypse.

  6. BuzzFeed: Generating the “Buzz” Created in 2006 14.2 million monthly unique visitors 100 campaigns grossing $75K each $7.5 million in revenue in 2011 Most content delivered by algorithm in early days Now investing in original content development Site magnet for “SuperSharers” All revenue from branded content Things on the site that demonstrate likability with Facebook sharers often reappear in slightly mutated forms.

  7. Recent Meme: Texts from Hillary • Started as a joke between two friends. • 32 posts to Tumblr • 83,000 shares on Facebook • 45,000 Tumblr followers • Major media coverage This submission generated the most reactions on Tumblr: 1,430 notes

  8. Old-school career aspiration: AstronautNew school? Meme manager When your video goes viral, who yagonna call? When it’s a company who’s trying to sell a whole bunch of t-shirts, or put [memes] into a commercial, well, you wouldn’t do that to Mickey Mouse. Anything that you can’t do to Mickey Mouse, you shouldn’t be able to do to any of the memes of the world. It’s not right that everyone is just trying to make a buck off of it…It’s not the Wild Wild West anymore on the Internet, and people are treating it like it is. Ben Lashes, Meme Manager

  9. Appendix: Selected Memes Classics More Recent • 1996: Dancing Baby • 2001: All Your Base Are Belong To Us • 2003: FAIL • 2005: LOLcat • 2007: Better than Justin Bieber? • 2009: Keyboard Cat • 2009: #FollowFriday(or #FF) • Success Kid (for Virgin Media Marketing) • Texts from Hillary • Super Cory Booker • First world problems • Ridiculously Photogenic Guy • Scumbag Steve

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