Week10: ANALYZING MY SAMPLE
Shifman (2014) explains the importance of sharing as a “central cultural logic” that is fundamental to the understanding of memes. She discusses the convergence of sharing as both a method of distribution and a method of communication. Individuals distribute cultural items—memes—and in doing so, they communicate their personal values and beliefs. With this notion of sharing in mind, we can further considerShifman’s argument in terms of dissemination.
Shifman (2014) summarizes the common features of memes content, one of which focuses on the image characteristics of Masculinity Among the memes I chose, there are many images that compare Harvey Weinstein's image to ugly monsters, highlighting the fact that he uses his rights to abuse women. "They embody a certain rebellion against hegemonic masculinity, yet at the same time reinforce traditional norms through the comic framing of their protagonists." (Shifman, 2014, p.77) These memes are used to challenge our irony of traditional patriarchal ideas.
Another important feature is humor, "The Internet users share for both social and self-presentation purposes, they prefer spreading content that makes others feel good and at the same time reflects on themselves as upbeat and entertaining" (Shifman, 2014, P.66) People express their own humorous strategies by combining the images and texts of meme. And Shifman (2014) summarizes three attributes that explain the importance of humor. The first one is Playfulness, "Like game-playing, humor is enjoyed for its own sake and involving a multilayered perception of social situations" (Shifman, 2014, p.79). Humor is based on people‘s own interests, through the form of humor. to show their attitude on social and social events. The second one is Incongruity, "incongruity theory of humor, comedy derives from an unexpected cognitive encounter between two incongruent elements, as in a pun" (Shifman, 2014, p.79). Many memes from my sample use the contrast and metaphor to express their sense of humor.
In addition, Shifman (2014) suggest that Internet-based political memes fulfill three interwoven functions:(1) Memes as forms of persuasion or political advocacy. (2) Memes as grassroots action. (3) Memes as modes of expression and public discussion. Although my research questions have little to do with politics, Shifman's (2014) political research strategy can be applied to my research. First, people use memes to persuade others. Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault has subverted people's influence on him, people use those memes to reveal his incorrect behavior, and trying to convince everyone to understand the relationship between gender and power through memes. Second, in the era of new media development, everyone can express their views by creating and disseminating memes. This "grassroots action" is more conducive to our understanding of the people's views on specific events. The relationship between gender and power is a very dynamic relationship. We can use the memes about the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault to understand how online users describe this relationship.Finally, these memes provide the public with a medium to discuss together. "Memes constitute spaces of polyvocal expression in which multiple opinions and identities are negotiated" (Shifman, 2014, P.123). People can discuss the spcific events in a public place with other people through the creation and dissemination of memes, in the course of this discussion, this is also the process of negotiate.
Shifman (2014) summarizes the common features of memes content, one of which focuses on the image characteristics of Masculinity Among the memes I chose, there are many images that compare Harvey Weinstein's image to ugly monsters, highlighting the fact that he uses his rights to abuse women. "They embody a certain rebellion against hegemonic masculinity, yet at the same time reinforce traditional norms through the comic framing of their protagonists." (Shifman, 2014, p.77) These memes are used to challenge our irony of traditional patriarchal ideas.
Another important feature is humor, "The Internet users share for both social and self-presentation purposes, they prefer spreading content that makes others feel good and at the same time reflects on themselves as upbeat and entertaining" (Shifman, 2014, P.66) People express their own humorous strategies by combining the images and texts of meme. And Shifman (2014) summarizes three attributes that explain the importance of humor. The first one is Playfulness, "Like game-playing, humor is enjoyed for its own sake and involving a multilayered perception of social situations" (Shifman, 2014, p.79). Humor is based on people‘s own interests, through the form of humor. to show their attitude on social and social events. The second one is Incongruity, "incongruity theory of humor, comedy derives from an unexpected cognitive encounter between two incongruent elements, as in a pun" (Shifman, 2014, p.79). Many memes from my sample use the contrast and metaphor to express their sense of humor.
In addition, Shifman (2014) suggest that Internet-based political memes fulfill three interwoven functions:(1) Memes as forms of persuasion or political advocacy. (2) Memes as grassroots action. (3) Memes as modes of expression and public discussion. Although my research questions have little to do with politics, Shifman's (2014) political research strategy can be applied to my research. First, people use memes to persuade others. Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault has subverted people's influence on him, people use those memes to reveal his incorrect behavior, and trying to convince everyone to understand the relationship between gender and power through memes. Second, in the era of new media development, everyone can express their views by creating and disseminating memes. This "grassroots action" is more conducive to our understanding of the people's views on specific events. The relationship between gender and power is a very dynamic relationship. We can use the memes about the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault to understand how online users describe this relationship.Finally, these memes provide the public with a medium to discuss together. "Memes constitute spaces of polyvocal expression in which multiple opinions and identities are negotiated" (Shifman, 2014, P.123). People can discuss the spcific events in a public place with other people through the creation and dissemination of memes, in the course of this discussion, this is also the process of negotiate.
The first meme is from my Week7's blog. This meme explains a very obvious point that Harvey Weinstein trned a rumor, which is "have to sleep with someone to get a job in Hollywood," to become a fact. It embodies the male's inappropriate sexual relationship with women by giving women work. A long-standing and incredible rumor that has become a reality through the actions of Harvey Weinstein, and this meme produces a sense of humor through the contract method. In addition, through the connection between work and sexual assault, it expresses the weak position of women in society. Men use their higher rights to force women to have sexual relations with them. This meme shows the unequal rights of men and women in social life by showing a long-running rumor.
The second meme is from my week9's blog. This memes compares the ugly monsters in Star Wars to Harvey Weinstein, comparing the girls in the monsters to the female stars invaded by Harvey Weinstein. Through this metaphor, the author compares men to abusers and compares women to victims. The monster said that he is a very famous producer, so he can invade the girl regardless of the girl's objection and painful expression. This meme satirizes the misconduct of male powerers by smearing the male image, and uses humor to discuss the reasons why Harvey Weinstein would do this wrongdoing in public -power. This meme expresses the inequality relationship of male and female's power.
thank you for your very clear overview of each of the Shifman concepts we discussed in class. It seems your two meme examples most closely fit Shifman's discussion of traits of memetic success, though you do not explicitly state this. In your paper if you wish to apply all 3 of these categories from Shifman to your sample please state this explicitly and clarify more concretely how each aspect is shown in exemplar memes, Right now there are a lot of good observations but what specifically you are arguing or relating your observations to from shifman's categories is not clear.
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