28th September 2021
Fall Semester
POLI 3546 Social Media and Politics
Professor Scott Pruysers
Week Four
Week 4: Memes and User Generated Content (UGC)
IMPORTANT = No class on Thursday because of Truth and Reconciliation Public holiday
Goals for today's class
● Examine user generated content (UCG)/user-generated media (UGM)
● Explore memes
- Why do we create them ?
- Why do we engage with them?
- What do memes mean ?
Memes
● Memes have their roots in evolutionary biology
● The term was first coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The selfish
Gene(1976)
- Here he defined memes as small cultural units of transmission, analogues to
games, which are spread from person to person by copying or imitation.
- Memes are therefore viral and can evolve through natural selection; they do so
by Variation, Mutation, Adaptation and competition.
- It's the survival of the fittest only the most popular ones survive
● Writing about the longevity of memes Dawkins noted that they can outlive their creator
● Meme Complex or memplex: a series of interconnected memes reproduce together
and contribute to each other's survival. E.g Christmas
● Memes like virus want to reproduce in order to extend their longevity their protest songs
- Like viruses memes need a host (Humans) to reproduce
- Unlike viruses, humans have agency in the transmission of memes
Meme pool: similar to the gene pool - the sum total of all memes (units of culture) that can be
transmitted
➢ Memetrics - How cultural information evolve and are distributed
➢ We can define internet memes as “a piece of digital content that spreads quickly
around the web in various iterations and becomes a shared cultural experience.”
- Memes can take a number of different forms- images, gifts, short videos, etc
- First ever internet memes
Fall Semester
POLI 3546 Social Media and Politics
Professor Scott Pruysers
Week Four
Week 4: Memes and User Generated Content (UGC)
IMPORTANT = No class on Thursday because of Truth and Reconciliation Public holiday
Goals for today's class
● Examine user generated content (UCG)/user-generated media (UGM)
● Explore memes
- Why do we create them ?
- Why do we engage with them?
- What do memes mean ?
Memes
● Memes have their roots in evolutionary biology
● The term was first coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The selfish
Gene(1976)
- Here he defined memes as small cultural units of transmission, analogues to
games, which are spread from person to person by copying or imitation.
- Memes are therefore viral and can evolve through natural selection; they do so
by Variation, Mutation, Adaptation and competition.
- It's the survival of the fittest only the most popular ones survive
● Writing about the longevity of memes Dawkins noted that they can outlive their creator
● Meme Complex or memplex: a series of interconnected memes reproduce together
and contribute to each other's survival. E.g Christmas
● Memes like virus want to reproduce in order to extend their longevity their protest songs
- Like viruses memes need a host (Humans) to reproduce
- Unlike viruses, humans have agency in the transmission of memes
Meme pool: similar to the gene pool - the sum total of all memes (units of culture) that can be
transmitted
➢ Memetrics - How cultural information evolve and are distributed
➢ We can define internet memes as “a piece of digital content that spreads quickly
around the web in various iterations and becomes a shared cultural experience.”
- Memes can take a number of different forms- images, gifts, short videos, etc
- First ever internet memes
