Our grounded investigation recognized five head categories of meme quiddities one to united circumstances for the exact same members of the family: Target, specific character, simple profile, action, and you may phrase. Pursuing the distinction between real artwork quiddities and you may abstract textual of them (Lewis, 2012 ; Spitzberg, 2014 ), i developed a measurement to possess quiddity concreteness. The original one or two classes-items (like Mentos for the “Diet plan Mentos”) and you can specific letters (including Bert inside “Bert are Worst”)-is very apparent and concrete. Common characters (for instance the individuals kitties within the “LOLcats”) and you may methods (including the dance motions within the “The latest Development regarding Dance”) are nevertheless apparent, however their symptom you are going to change from one for example to another. Finally, instead of visible things, phrases are the least tangible and/or extremely abstract of all the kinds. After this section, we mentioned this new percentage of instances within the for every single family members that contained enjoys out of each one of the kinds. For every single meme such in children was required to contain at the very least one type of quiddity. The brand new quiddity concreteness height is received for each and every meme family members oriented into weighted an incredible number of the 5-quiddity organizations: object and you may certain profile (1), simple reputation and you may actions (0), and you can terminology (?1).

Quiddity models

Inside the RQ1 we expected exactly what are the prevailing sort of quiddities you to definitely bind meme family along with her. The studies indicated that action is one of commonly used quiddity on test (42.2% from meme instances), followed closely by terms (38.5%). Specific profile (29%) and you can object (23%) was in fact less frequent, with universal character (15.7%) trailing about. It is vital to keep in mind that all of our findings show that the fresh chief quiddity try mostly distinct from this new simple functions looking during the the latest codebook for the majority meme parents. In reality, for the 90% of your own meme parents, the new quiddity are specific and therefore was not within the universal features. Such, from the “Superstar Battles Kid” family relations, this new act out-of attacking which have laser swords is Pet Sites adult dating actually a highly specific quiddity, meaning that cannot end up being caught by universal options that come with the codebook.

Into the RQ2 i asked and therefore templates, versions, and participation structures is common (and you may marginal) in contemporary internet memes. We found that prominent society (twenty six.5%), restaurants (19.1%) and the latest mass media (16.3%) had been the preferred subjects; nationality (2.6%), newest situations (3.2%), and you may really works and you may work (step 3.3%) was at least popular information. With regards to intercourse, men participants (59.4%) was in fact portrayed twice more frequently because females participants (27.3%). Family and you may teenagers (38.7%) searched extremely, if you find yourself elderly players had been minimum of depicted (5.6%) when it comes to age bracket. Caucasian members (forty-two.5%) was in fact many portrayed ethnic group, if you’re Hispanic or Latino professionals at least (0.2%). In the long run, when it comes to form, extremely instances was indeed pictures (56%) or clips (42.6%) unlike sheer textual memes (1%). Overall, these conclusions validate many of the findings made in new qualitative knowledge discussed above, where in fact the memetic industries are also known as reigned over by the more youthful, light males. When it comes to layouts, media-established playfulness seemingly have already been far more significant than engagement having politics. So according to descriptive statistics at the least, government is pretty marginal on the memetic industries. Yet, given that unfolded less than, network analysis will state you a far more cutting-edge story.

The fresh new cohesiveness from generic characteristics within the meme parents

Because the in depth over, one of several aims of studies were to see this new extent regarding cohesiveness regarding meme family members with regards to their common attributes (RQ3). Contour dos suggests this new circle away from memes discussing similar articles attributes. Which will make the graphic analysis crisper, i let you know here only four meme family members you to share several otherwise so much more properties. The size of this new node represents the circle degree, quite simply, how many other meme times they offers content features that have. Such as, the original meme out of “Leave Britney By yourself” is the biggest node, revealing no less than several posts attributes that have 56 (from 83) other meme hours. “Graffiti” and you can “Birmingham” is both instances of the newest “Pepper Sprinkle Policeman” meme family relations. These represent the smallest nodes regarding circle, revealing a few stuff properties having a couple of other meme times. The new thickness of link represents the number of mutual attributes. Instance, the fresh connections between instances of the brand new “Get-off Britney Alone” have become dense, and thus he’s much like each other when it comes of stuff. The initial meme and its particular times share up to nine (away from sixteen) blogs properties along.