Critical Memetic Analysis to Grow Youth Understanding and Meaning Making
Location
Literacy Education (Session 4 Breakouts)
Proposal Track
Research Project
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
For this study, we wondered what benefit studying memes would have on traditional markers of literacy. Memes are compact units of cultural transmission, a multimodal design that imitates society and culture (Dawkins, 2006; New London Group, 1996). Memes’ intertextual layers of images, words, and design reflects popular culture and society, thus reading a meme is a complex meaning making process that demands language, literacy skills, and connections to global issues and themes (Duff & Zappa-Hollman, 2013). Further, memes are composed by creators who leverage design to “package a message for a target culture” (Beskow, Kumar, & Carley, 2020, p. 2) which, when examined, can raise sociopolitical consciousness (Brikich & Barko, 2013). This presentation reports the findings from a mixed methods multiple case study of a virtual critical memetic analysis intervention used with adolescents to support comprehension and meaning making. The interventions focused on the, “ability to engage with and question all parts of the meme (re)production and consumption cycle” (Harvey & Palese, 2018). Findings include the elements of the intervention that supported students’ meaning making from memes and how meme composition is an act of resistance for youth during a time of social isolation and racial unrest (Arlington, 2018).
Keywords
Key Words: adolescent literacy, multimodalities, memes, multiliteracies
Professional Bio
Paul Siegel is a doctoral student at the Tift College of Education, Mercer University. His research has focused on mutlimodality, multiliteracies and memetics in the context of Literacy education.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Siegel, Paul A. and Panther, Leah M., "Critical Memetic Analysis to Grow Youth Understanding and Meaning Making" (2020). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 54.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2020/2020/54
Critical Memetic Analysis to Grow Youth Understanding and Meaning Making
Literacy Education (Session 4 Breakouts)
For this study, we wondered what benefit studying memes would have on traditional markers of literacy. Memes are compact units of cultural transmission, a multimodal design that imitates society and culture (Dawkins, 2006; New London Group, 1996). Memes’ intertextual layers of images, words, and design reflects popular culture and society, thus reading a meme is a complex meaning making process that demands language, literacy skills, and connections to global issues and themes (Duff & Zappa-Hollman, 2013). Further, memes are composed by creators who leverage design to “package a message for a target culture” (Beskow, Kumar, & Carley, 2020, p. 2) which, when examined, can raise sociopolitical consciousness (Brikich & Barko, 2013). This presentation reports the findings from a mixed methods multiple case study of a virtual critical memetic analysis intervention used with adolescents to support comprehension and meaning making. The interventions focused on the, “ability to engage with and question all parts of the meme (re)production and consumption cycle” (Harvey & Palese, 2018). Findings include the elements of the intervention that supported students’ meaning making from memes and how meme composition is an act of resistance for youth during a time of social isolation and racial unrest (Arlington, 2018).
