Understanding Memes: Digital Culture & Visual Methodology
Explore memes as dynamic cultural artefacts. Learn about cultural production, Rose's visual methodology, and how memes create meaning in digital spaces.
MEMES
AS DIGITAL CULTURE
Cultural Production, Meaning-Making & Digital Participation
Exploring memes through intertextuality, circulation & visual methodology.
Digital Culture Studies
INTRODUCTION
What Are Memes?
🔁
Small units of culture that spread through imitation, remixing & adaptation
👥
Groups of digital items sharing common content, form & stance — circulated and transformed by users (Shifman, 2013)
🎭
Audiences are not just consumers — they are active producers who recreate and modify content
Shifman, 2013
THEORY
Memes as Cultural Production
Cultural production = the creation of cultural artefacts that reflect consumer interests and mark the moment in which we live.
— Hutchinson, 2023
Just as historical artefacts tell us how people lived in the past...
...memes act as DIGITAL ARTEFACTS capturing everyday life today
They reflect social experiences, humour, political & cultural ideas
Hutchinson, 2023
KEY CONCEPTS
How Memes Function
Intertextuality
Memes combine multiple references — a movie scene + a relatable situation. This blending of texts makes them feel clever & recognisable.
Cultural Reproduction
Memes are constantly remixed, reappropriated & adapted. Users transform content to suit their own context rather than simply copying it.
Spreadability
Memes are simple, relatable & emotionally engaging — allowing them to circulate rapidly across digital platforms.
CASE STUDY
The Studying Meme
THE MEME
📄 CONTENT
Procrastination & distraction — a shared experience among students. Notification leads to hours of scrolling.
🖼️ FORM
Simple image + text combination. Low production quality — intentionally unpolished.
😏 STANCE
Humorous and self-aware. Relatable tone creates emotional connection.
Analysis framework: Shifman, 2013
METHODOLOGY
Rose's Critical Visual Methodology
Four key sites for analysing memes (Rose, 2016/2019)
THE MEME
PRODUCTION
Who made it & why?
IMAGE
How is meaning created visually?
CIRCULATION
How does it spread?
AUDIENCING
How is it interpreted?
Rose, 2016 / Rose, 2019
ROSE'S FRAMEWORK — SITE 01
PRODUCTION
Who created the meme — and why?
Most memes are created by EVERYDAY USERS, not professionals → reflects participatory culture
Produced quickly using accessible digital tools — no specialist skills required
Goal: to be RELATABLE & SHAREABLE, not polished or high quality
Digital media lowers the barrier to content creation
Rose, 2016
ROSE'S FRAMEWORK — SITE 02
IMAGE
How the meme <span style="color: #ccff00; font-weight: bold;">LOOKS</span> & how meaning is created visually
🎨
Memes follow <strong style="color: #fff;">RECOGNISABLE FORMATS</strong> combining text and images
🗑️
The <strong style="color: #fff;">'UGLY AESTHETIC'</strong> — visuals appear low-quality or unpolished intentionally <span style="color:#a3a3b5; font-size:20px; margin-left: 5px;">(Douglas, 2014)</span>
⚡
Rejects professional media standards <strong style="color:#ff0055; margin: 0 5px;">→</strong> feels <strong style="color: #fff;">MORE</strong> authentic & relatable
SIGNIFIER
(same visual form)
SIGNIFIED
(meaning changes)
The same meme <strong style="color:#ccff00; font-size: 22px;">TEMPLATE</strong> = same signifier <span style="margin:0 15px; color:rgba(255,255,255,0.3);">|</span> different <strong style="color:#00ffcc; font-size: 22px;">CAPTIONS</strong> = new meanings
Douglas, 2014 | Rose, 2016
ROSE'S FRAMEWORK — SITE 03
Circulation
How memes SPREAD across digital platforms
One meme → infinite variations
Douglas, 2014 | Rose, 2016
ROSE'S FRAMEWORK — SITE 04
Audiencing
How different AUDIENCES interpret memes
Understanding memes requires CULTURAL CAPITAL — knowledge of cultural references & shared experiences
The studying meme is most relatable to STUDENTS → creates in-group identity
Memes are NOT universally understood — meaning depends on the viewer's background & position
Same meme, different readings — context is everything
Rose, 2016 | Nissenbaum & Shifman, 2017
CONCLUSION
Memes: More Than Just Jokes
Memes are
DYNAMIC CULTURAL ARTEFACTS
reflecting and shaping social, cultural & political contexts
They rely on
PARTICIPATION, REMIXING & SHARED KNOWLEDGE
Best analysed through
production, image, circulation & audiencing
Memes act as cultural markers of our time — offering insight into how people communicate, relate & make meaning in digital environments.
REFERENCES
References
Douglas, N.
(2014). It's supposed to look like shit: The internet ugly aesthetic. Journal of Visual Culture, 13(3), 314–339.
Hutchinson, J.
(2023). Digital intermediation: Unseen infrastructures for cultural production. Routledge.
Nissenbaum, A., & Shifman, L.
(2017). Internet memes as contested cultural capital: The case of 4chan's /b/ board. New Media & Society, 19(4), 483–501.
Rose, G.
(2016). Visual methodologies: An introduction to researching with visual materials (4th ed.). Sage.
Rose, G.
(2019). Visual methodologies: An introduction to researching with visual materials (5th ed.). Sage.
Shifman, L.
(2013). Memes in digital culture. MIT Press.
- memes
- digital-culture
- visual-methodology
- media-studies
- cultural-production
- internet-trends
- social-media-analysis