Memes as Rhetoric
Miette the Cat, Spiders Georg, Diogenes's Chicken:
Tumblr as an Interactive Archive of Public Meme-ory
Presented at the NULC Conference, 2022
Let's talk about MEMES.
They're everywhere; they're in everything. Memes are swiftly becoming a hallmark of interpersonal communication. Their presence in contemporary correspondence has hallmarked them as a integral facet of post-human digital rhetoric. Although the cultural interplay fostered by memes is nothing new, there are a several primary characteristics that distinguish memes from previous forms of visual media:
1. Memes are highly interactive.
2. The popularity and persistence of memes relies primarily on widespread participation.
3. Given the speed at which memes circulate, they are entangled with contemporary issues of memory and amnesia in digital communication.
For half a century, digital mediation has increasingly -
and drastically - shaped communication. Like-wise, academia has evolved to examine and address the cultural and rhetorical consequences of that mediation. Today, as memes take center-stage on digital platforms, academia must develop a nuanced understanding of the rhetoric of memes and a pragmatic system for meme analysis.
Tumblr and the Rhetoric of Space
Initially, I wanted to explore the spaces in which memes are created and shared, not memes themselves. This project began as an examination of the digital sphere as a space and a consideration of how that space influences the communication within its confines. Specifically, I focused on Tumblr. Though Tumblr has seen a fall in popularity over the past few years, it remains a central forum for online interactions and an origin point for many new popular memes.
Fig. 1. The comment, repost, reblog, and like functions that are available on every Tumblr post.
Like any space, Tumblr is intrinsically rhetorical. All interactions within the Tumblr sphere will be influenced by the layout, capabilities, and aesthetics fostered by the Tumblr team. During the initial phase of my research, I recognized Tumblr's archival nature. As a microblogging platform, Tumblr acts as a container for millions of individual user-led archives; while Tumblr gives each user the capability to produce unique content, many users additionally (or exclusively) repost content from other users into their blogs. This archival function is vital to the use of memes on Tumblr and other popular social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, and (to a lesser extent) Reddit. My argument shifted to consider the relationship between archival work and memes on a broader scale. Ultimately, I outlined the three unique characteristics outlined above, namely (1) interactivity, (2) popular participation, and (3) amnesiac implications.
Miette the Cat, Spiders Georg, and Diogenes's Chicken
After outlining these characteristics, I considered the best memes to illustrate them. Miette the cat is a meme that started on Twitter. Miette is helpful for establishing the basic functions of a meme and revealing the significance of user interactivity in meme creation. Spiders Georg, a meme that began on Tumblr in 2014, illustrates the necessity of public participation in the persistence of memes and meme formats. Lastly, Diogenes's Chicken is uniquely suited to highlight the way that memes shape our cultural consciousness. Referring to the Greek philosopher Diogenes and his famous reply to the ancient discourse on humanity, the Diogenes's Chicken meme recalibrates an ancient piece of Western canon in contemporary format. This cultural significance, particularly in tandem with the archival function of memes, brings to light questions of public memory and amnesia in digital rhetoric.
(Left) Fig. 2. The original Miette tweet from Patricia Lockwood. (Right) Fig. 3. A Miette-formatted Tumblr post from user naps4bats.
Although my analysis was limited primarily to these three meme formats, the fundamental system that I used for analyzing these memes as rhetoric can be sustained for future analysis.
Literary/Rhetorical Framework
Alongside research from experts in archival and digital rhetoric, there are two primary theorists that I utilized in this project:
Jacques Derrida and his foundational work Archive Fever were integral to my interpretation of memes as archival. Derrida understands archives as historical outlets that write a cultural narrative. Archive Fever lends innate rhetorical significance to archival work as a whole.
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Marshall McLuhan, a theorist famous for his work in new media studies, wrote two works that informed my research. In The Medium is the Message, McLuhan describes the significance of medium in shaping communication. Understanding Media fronts technology as extensions of humanity. Both of these works shaped my understanding of new media and allowed me to consider how memes fit into the broader picture of digital communication.
A full bibliography is available in the developed draft of my project, attached below.
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