Book Review: Memes in Digital Culture by Limor Schifman

This art icle was downloaded by: [ Lisa Silvest ri] On: 07 August 2014, At : 06: 49 Publisher: Rout ledge I nform a Lt d Regist ered in England and Wales Regist ered Num ber: 1072954 Regist ered office: Mort im er House, 37- 41 Mort im er St reet , London W1T 3JH, UK Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture Publicat ion det ails, including inst ruct ions f or aut hors and subscript ion inf ormat ion: ht t p: / / www. t andf online. com/ loi/ hppc20 Memes in Digital Culture, by Limor Schifman Lisa Silvest ri a a Gonzaga Universit y Published online: 06 Aug 2014. To cite this article: Lisa Silvest ri (2014) Memes in Digit al Cult ure, by Limor Schif man, Popular Communicat ion: The Int ernat ional Journal of Media and Cult ure, 12: 3, 198-200, DOI: 10. 1080/ 15405702. 2014. 929378 To link to this article: ht t p: / / dx. doi. org/ 10. 1080/ 15405702. 2014. 929378 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTI CLE Taylor & Francis m akes every effort t o ensure t he accuracy of all t he inform at ion ( t he “ Cont ent ” ) cont ained in t he publicat ions on our plat form . However, Taylor & Francis, our agent s, and our licensors m ake no represent at ions or warrant ies what soever as t o t he accuracy, com plet eness, or suit abilit y for any purpose of t he Cont ent . Any opinions and views expressed in t his publicat ion are t he opinions and views of t he aut hors, and are not t he views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of t he Cont ent should not be relied upon and should be independent ly verified wit h prim ary sources of inform at ion. 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Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0-262-52543, 200 pages, $13.95 (paperback). Lisa Silvestri Gonzaga University The participatory power of memes is that anyone can do it on the web. “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you” (Aitken, Stock, & Waterman, 1987). Dear reader, you may now consider yourself “RickRolled.” The cultural practice of “rickrolling” first became popular in 2007 and involves a bait-and-switch tactic whereby the baited person finds herself inadvertently exposed to the audio, video, or lyrics of Rick Astley’s 1987 hit single “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The “RickRoll” is an example of memetic communication, the subject of Limor Schifman’s Memes in Digital Culture. Simply put, memetic communication is the creative use of digital content to spread ideas, establish community, and participate in culture. Memes are cultural composites—ideas, symbols, and practices—that spread in multiple forms through imitation and appropriation. Biologist Richard Dawkins (1976) first applied the concept of a meme to evolutionary theory in the 1970s to explain how cultural information (i.e., norms, attitudes, values, and beliefs) spreads from person to person. Thirty years later, now digitized and Internet-enabled, memes remain a useful way to examine how culture circulates in the Web 2.0 era. A critical difference distinguishing Dawkins’s analog memes from those of the contemporary period is the accelerated rate of meme proliferation today. The Internet, with its immediate and infinite connectivity, enables memes to evolve faster and spread farther than ever before. Essentially, every new social network is another incubator of memes (Gleick, 2011). Yet the fleeting cultural life of a meme should not disqualify it from serious study. On the contrary, as Schifman cogently argues in Memes in Digital Culture, tracing the evolution of internet memes grants us access to “deep social and cultural structures” (p. 15). In many ways, the contemporary meme is a symptom of digital culture’s new attention economy. Internet memes involving Chuck Norris, double rainbows, or the Harlem Shake momentarily capture our interest before disappearing into digital oblivion. Overall Schifman’s book is an excellent foray into meme culture. In fact, the book often reads as if it were a meme itself. Its breadth, brevity, and evocative argument call on readers to participate in the conversation. Schifman’s introductory chapter establishes the prevalence of digital memes in our cultural repertoire by opening with a reference to “Gangnam Style,” a viral video turned Internet meme, Downloaded by [Lisa Silvestri] at 06:49 07 August 2014 BOOK REVIEW 199 that swept the globe in 2012. Gangnam Style acquaints readers with Schifman’s primary domain of interest, “digital culture,” or what she describes as a relatively new “arena of bottom-up expression” that blends “pop culture, politics, and participation in unexpected ways” (p. 4). For Schifman, the Internet meme is the most useful concept to understand current cultural trends because it epitomizes the essence of Web 2.0 interactivity. Channeling the work of her colleague, Nicholas John (2012), Schifman asserts that, “sharing content—or spreading memes—is now a fundamental part of what participants experience as the digital sphere” (p. 19). Perhaps the most significant takeaway from Schifman’s treatise on memes, however, is that they can serve as a Trojan horse for political communication and can potentially even the playing field for political actors. Commonly derived from widely accessible pop culture discourses (hit songs and dance crazes, funny or compelling photographs) memes offer a space for people to “simultaneously express both their uniqueness and their connectivity” (p. 30). Chapters two through five present a history of the meme as a useful concept to study human cultural trends. Schifman convincingly argues that “internet memes can be treated as (post)modern folklore, in which shared norms and values are constructed through cultural artifacts such as Photo-shopped images or urban legends” (p. 15). Using a framework that imagines the new in relation to the old allows Schifman to make the case for memes’ continued relevance in modern society. Taken together, the first four chapters following the introduction explain why and how Web 2.0 memes are compatible with the various logics undergirding contemporary digital culture. Chapter five’s overview of the difference between a viral video and a meme video is particularly illuminating and conceptually grounding. It may benefit readers to turn to this chapter earlier in their exploration of the book if they are new to the meme concept. Spreading memes is different from sharing content, an important distinction that could help readers better understand chapters one through four. Chapter six, “Unpacking Viral and Memetic Success,” examines the features mostly likely to “enhance the propagation of—and engagement with—internet memes” (p. 64). Schifman’s definition of success hinges on audience participation. In other words, a successful meme is not only worthy of spreading (like a virus), but it also inspires creative engagement (and adaptation) from audience members. The chapter goes on to outline six common qualities shared by previously successful memes. Although she identifies these qualities post-hoc, Schifman implies that they offer a recipe for success. By and large, according to Schifman, successful Internet memes are humorous, simple, and repetitive and tend to feature ordinary people, flawed masculinity, and whimsical content. Chapter seven describes popular meme genres such as Photo-shopped images, photo fads (i.e., planking, selfies, and photo bombing), flash mobs, lipdubs, and LOLCats. Chapter eight and nine look at memes as a form of political participation and as a way to connect people across the globe. In line with Henry Jenkins (2006) and other participatory culture scholars, Schifman argues that, with the help of new media, “the perception of what constitutes political participation has been broadened to include mundane practices, such as commenting on political blogs and posting jokes about politicians” (p. 120). In this vein, Internet memes represent yet another way for ordinary citizens to claim public space by riding the coattails of popular culture. The last chapter of the book outlines possibilities for future meme research. Memes in Digital Culture makes a three-fold contribution to scholars interested in new media, digital life worlds, and political communication more broadly. First, Schifman offers a method for compiling and analyzing memes that can be applied to other digital texts such as YouTube videos, Instagram photos, Facebook posts, or Twitter tweets (p. 45). Second, she distills three Downloaded by [Lisa Silvestri] at 06:49 07 August 2014 200 BOOK REVIEW forms of logic informing our digital lives: an economic logic (attention economy), a social logic (participation in community), and a cultural and aesthetic logic (modes of cultural production) (p. 34). Third, Schifman sews the seeds for a potentially compelling dialogue about digital literacy. For instance she references expectations for the “‘digitally literate’ netizen” (p. 23), but she does not explicitly delineate what those expectations are. Her examples of memetic success suggest that digital literacy requires an investment in personal branding and an awareness of the overall meme-scape. As Schifman writes, “uploaders become both the meme’s medium and its message: their faces and/or bodies are integral parts of it. Thus, such memes are emblems of a culture saturated with personal branding and strategic self-commodification” (p. 30). The close connection between meme proliferation and digital personhood suggests that people are not participating in memes willy-nilly. Rather, they are fairly proactive in their decisions over which content to share and engage with. A successful meme indicates sophisticated digital literacy. One of the downsides of introducing a broad readership to a rich and dynamic research topic is that, from a communication studies perspective, some of the arguments were undertheorized. Published as part of MIT Press’s “Essential Knowledge” series, Memes in Digital Culture is a beautifully produced pocked-sized book. In just 200 pages, Schifman manages to include ten substantive chapters, a helpful glossary of terms, and a list of additional recommended reading. Aside from a few instances of drive-by theory (e.g., the application of James Carey’s ritual view of communication, Jean Burgess’s “vernacular creativity,” and frame theory’s notion of “keying”), there were several points where the fuller implications of memetic communication in digital culture felt underdeveloped. The stunted conversation on digital literacy is one such example. Or, in another case, when Schifman raises audience concerns over “sincerity” and whether or not Chris Crocker’s plea to “Leave Britney Alone” was, in fact, “genuine” (p. 44). She stops at the level of referencing these issues and misses a productive opportunity to discuss what these anxieties say about our evolving standards of authenticity. Much like the memes she studies, however, these kernels of thought capture our attention and provoke creative engagement. Overall Memes in Digital Culture offers a convincing argument, bolstered by many illuminating examples, to take memes seriously. Thinkers interested in popular culture, new media, digital culture, and political communication will find this book both informative and accessible. REFERENCES Aitken, M., Stock, M., & Waterman, P. (1987). Never gonna give you up [Recorded by Rick Astley]. On Whenever you need somebody. New York, NY: RCA Records. Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Gleick, J. (2011, May). What defines a meme? Smithsonian. Retrieved from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/artsculture/What-Defines-a-Meme.html?c=y&story=fullstory John, N. (2012). Sharing and Web 2.0: The emergence of a keyword. New Media Society, 15, 167–183.