What is a meme, technically speaking?

Abstract

This contribution seeks to demonstrate how studying memes as a collection depends on the website or platform where they are sourced. To do so, we compare how memes, specifically internet memes, are conceived in the well–known meme repository (Know Your Meme) with those from a meme host and generator (Imgur), an imageboard (4chan), a short-form video hosting site (TikTok) as well as a marketing data dashboard (CrowdTangle). Building on insights from software studies and our observational analysis, we demonstrate how each site constructs and arranges meme collections in a distinctive manner, thus affecting the conceptualisation of memes by each of these sites. In all, the piece develops the concept of the meme as a technical collection of content, discussing how each collection’s distinctiveness has implications for meme research.