Wiggins, Bradley: The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture: Ideology, Semiotics, and Intertextuality

Abstract

Shared, posted, tweeted, commented upon, and discussed online as well as offline, internet memes represent a new genre of online communication , and an understanding of their production, dissemination, and implications in the real world enables an improved ability to navigate digital culture. This book explores cases of cultural, economic, and political critique levied by the purposeful production and consumption of internet memes. Often images, animated GIFs, or videos are remixed in such a way to incorporate intertextual references, quite frequently to popular culture, alongside a joke or critique of some aspect of the human experience. Ideology, semiotics, and intertextuality coalesce in the book's argument that internet memes represent a new form of meaning-making, and the rapidity by which they are produced and spread underscores their importance. Bradley E. Wiggins is an Associate Professor and head of the media communications department at Webster Vienna Private University. His investigations of digital culture and discourse involve research on internet memes, social media, and fake news. Additional research includes game and simulation-based learning, intercultural and strategic communication.