Item Details

abstract

Internet memes cannot be manufactured by any one individual. These artifacts are best defined as bodies of work that manufacture and distribute meaning online. Internet memes persuade politically-motivated individuals to join and stay together using common memetic logics. Using Limor Shifman’s definition of an internet meme, Ryan Milner’s framework of memetic logics, and Laurie Gries’ new materialist research strategies, this thesis will examine the memetic definition and rhetorical transformations of Pepe the Frog – an internet meme that has undergone radical symbolic growth since its inception in the late 2000s. These transformations successfully constituted ideologies in several digital political communities. In turn, these digital places generated images that were circulated by political actors in social networks, producing unpredictable rhetorical associations as they spread.

subject

4chan

internet memes

new materialism

Pepe

reddit

visual rhetoric

contributor

Riemensperger, Kory Alex (author)

Louden, Allen (committee chair)

Mitra, Ananda (committee member)

Gries, Laurie E (committee member)

Burg, Ron V (committee member)

date

2018-05-24T08:36:20Z (accessioned)

2018-05-24T08:36:20Z (available)

2018 (issued)

degree

Communication (discipline)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/90765 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

title

PEPE’S POWER: INTERNET MEMES, CONSTITUTIVE RHETORIC, AND POLITICAL COMMUNITIES

type

Thesis