2026-09-20T17:18:40Zhttps://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/server/oai/request

oai:null:10339/907652026-09-02T15:55:07Zcom_10339_14934col_10339_38132

Riemensperger, Kory Alex 2018-05-24T08:36:20Z 2018-05-24T08:36:20Z 2018 https://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/handle/10339/90765 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. en Wake Forest University 4chan internet memes new materialism Pepe reddit visual rhetoric PEPE’S POWER: INTERNET MEMES, CONSTITUTIVE RHETORIC, AND POLITICAL COMMUNITIES Thesis Louden, Allen Mitra, Ananda Gries, Laurie E Burg, Ron V Communication open.access