Additionally, the semiotic perspective on memes as signs and sign processes will help in

understanding the internet meme, perhaps more than the more traditional definition. If memes are
viewed as signs of some type – Lissack argues as catalytic indexicals, but perhaps this is too limited
a perspective – and not just replicators, it will account for the instances of deliberate deviation from
faithful copying which, as will be seen in the next chapter, is an essential component to many internet
memes.

Part 2: Internet Memes as Heritage

Chapter 2: The Internet Meme

In this chapter, I explain and define the internet meme, and provide the history of some
examples of various forms of internet memes.

Section 1: The Concept of Internet Meme and Internet Meme Definitions

The concept of internet meme evolved over time to mean something different from I call the
“classic” understanding of memes, although still related to it. The first reference of memes in the
context of internet usage was by Mike Godwin in a 1994 article for Wired, and he used it in the classic
sense of the term to describe his social experiment in memetics that he started in 1990. Godwin had
noticed that, by 1990, online discussion groups such as Usenet, the Well, misc.legal, “and on every
BBS [bulletin board system] that I frequented”, posters frequently accused the ideas expressed by
other poster’s as Hitler-like or Nazi-like.95 Godwin considered this an example of memetics in action,
and because he found most such accusations illogical and offensive, he attempted to create a counter-
meme: “Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies: As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a
comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”96 He planted this “law” in every newgroup or
topic in which he encountered what he considered a gratuitous Nazi reference. He then noticed that
his “law” became a meme of its own – other users started to cite it, and corollaries were developed
(for example, “Sircar's Corollary: If the Usenet discussion touches on homosexuality or Heinlein,
Nazis or Hitler are mentioned within three days.”)97
Over time, the concept of internet meme a took on a slightly different and much narrower
concept of meme. Oxford English Dictionaries defines this meaning as “an image, video, piece of
text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with

95
Mike Godwin, “Meme, Counter-Meme,” Wired, October 1, 1994, https://www.wired.com/1994/10/godwin-if-2/.
96
Godwin.
97
Godwin.
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slight variations.”98 Richard Dawkins points out that this version of the meme concept differs in that
it no longer always faithfully attempts to copy – deliberate alteration is often introduced.99 However,
he also asserts that “the meaning is not that far away from the original. It's anything that goes viral…
when anybody talks about something going viral on the internet, that is exactly what a meme is and
it looks as though the word has been appropriated for a subset of that.”100 The communications scholar
Bradley E. Wiggins and English scholar G. Bret Bowers concur with Dawkins that the internet meme
is a distinct entity from the meme as proposed by Dawkins. Rather than simple replicators, internet
memes function more as genres of internet discourse.101
Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear, specialists in new literacies and new media, categorize
internet memes into two sub-groups: High fidelity static memes, which are memes replicated with
very little variation; and remixed memes, which are memes replicated by evolution, adaptation, or a
transformation of the original meme vehicle.102 For purposes of clarity, within this thesis I use the
term “internet meme” to refer to the second OED definition of meme – digital content, often in the
form of images, video, or short texts, copied and spread on the internet, often with intentional
alteration or variation. At times, I may distinguish between “true” memes – content simply copied
and shared, what Knobel and Lankshear call “high fidelity static memes” – and “alteration” memes
– content which is deliberately altered before sharing, what Knobel and Lankshear call “remixed
memes.”
My above definition of internet meme parallels with that given by Castaño Díaz and Carlos
Mauricio in “Defining and Characterizing the Concept of Internet Meme.” They define the internet
meme as “a unit of information (idea, concept or belief), which replicates by passing on via Internet
(e-mail, chat, forum, social networks, etc.) in the shape of a hyper-link, video, image, or phrase. It
can be passed on as an exact copy or can change and evolve.”103 The mutation to such memes may
be in meaning or structure, and can occur via chance, addition, or parity, and the form of the mutation
is not relevant. By “form” the authors refer to the “background,” characters, or scenery. It may vary
but preserves the meaning and structure of the original meme. The meme might be interactive, such
as a game, and might be related with creatively. The authors also identify criteria for the origin,

98
“Meme | Definition of Meme in English by Oxford Dictionaries,” Oxford Dictionaries | English. Accessed, March 19,
2019, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/meme.
99
Saatchi & Saatchi, Just for Hits - Richard Dawkins (Canne: Saatchi & Saatchi, 2013),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFn-ixX9edg; Solon, “Richard Dawkins on the Internet’s Hijacking of the Word
‘Meme.’”
100
Solon, “Richard Dawkins on the Internet’s Hijacking of the Word ‘Meme.’”
101
Wiggins and Bowers, “Memes as Genre,” 1888–90.
102
Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear, “Memes and Affinities: Cultural Replication and Literacy Education” (Annual
Meeting of the National Reading Conference, Miami, 2005), 13.
103
Castaño Díaz and Carlos Mauricio, “Defining and Characterizing the Concept of Internet Meme,” CES Psicología 6,
no. 2 (December 2013): 97.
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transmission, and spread of internet memes. In addition to originating through internet interaction,
the meme might be manufactured – for instance, as a marketing campaign – or emerge from an offline
event. The meme requires a carrier and social context, and spreads horizontally like a virus at a fast
and accelerating speed. Its mobility, storage, and reach are web-based, and its “goal” – here the
authors take a teleological approach and view the meme as an intentional entity – is to become popular
enough to be replicate within a group.104
Patrick Davison, a visual communications professor, provides a similar, but more specific
definition: “An Internet meme is a piece of culture, typically a joke, which gains influence through
online transmission.”105 Davison acknowledges that not all internet memes are jokes, but argues that
they spread rapidly in a manner analogous to offline jokes. Even so, I think that this definition is far
too limiting, as it over-emphasizes humor and fails to mention the probability of alteration. Davison
identifies three essential components to a meme: 1) the manifestation, the set of objects created by
the meme and its virtual archaeological record. 2) the behavior of a meme, the actions taken by a
person to service the meme and which produces the manifestations. 3) the ideal, the concept behind
the meme, which dictates the behavior which is then manifested. So long as at least one of these
components is perpetuated, says Davison, the meme lives on, even if adapted and mutated.106
Limor Shifman, a communications scholar, defines internet memes “as units of popular
culture that are circulated, imitated, and transformed by individual Internet users, creating a shared
cultural experience in the process.”107 Rather than looking at internet memes as “single ideas or
formulas that propagated well,” she proposes that they are “groups of content items that were created
with awareness of each other and share common characteristics.”108 Shifman isolates three
dimensions cultural items which can be imitated: content, form, and stance. “Content” refers to “a
specific text, referencing to both the ideas and the ideologies conveyed by it.” The physical
incarnation of the message is the “form,” which is perceived through senses. This includes visual and
audible dimensions specific to particular texts, “as well as more complex genre-related patterns
organizing them (such as lip-synch or animation).” A third dimension, “stance,” is the “information
memes convey about their own communication.”109

104
Díaz and Mauricio, 97–98.
105
Patrick Davison, “The Language of Internet Memes,” in The Social Media Reader, ed. Michael Mandiberg (New
York: New York University Press, 2012), 122, http://spring2016.veryinteractive.net/content/6-library/7-language-of-
internet-memes/language-of-internet-memes_michaelmandiberg.pdf.
106
Davison, 123.
107
Limor Shifman, “Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a Conceptual Troublemaker,” Journal of Computer-
Mediated Communication 18, no. 3 (April 1, 2013): 367, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12013.
108
Shifman, 367.
109
Shifman, 367.
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 Notably absent from these definitions is an acknowledgement that internet memes do not
always remain confined to the virtual world. As mentioned in my thesis introduction, Erik Borglund
at the 2012 UNESCO Vancouver conference on digital heritage stressed that the dichotomy between
the digital and non-digital is not so clear, as often the digital and non-digital interact as digital/non-
digital heritage hybrids.110 Wiggins and Bower likewise note that “we may see memes, as we have
come to know them, appear in magazines, video games, children’s books, and films […]where we
enact memes or why it is done is susceptible to transformation.”111 The internet meme is a digitally-
entangled artifact rather than purely digital. It transcends virtual space into actual. If the term “virtual”
refers to the space where computers and networks store and share information and through which
users interact via electronics, the antonym “actual” can thus refer to the non-computer space.112 Both
worlds involve physical medium – the virtual world is supported by physical structures of computers,
cables, wiring, and other physical objects, with data etched into physical computer chips, disks, and
drives – and so “virtual” and “actual” more accurately describe the two inter-related worlds better
than “virtual” and “physical.”
I can exemplify how internet memes transcend the virtual with an illustration drawn from my
own personal experience, an experience which help inspire me to pursue this thesis topic in the first
place. One day in 2017 during my studies at Brandenburg University of Technology (alas, I do not
recollect the particular date at all), I was walking through the Altstadt of Cottbus and I observed a
Grumpy Cat sticker on a lamppost (see Grumpy Cat in Section 2 of this chapter). I noticed that this
internet meme transcended beyond the virtual – here was an actual, material manifestation of an
internet meme. Preservation of the Grumpy Cat internet meme would necessitate not merely
preservation of the digital, but preservation of material artifact such as this sticker I saw in Cottbus.
Based on this ability of internet memes to transcend the virtual, I would modify the OED definition
of internet meme to “an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied
and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations, both on the Internet and, often, in
offline media and social interaction.”
Having explored the concept and definition of internet meme vs. “classic” meme, and before
I provide an overview of some notable examples of internet memes, I will provide a glossary of

110
Borglund, “Challenges to Capture the Hybrid Heritage: When Activities Take Place in Both Digital and Non-Digital
Environments.”
111
Wiggins and Bowers, “Memes as Genre,” 1895–96.
112
For more discussion on the definitions of the virtual the real, and the conceptualization of the virtual as an interactive
space, see Rob Shields, The Virtual (London; New York: Psychology Press, 2003) and Edward J. Malecki, “Real
People, Virtual Places, and the Spaces in Between,” Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Digital Support Tools for
Smart Cities, 58 (June 1, 2017): 3–12, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seps.2016.10.008.
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