Ethnocultural and Conflictological Aspects of the Perception of Internet Memes: Results of an Eye-Tracking Experiment

Abstract

Background. The development of media communication technologies leads to the new ways of information exchange. Content takes compact forms which requires to transform cognitive sphere in order to better operate with the emerging forms of information. Memosphere seems to be one of the directions in the development of modern media content, in which ethnocultural, social, value and cognitive features of perception unfold. Objective. The study is aimed at identifying the characteristics of perception and cognitive processing of the meme as the most relevant media form. Ethnocultural aspect of processing and identification of a meme is revealed, as well as the peculiarities of the perception of memes under the condition of a conflict between the ethnocultural identity of the respondent and the memosphere in which a specific meme originated. Methods. The experimental study included two series in which cultural specifics of cognitive activity in respondents when perceiving memes belonging to the Russian and Chinese memospheres were analyzed. Registration of oculomotor activity was carried out with an SMI RED 250 Hz tracker, hardware and software “SMI Gaze & Eye-tracking System” were applied. The experimental task involved visual analysis of polycode text (image), followed by an assessment of the origin of the meme (Russian or Chinese media sphere), as well as by marking the most subjectively significant image elements. Respondents' self-reports on the key features in meme identification were subjected to content analysis. IBM SPSS Statistics 26 was used in statistical analysis of the data obtained. Study Participants. 39 respondents took part in the experimental study: undergraduates at the Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, average age 24.7 years (SD = 4.1), including 21 citizens of the Russian Federation and 18 citizens of the People's Republic of China. Results. Respondents from the two groups successfully completed the task of meme identification in 64% of cases. The text in Russian was designated as the most informative element of the meme in both groups. Data on eye movements revealed a general tendency towards focal perception of the stimulus among respondents from Russia and towards sliding viewing among students from China. The origin of the stimulus shows weaker effect on the characteristics of oculomotor activity. For Russian memes, successful identification is associated with a shorter scanning path, and for Chinese memes, on the contrary, with a longer scanning path, which suggests the existence of an optimal visual scanning method for the culture-specific graphic structure of a meme. Conclusions. The results showed that ethnocultural features are manifested both at the level of constructing memes and at the level of their perception and cognitive processing by respondents. The conflict of perception manifests itself in the impossibility to interpret ethnocultural references, which leads to a misunderstanding of the meaning and is reflected in the parameters of the respondents’ oculomotor activity.

Keywords

• cognitive processing
• eye movements
• meme perception
• memosphere
• ethnoculture
• media image