Memes in medical education

Abstract

Memes are highly malleable forms of visual media that provide insight into the dominant discourses within a community. This essay presents the top meme posts on /r/medicalschool, a thread on Reddit, an anonymous news-aggregating site, which are the most discussed posts by users, who are predominantly medical students. Within this digital space, users attempt to make meaning of the process of professionalization and what their new roles have in store for them. Studying those memes’ accompanying comments, we find that the majority of posts center on perceptions of diminishing professional authority. These perceptions likely stem from an ontological insecurity due to significant financial burdens, debt, and risk involved in going to medical school.

Keywords

• medical school
• professionalization
• reddit
• memes
• netnography