Internet memes

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting some reflections upon adopting Internet memes as possibilities for teaching in the context of digital cultures. In Brazil, millions of people interact in social media, on a daily basis, by editing, sharing, reading and reacting to a great variety of graphic texts, videos, photos, and songs that reflect their everyday relationships, namely, they produce internet memes. This study is grounded on the multiliteracies perspective (COPE & KALANTZIS, 2000, 2008; LANKSHEAR & KNOBEL, 2007; LEMKE, 2009; MENEZES DE SOUZA, 2011), as well as on the studies on memes, made by Dawkins (1976), Shifman (2013, 2014), Shifman et al (2016), Chagas (2017, 2018) and Glaveanu (2018). The teaching suggestions are based on categories of memes analysis; remixing existing memes in order to explore discourses of dominant ideologies, issues of race, age, gender and social class; and reading and writing political memes, that operate as instruments of persuasion.

Keywords

• Internet memes
• Classroom perspectives
• Digital culture