Atheist Meme Base: Summary Meme

For this entry, I will be sharing a meme I have created that generally summarizes the messages and ideas presented by the meme sample and community I have been studying.

Link

As stated in my first entry, I have noticed that the Atheist Meme Base community of Facebook regularly uses science to debunk or highlight contradictions in the Christian faith and in the Bible. I later narrowed my sample group down to memes that either pointed to contradictions in the Christian faith (in the Bible or in lived religion) or that use science to dispute Christian beliefs. I created this meme because it references the idea that Christianity ignores logic and science, which leads to it often contradicting these two areas. My meme also uses the forms of referential and phatic communication seen in my meme sample to provoke communication within their community and the outside world (basically, with any and all readers of the memes). This summary meme also highlights the irony of contradiction and uses this incongruity to create humor as demonstrated by the memes displayed by the Atheist Meme Base community.

Final Meme Blog: Reading Religion in Memes

For your final meme blog you are tasked with two reflections.


First you are asked to create a meme that summarize your key findings related to what messages and ideas about religion your study of  Internet memes has revealed. Your meme should express in a succinct how your specific case study frames popular understandings about religion or the specific religious community under study.  You should post your meme and then offer a 150-200 word explanation of what your summary meme seeks to express.


Second you are asked to compare your findings with one or two similar case studies from among your classmates to reflect on to what extent your findings echo or contrast their own and why you think this is so. This portion of the post should be 100-200 words and provide concrete examples/explanations to back up your claims.


Happy Blogging!

Blog 5-How Memes Frame Religion

This week you are asked to reflect on the success strategies share in chapter 6 regarding what features and traits memes able to be reproduced, spread and easily repackaged.  On page 95 Shifman provides and overview of what those key features are. Select and discuss 2 or 3 of these traits and how they frame ideas about religion in your memes.

Also Consider the different genre's of memes Shifman outlines in Chapter 7. To what extent does your meme collection correspond to one of these genres.  If you were to identify a new genre of specifically religious memes what would it be. Share this new genre name and definition and how this communicate certain beliefs or assumptions about religion.

Blog 4-Analyzing Rhetorical & Memetic Techniques in Memes

In this week we focus our reflection reflect on the rhetorical and textual elements of the memes under investigation, with special attention being paid to how key symbols, shared ideas and beliefs about religion are presented in your meme sample.

Your blog  post should related to the principals discussed in Chapters  5 & 6  of Shifman's  Memes in Digital Culture and the reflection activities from this week's meme research workshop.   Specifically you are asked to respond to the following questions:

What common key symbols, shared ideas and values/beliefs that your memes focus on?

What are the dominant features of memetic and viral culture, employed by your meme sample?

What are the dominant forms of humor used in your memes?

How does that impact how religion and religious ideas/beliefs are framed?

Again, please highlight and describe three representative memes that express and illustrate these principals and the argument you are trying to make

Blog 3- Analyze Meme Construction and Communicative Techniques

In this week we consider how Internet memes are constructed and they ways these elements communicate meaning.  We draw our definition for what is and Internet Meme from Limor Shifman who states in Memes in Digital Culture:


Internet memes are (a) a group of digital items sharing common characteristics  of content, form and stance, which (b) were created with awareness of each other and (c) are circulated , imitated and transformed  by many Internet users. (p. 41)

In your blog you should blog related to the principals discussed in Chapters 3, 4 & 5.  Using the in class reflection activities focus your discussion on three specific memes and how they seem to represent the common techniques and communication

- Specifically what are the common and dominant the visual and creative techniques used in the creation of the memes you are studying?

- How do the common characteristics of content and especially stance impact how your chosen memes communicate messages about religion? 

Blog 2-Defining Sample & Anatony of Memes

In week two you are asked to define your research sample of memes you will analyze.  Each student will explore a totally of 12 memes and focus on three each week over the next 4 weeks. In this week's blog you should define your sample, select a specific framework, theme and/or time frame (for instance all memes should have been posted in the past 12 months). Explain and justify the sample you have chosen and provide hyperlinks to all of the memes to be analyzed.


Next you are asked to provide a thorough unpacking and anatomy of the meme genre or background of the meme group you are studying. 


For those studying memes about religion you should answer the following questions: What are the components of the meme you are looking at (images, text, saying, characters) and where do they come from?  How do these elements and how they are assembled impact the meaning of the meme and messages they spread about reading? Provide three concrete example of and show how they illustrate this.


For those studying religious memes you should answer the following questions: What is the background and mission/focus of the group posting about memes you are studying? How does this impact the kinds of memes they present, create and or circulate? What seem to be the common themes this group expressed? Provide three concrete example and explain this.


Post these response on your individual blog by 5pm on Friday.