Ninth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

Based on Dawkins’s initial idea of a unit of cultural transmission, an Internet meme can be defined as a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of content, form, and perspective, which are created, circulated, or transformed via the Internet by a multitude of users. Such memes are much more visual than their predecessors so that the visual nature of Internet memes not only represents their polysemic potential for multiple readings but also utilizes pop culture of people’s everyday lives as a common ground through which individuals can communicate with one another on social, cultural, and political realities in a playful and engaging way. This study aims to obtain a fuller understanding of the visual language of the Internet memes and their “vernacular creativity,” and thus to explore how Internet memes serve as pivotal links between the personal and the political, allowing citizens to actively participate in digital “connected action,” while maintaining their sense of individuality. This study focuses on a recent East Asian case, from the Umbrella Movement of Hong Kong to the Candlelight Revolution of South Korea.