Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Technology - Term Paper Example

?[Introduction] Ideas of Conceptual blending and framing help to understand the attributes of memes that internet users stumble upon on a daily basis. In order to study the linguistic implications of memes, I’m going to define and briefly describe the history of the concept of memes. In general, the medium of most memes is Computer mediated Communication (CMC); therefore this presentation makes a comprehensive analysis on how the user relies on language of CMC’s and framing to create and share memes with others. Defining meme Since the conception of memes by an Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, “The Selfish Gene”, evolutionary biologists, psychologists, and cognitive scientists have put in efforts into finding out the biological, psychological, and philosophical implications of this new model of consciousness and thought. Daniel Dennette defines it as a unit of information in a mind whose existence influences events such that more copies of it get created in others’ minds. Here, the stress lies on the idea that a meme is an inherent form of knowledge in the human brain; it is the basic unit of cultural transmission or imitation. According to this definition, everything we call “culture” is composed of atom like memes, which compete with one another. These memes spread by being passed from mind to mind in the same way genes spread by being passed down through sperm and egg. The memes that win the competition are those that are successful at penetrating the most minds; they are the ones responsible for those activities and creations that constitute present-day culture (Brodie, 1996). CMC’s have made it possible for memes to germinate in the social gene pool. The linguistic implications of meme are highly significant since information travels over websites, blogs and social networking sites, and hence languages vary. Therefore, with every language, the conceptual framing and blending of linguistics and pragmatics also vary. Hence, language changes on the internet (Crystal, 2001). According to Bell, there is a close relationship between linguistics and media. “It makes a specific use of language and media texts illustrate language use and language attitudes for a variety of speech communities”. Syntactics and semiotics of meme in the following examples help to understand why people have a shared interest for memes. Since we have already established that memes grow in the mind of person to person, it is important to know how medium achieves that. There is a simultaneous use of text and visual. This particular series is called Successful Black Man, also known as “Successful Negro”. The media’s denotation of a black man in a business suit and a witty one-liner, firstly involves a fabricated framework experienced by conceptual blending employed in the first statement, “I got 99 problems” The connotation with the stereotype of an African man is that they are hustlers and gangster in the street. However secondly, there is an intentional line break after which a line is cited having primary framework relating to a professional who took a CA exam. There is an immediate exploitative fabricated framework. The intention behind the fabrication is to create hilarity because of the pragmatics of the two lines’ frameworks. The top line mimics what a black male stereotype would say while the bottom line results in breaking the character of the first line. The creator divulges that the inspiration behind the meme was based on reverse-discrimination issues at the workplace. In this case the humor and wit, and reversing the stereotype in the meme made it popular. There should be some genuine quirkiness contained within the idea. “The meme could coincide with some kind of zeitgeist or spirit of the age. Humor is a powerful component. Often it will contain an aspect that challenges conventional wisdom. There is also a critical mass factor at play. The spread of an idea of concept will accelerate at some point probably due to the multiplier effect of people being exposed to it more than once”, says Blackmore (1999) CMCs have inherent qualities that make them appealing, given that they are contrived, elaborately structured, repeatedly revisable, graphically rich, and visually decontextualized (Baron, 2010). Another meme is of a series of images called Ordinary Muslim Man. It works on the same premise of primary and fabricated framing as in the example of the Successful black man. The “Ordinary Muslim man” is depicted as a bearded man with a white cap on his head. However, in the similar way it reverses the stereotype role of the Muslim man. The bearded man becomes a semiotic for the viewer. However, the blond girl meme, which is an image of an American girl, is framed with the connotation of being highly dumb. The image reads of a well-known smug look that all blonds are associated with. The framing of text in this case goes hand in hand with the context of the image and therefore the meme has a primary framework. The meme is still humorous and encourages the stereotype. This popular series is called the High Expectations Asian Father; it too perpetuates the stereotype and cliche’s about first-generation Asian parents being not only strict but discouraging. The image features a photo of an Asian man with glasses and grey hair in front of a green background. Another popular trending meme on the sites include the series, White People Dancing (also known as “LOL White People”). The medium is GIF animations or video clips in an endless loop, in which Caucasian descent people can be seen dancing in awkward, yet hilarious manner. Along with the animation or video, in bold white letters we can often see text “white people” or “lol white people”. ”. Lol is an acronym used in various CMCs. The title is a figurative metaphor which is vital to the meme. In the 1980’s, stand-up comedy shows featured black American males who criticized the poor sense of White people’s dancing style, since such preconceived notions have existed in society. An example of a show, Eddie Murphy’s Raw, he made a skit in which he declared that white people cannot dance well (Knowyourmeme.com). The pragmatics of the title is crucial to the meaning of the meme, and being witty otherwise, it would have been a universal animation of people dancing. The meme of character, Sheldon Cooper is associated with The Big Bang Theory, a popular TV show in America. The show itself is about the popular culture of American nerds and has consequently become part of it as well. The primary framework is apparent in the text, such that it borrows from the character’s lines and an image is of the character. The pragmatics of the text and the image of the character are examples of blending and connotation. However, in this case, there is no use of line break or any such intention; however, this meme does not represent a stereotype but shows the essence of the character and the show. The TV show, ‘Glee’ too, has various memes. In this particular meme the text blending and the context of the image gives the meme a fabricated framework. The conceptual metaphor of the title helps it read as if to mock the picture of the cast dancing weirdly (almost like Lol! white people dancing). The show glee itself has its own prior context. The show encourages stereotypes and wackiness. The linguistics of the text removes it from its context almost completely and reduces the characters into mindless dancers. The content and the syntactic of memes are connected to the popular culture, which is perpetuated by the mass media. Whosoever has access to CMC’s creates them, and is able to further share them with the rest of internet users. Hence, there is a close relationship between the growth of memes, and CMC’s are crucial for their survival. [Conclusion] The inherent quality of a meme is that it reproduces itself countless times until it activates behavior within the society. Similarly, the trend of memes has gone viral over the internet. It grows because a meme is a compilation of more than one meme that are shared knowledge among people. The semiotics and pragmatics of the meme either challenge, or encourage the primary framework of the viewer. The examples help explain other reasons for their popularity; the syntactics of memes and the context of the meme go hand in hand to convey the humor intended by the creator. The linguistic study of memes along with the analysis of CMC, bring to the light the intricacies behind memes. References Accessed 17 April 2012 Brodie, Richard, 1996, The Virus of the Mind the New Science of the Meme, Accessed 17 April 2012 Blackmore, Susan J. 1999. The Meme Machine. Accessed 17 April 2012 Kelli, S. Burns. Celeb 2.0: How Social Media Foster Our Fascination with Popular Culture Accessed 16 April 2012 Desagulier, G. ? Linguistics and the media, The linguistics of CMC, Conceptual Blending1 (part one), Conceptual Blending1 (descriptive applications), Framing: Frame Semantics vs Truth-conditional semantics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory: part one Accessed 16 April 2012 https://mailattachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/?ui=2&ik=9902fff37f&view=att&th=136b61e574ebe02d&attid=0.2&disp=inline&realattid=5b88085c89ec349d_0.2&safe=1&zw&sadnir=1&saduie=AG9B_P_WcXLh0w_3ii9cIC8yWY6F&sadet=1334736357698&sads=HEqwKBkYHdLuhcSESTEZdh2g-Dk&sadssc=1> Read More