Monday 13 August 2012

Olympic memes + more Lebron's fault

The following Olympic memes were circulated during the 15 days of competition, many of which were a play-by-play account during the events. The significance of which exhibits the reach of contemporary digital media, in particular social media, and the power of digital immediacy and media convergence in general. Furthermore, it also demonstrates the spreadability of memes, in which particular themes that gain popularity can be imitated and reproduced to express a host of different messages. This diffusion of information is interesting because the more successful memes are not often useful or even accurate, but they are timely, and the messages reflect feelings that readers can identify with. For example, people are able to identify with Olympic themed memes through imagery or captions concerning the event, and due to the spread and mutation of these macro images, Olympic memes have also touched on cultural issues such as obesity, due to the event being sponsored by McDonald's and advocating safe sex practices for youths, inspired by medal winning teenage gymnasts being seen as "teen role models, not teen mums". Less serious connotations include taking body contact imagery from Olympic events and noting it as being a "better love story" than Twilight.

 















Because, an even plane of information is accessible to all members of society through digital media, it has ushered an entirely new way in which people communicate. Just like memes are created as a result of one's response to a situation or a circumstance, memes can also only mutate through a response system. And due to the mechanisms of digital technology, memes are now commonly conceived of as an extremely contagious and often very humorous part of internet culture that can sometimes generate enough hype to break into mainstream contemporary culture. This cultural crossover is also evident with themes that originated from the sport of basketball to the even more mainstream identity of the Olympic games. For instance, there have been a number of "more rings then lebron" and "lebron's fault memes", using images from the Olympics.









 


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