"Memes are the media through which we test and iterate and envision and contest the type of society we want to live in." In one moment you think "oh nice, a bit of light-footed information" - like OMG, cat historian and meme librarian are jobs that really exist! - and in the next you find yourself neck-deep in politics and meme theory. It is a really interesting qualitative look into participatory culture's and art's role for political and social movements today, and one that goes beyond US perspective: for example there are lots of observations from China's meme culture which I found a very interesting contrast and extension.
A lively and informed survey of how meme culture intersects with social and political movements around the world in an accessible analysis that doesn't shy away from big ideas but also takes the time to provide definitions and context. I appreciated the author's authoritative account packaged so that it didn't have the heaviness and theory-laden texture of an academic book. This is not to say it's light weight. It's just well communicated. returnreturnThat's actually especially difficult when discussing memes, which are highly contextual, often playful, quite frequently signalling membership in an in-group that understands the message. An Xiao Mina provides that context and lets us in on what both familiar and unfamiliar memes actually mean. returnreturnThere have been a lot of excellent books published recently about social media and digital culture. Rarely do they have the global perspective as this book. (Zeynep Tufekci's Twitter and Teargas is an exception.) The …
A lively and informed survey of how meme culture intersects with social and political movements around the world in an accessible analysis that doesn't shy away from big ideas but also takes the time to provide definitions and context. I appreciated the author's authoritative account packaged so that it didn't have the heaviness and theory-laden texture of an academic book. This is not to say it's light weight. It's just well communicated. returnreturnThat's actually especially difficult when discussing memes, which are highly contextual, often playful, quite frequently signalling membership in an in-group that understands the message. An Xiao Mina provides that context and lets us in on what both familiar and unfamiliar memes actually mean. returnreturnThere have been a lot of excellent books published recently about social media and digital culture. Rarely do they have the global perspective as this book. (Zeynep Tufekci's Twitter and Teargas is an exception.) The author not only introduces readers to Chinese, Ugandan, and Mexican memes, she connects them thematically to the points she wants to make about how memes reflect and contest meaning as we negotiate what kind of society we want to live in. She touches on how hard it can be for oppressive states to control the spread of memes but also on how states can enter the field to sow their own havoc or punish offenders and suppress speech. She also does a good job of connecting the playfulness of memes to social movements and how they establish themselves visually and virally. Fascinating survey of how memes play a role in social movements in the past and today.
