YODO
Internet Memes and the
digital spread of ideologies
Date of Submission: 28052015 University: University of Amsterdam, Graduate School of Humanities. Programme: MA in New Media and Digital Culture. Supervisor: Sjoukje van der Meulen Second reader: Erin La CourABSTRACT This paper provides the results of research on part the digital communications strategy of the Islamic State: its use of Internet Memes to spread their ideological message. The backdrop for this research consists of both memetics theory and a characterization of the East versus West dichotomy and its use of propaganda. The Islamic State makes use of the Internet to spread its ideology in a way that is different from earlier use of propaganda. Where these older method relied on mass media to repeat certain memes and consequently hypnotize people, the distributed propaganda of the Islamic State cleverly infiltrates the minds of supporters that in turn contribute to the spread of its ideologies. The thesis’ claims are derived and supported by two main case studies that analyze the use of Internet Memes in the Islamic State’s attempt to infect people with their ideas. The paper provides reasons for the success of Islamic State’s digital media campaign and ties this to concepts of memetics and places it in a backdrop of a longer struggle between the West and the East, focussing on the period from the end of the Cold War to now. It also shows how an Internet Meme can be a vehicle for ideological or propagandistic messages and why it is so capable of doing this. The paper aims to be both an explanation of an occurring chain of events in the Middle East as well as a mirror that sheds light on some of the destructive inclinations of our Western society. Keywords: Islamic State, Memetics, Internet Meme, Terrorism, Propaganda
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for the following people that helped me complete this thesis: Tineke Cnossen, for everything Sjoukje van der Meulen, for proper guidance and excellent feedback Rob Hoefakker, for listening and reminding me of the why Vera Lentjes, for sharing the joy that is thesis writing Freddy de Noord, for his music Michiel Sekan, for his coffee Dominique Verschragen, for inspiring projects Jeen Akkerman, for his example I would also like to thank all the people I have come to interact with in New Media and Digital Cultures, both teachers and students. It has been an inspiring year.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ………5 2. PART ONE: MEMETICS ………9 2.1 The genes of the meme, from Darwin to Dawkins …………...9 2.2 The Internet meme ………....14 2.3 Examples of Internet Memes ……….... 19 2.4 Hacking the meme ……….... 27 2.5 The internet meme as an ideological statement ………....28 3. PART TWO: DIGITAL IDEOLOGIES ………..32 3.1 Ideologies in the East and the West ………..32 3.2 The East versus the West ………..33 3.3 A new enemy ……….... 38 3.4 21st century propaganda ……….. 44 3.5 Digital Ideologies, a new propaganda model ………49 3.6 YODO and other ideological Internet Memes ………. 52 3.7 Memetic Spectacle or religion commodified ………57 4. CONCLUSION ………60 APPENDIX ………..62 WORKS CITED ……….. 65
1. INTRODUCTION In the aftermath of the Iraq war and the Arab spring we have seen the uprising of a terrorist organisation calling itself the Islamic State . In its efforts to police the Middle East, the West, led by 1 the United States, has failed and continues to fail. As we see attacks on Western citizens by the terrorist group we can only conclude that the problem is not contained to the Middle East. In fact the Islamic State is more prolific and successful in convincing Western citizens, especially younger people, of its cause. There are multiple people from the United States, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and more leaving their relatively safe homes to fight for a rebellious terrorist group that commits hideous crimes. This indicates two things at least. Firstly there apparently exists a gap between the Muslim community and others in the Western world that creates a discontent. Secondly there evidently is some appeal in the cause as it is presented by the Islamic State. Not only is there an appeal, but it is big enough that it convinces people to travel to the other side of the world to kill. And, equally important, the appeal reaches young people in the Western world with enough vigour to convince them of the terrible cause. There are young guys – girls too – sitting behind their lit screens reading and watching Islamic State propaganda as we speak. They engage in online forums to discuss their options for actions against the infidels that spoil the great country of Syria. The Islamic States’ digital propaganda machine consists of a presence on social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, the creation of professional grade videos and part of the spread of their ideology happens through the sharing of images with captions that bear close resemblance to the Internet Meme. The Internet Meme is a form of viral Internet content that allows for quick and endless remixing and sharing. These images either find their origin with Islamic State soldiers and commanders or are created by their supporters in the West. Either way, the images make use of concepts that are typical of the Western capitalist and democratic society and parasite these with terroristic ideals. This combination of form and content suggests a sophisticated propaganda machine capable of influencing young people on the other side of the world. This spread of ideas and the word meme invoke thoughts on the theory of memetics, a field that came into existence after Richard Dawkins coined the term meme. Memetics’ object of research is the spreading of cultural information or ideas from one mind to another. It is the study of our cultural evolution, that uses a model based on genetic evolution. It is crucial to our understanding of the spread of terrorist ideologies that we analyze how the Islamic State goes about their propagandistic efforts. If we want to battle the spread of the Islamic State’s ideologies we must first gain an understanding of how and why their efforts are so successful. This thesis will examine the use of digital communication techniques, specifically the 1 The insurgent group has called itself many things, among these names are ‘The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ or ISIL and ‘The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’ or ISIS. for the sake of uniformity this thesis will use
Internet Meme, by the Islamic State. It will do this using a theoretical framework based on memetics to construct a view on the spread of Islamic State’s ideology.Furthermore, it will outline earlier versions of propaganda from the end of the Cold War to now in order to see how the Islamic State’s use of digital technologies is different. Subsequently I propose the following research question: How can we characterize the Islamic State’s use of digital propaganda, specifically Internet Memes, in relation to the notion of the meme as cultural information? This characterization can be roughly divided up into three sub questions that will frame this thesis. Firstly, using the theoretical framework of memetics, how can we explain the apparent success of the Islamic State’s (online) propaganda machine? Secondly one could ask to what extent is a meme, specifically an Internet Meme, capable of spreading an ideological message? A final question is: how we could characterize the Internet Memes as viruses, that penetrate their host and influence their behaviour? After Richard Dawkins famously wrote down the ideas that formed the basis of the concept of the meme, it has been widely researched and can be considered a separate field in academics: memetics. Memetics has seen an increase in popularity with many scholars active in the field (Hofstadter 1996; Dennett 1993). A connection to other biological concepts such as the virus (Burroughs 1986; Rushkoff 2010) were used to deepen the meaning and implications of the meme, including the famous article by Dawkins himself called ‘Viruses of the Mind’ (1993). In an attempt to create an overview of the work done by Dawkins and other scholars in the field of memetics, Susan Blackmore wrote ‘The Meme Machine’, a work that connects the concept to modern day evolutionary ideas and poses new ideas on how to apply memetics in the digital age (2000). The field of memetics has not been applied to digital technologies convincingly. Susan Blackmore dedicates only one chapter of her book to memetics in the digital age and others offer only an overview that merely states memetics exists online too (Marshall 2005). Theories on how memetics influences, changes, is changed or truly integrates with digital technologies are scarce. The Internet Meme is often seen as a separate entity from the field of memetics and partly with good cause. This cause being that the Internet Meme is a rather ephemeral object that disappears as quickly as it appears. The roots of memetics lie in genetics and aim to analyze evolution, a concept that has longer periods of time as its framework. Nonetheless the Internet Meme deserves some attention as a cultural phenomenon, if only because of its popularity online. The phenomenon is researched mostly by younger scholars who focus on quantitative statements (Burgess 2008; Bauckhage 2011; Bauckhage 2013), fail to make new or innovative statements (Danung and Attaway 2008), or analyze its history (Börzsei 2013).
The concept of propaganda has been a widely discussed theme that gained its negative connotations in relation to its use in the Second World War. The subject of propaganda has been discussed in the fields of communications, politics, sociology, popular culture and media studies with an increasingly substantial contribution in the field of social media studies (Jowett xiii) and can be considered a well established subject in academics. One of the central theories in propaganda theory is that of Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, who combine the values of the capitalist neoliberal society with the notions of propaganda and create their propaganda model. Compared to memetics, propaganda as it exists in the digital age has been researched more and more thoroughly. As media studies has always been interested in relations of power and control and the role that media plays in this, it only makes sense that propaganda has received attention in relation to for example the Internet. The uprising of terrorists and their propaganda has received a lot of attention too, ranging from studies on the IRA (Wright 1991) to analyzing countermeasures (Nacos 2012) to, more recently, an analysis of the propaganda used by Al Qaeda (Baines and O’Shaughnessy 2014). In the 2007 paper called ‘Radical Islamic Internet Propaganda: Concepts, Idioms and Visual Motifs’, Jonathan Fighel examined the use of propaganda by Al Qaeda online and already saw the use of marketing techniques in spreading the ideology. The merger between Islamic Jihadist ideology and Western cultural values however has not been researched. Both the field of memetics as well as the use of propaganda has been extensively researched. As a matter of fact the two concept have many overlapping ideas and can be easily combined. Terrorism too has been widely researched and analyzed. However, the use of digital means to spread ideologies is fairly new, especially in relation to terrorism. It is here that this thesis adds to the current discourse. By analyzing the propaganda used by the Islamic State, based on a theoretical framework of memetics, we can characterize its popularity and explain some of the crucial factors that make it so effective. Specifically the merger between Jihadist ideology and Western popular culture is unique. In order to fully understand the Internet Meme as a propagandistic method, it is necessary to form a clear understanding of memetics and its origins. Chapter one will provide an outline of the origins of memetics and its core concepts. It will track its roots to biological evolution and Richard Dawkins theories evolving from those roots. It then discusses its contemporary status and finally proceed with an explanation of the Internet Meme. This explanation will be both theoretical as well as based on a few examples in order to fully grasp the object that is an Internet Meme. The first chapter will conclude with a case study of an Internet Meme that conveys an ideological message aimed at recruiting or convincing people of the Islamic State’s right of existence and its goals. The Islamic State is not an alone standing phenomenon that can be seen apart from other worldly events, mainly those leading up to it. Consequently the second chapter of this thesis will focus on the East versus
West dichotomy as it exists today and has over the past two decades. Firstly it provides an outline of the sources of the gap between two seemingly opposing ideologies starting at the end of the Cold War. Subsequently it will provide an analysis of how the Islamic State’s uprising came about. In the final part of this chapter I will analyze how a sophisticated digital propaganda machine helps them do this. A last chapter before my conclusion will consist of a more thorough case study of two Internet Memes that convey ideological messages supporting the Islamic State. It is in this chapter that I will combine memetics theory with the genealogy of the East versus West dichotomy in order to conceptualize the phenomenon of the Internet Meme as propagandistic weapon. I will conclude the thesis by revisiting different theories on memetics and Eastern and Western ideologies and summarize my most important arguments.
2. PART ONE: MEMETICS If we want to have a clear understanding of memetics and the Internet meme we must know some of its origins. This chapter will therefore start with an overview of memetics theory and its roots in biological evolution theory as proposed by Richard Dawkin and others after him. I will look at the current state of memetics theory and its arguments against it. All this will act as groundwork for the main part of this chapter on the Internet meme culture, as that is part of the basis for this thesis. 2.1 The genes of the meme, from Darwin to Dawkins The roots of memetics theory lies in biological evolution, a subject that owes its existence to Charles Darwin. In his 1859 book On the Origin of Species , Darwin presented his theory of evolution, that became the basis for evolutionary biology. His theory is based on natural selection that over time changes populations. Although Darwinism has been the leading school of thought, there are still many disputes that remain unclear (Shanahan, 7) and its fundamental principles are often misunderstood (Blackmore, 10). Darwin witnessed diversity in life and saw that creatures live mainly to ensure their own survival. The reasoning is that the witnessed diversity in some way had to benefit the species. The organisms with the diversity that made them best suited for life, were most likely to generate offspring and in doing so would pass on their diverse characteristics. This principle is what Darwin called natural selection. His theory was rooted in three principles: variation, selection and retention (Blackmore, 10). Firstly, there must be variation to start with, secondly some variants must do better than other and thirdly these variants that do better must in some way be passed on or maintained. It is these three principle that form the basis of universal Darwinism too, a school of thought that applies Darwinian principles not only to biological evolution, but other aspects of life as well. It can be understood as an algorithm based on those three principles (Dennett, 1995), a system that runs and if all variables are met, it works. According to Blackmore, the benefit of an algorithm is that it is ‘substrateneutral’, meaning it can be applied to many material, being the base for Universal Darwinism (11). This Universal Darwinism, the appropriation of the basic principles of evolution to other aspects than biology, results in memetics when applied to culture. The substrate neutral aspect of memetics has been a subject of dispute that I will discuss later in this work. Another appropriation of the basic principles of Darwin’s views exists in the theories that can be summed up under the name Social Darwinism. Supporters of social darwinism apply these principles to sociology and politics and claim that the weak will get weaker and the strong will get stronger. The application of evolution theory to economics has a long history (Nightingale 2002, Hodgson 2004) and Darwinism is widely viewed as one of the most important theories. Herbert Spencer first used the term ‘survival of the fittest’ in his Principles of Biology and applied this idea to
society in his sociology research. To many Spencer is the prime example of a Social Darwinist, This view is however a bit short sighted as Spencer’s views on competition are more closely related to a view of the market than a radical biological view of the world (Offer 142). The notion of Social Darwinism has strong connotations with racism, fascism and eugenics and is not considered good (Bannister 1988, p. 3). Social Darwinism ‘owes both its contemporary currency and its association with laissezfaire to [Richard] Hofstadter’s (1944) brilliant and influential first book, Social Darwinism in American Thought , argues Thomas C. Leonard (2009). Hofstadter applauded the Progressive Era reformers for exactly that, their will to reform. However Hofstadter did not agree with the reformers’ support for eugenics, racism and fascism. Hofstadter’s essay was ambivalent and ‘... contained two intellectual posits: first, that stateplanned reform was socially, economically and ethically better than free markets, and second, that biological, especially Darwinian explanations of human society were illegitimate and dangerous.’ (Leonard 2009). The irony is that the term Social Darwinism was coined in the same book by Leonard that effectively declared it dead too (39). Theories of memes or contagious pieces of culture can already be found in academics early in the past century (Semon and Duffy 1924) and the spread of new ideas was researched by Everett M. Rogers in his Diffusion of innovations (1962). Dawkins too analyzed the spread of ideas and made an analogy with Darwin’s groundwork in biological evolution, but appropriated it to the spread of cultural information. In The Selfish Gene, Dawkins applies the evolutionary model to cultural information sharing and coins the term meme. A wordplay on the word gene, combined with the greek word μιμητής or mimētḗ, that means imitator: “Mimeme” comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like “gene”. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to “memory”, or to the French word même. (1976). A meme is ‘ an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture’ (“Meme”). Dawkins theorized that in biological evolution there was a pool of replicators, the genes, that in replicating themselves ensured continuation of life. In this replication process however, small changes resulted in the evolution of different species as some genes were more successful than others. According to Dawkins these same principles can be applied to cultural information sharing. We all have memes in our head that we share with others and thus pass on to another generation. These memes change or mutate along the way. The Selfish Gene was a book about genetics and Dawkins hence failed to give the idea of memetics enough attention, lacking a clear definition. The idea itself
was contagious enough as multiple researchers found the idea interesting enough to pursue it further. The field of memetics was born. Although normally algorithms produce the same outcome if the same input is given, we can see an incredible diversity in life. This diversity can be attributed to chaos theory, arguing that even the slightest changes in a system can produce very different results. It is precisely that which creates the beautiful world we live in. One designed by the functioning of the algorithm, but one that cannot be predicted (Blackmore, 12). The diversity is created by the replicators that are strongest. They ensure their survival by being the ones that are most likely to get copied. These various principles were applied to culture in the creation of the field of memetics after Richard Dawkins coined the word meme. The meme was supposed to be the equivalent of the gene as a unit that was copied from mind to mind. A gene replicates itself through DNA, a meme replicates itself when it moves from one mind to another. Dawkins never intended for the comparison to be so strict, or revised it later, a problem that can be attributed to the word memetics that is designed to reflect genetics, where meme finds its roots elsewhere (Dawkins 1999, p. 112). It is clear to me that the process of genetic evolution is not the same as the process of cultural evolution. Nor do I think the pieces of information exist in the same way a gene exists. The basic fundamentals of genetics do however provide an interesting mode of thought when analyzing cultural aspects of life. It is in this way that I see the advantages of memetics as a theoretical framework for this thesis. When we do for a second consider culture as a number of pieces of information that act according to similar principles as genes do, we can distill the following basics for memetic theory. Firstly, a piece of information, a meme, is the equivalent of a gene, the fundamental building block of characteristics in life forms. The equivalent meaning it acts according to the same principles as genes do. As mentioned before, genes are replicators. And as a replicator it ‘... must sustain the evolutionary algorithm based on variation, selection and retention (or heredity).’ (Blackmore 14). Variation seems not to need any explanation, as there is great cultural diversity. There are different languages, religions, tv shows and ideas. As these pieces of information are passed on, they change. Perhaps even more so than in genetic evolution – this is one of the arguments against memetics. This changing is very important as that is what makes up the diversity in genetic evolution as well. Which brings us to the next point: selection. The selection principle holds that the characteristics that provide better ways of dealing with surroundings have a higher chance of survival and are thus selected for future generations. The same principles can be applied to pieces of information. Some survive better than others, some create long lineages that last for ages and those that do often grow in complexity. The last requirement: retention, holds that there must be a form of copying that ensures a characteristic survival. In genetic evolution it is the gene that is passed on as part of the DNA that is copied. In
memetics it is the story being told by one person to another, creating a second version of the original story. However, Blackmore’s basis for the comparison between memes and genes: a neutral substrate as a characteristic of an algorithm, is a view not shared by all who occupy themselves with evolution theory. Robert Aunger revisits the meaning and validity of memetics as the way to look at culture. A meme is a carrier of cultural information; the cultural analogue of the gene. Aunger argues that memetics as a discipline lacks an object of research. Academics cannot execute empirical research, because the definition of memes and memetics is too wide or not useful: ‘The problem is that, if memes explain everything, then they explain nothing.’ (4). The fact that memetics lacks a clear definition or that its definition is too wide, accounts for the lack of empirical evidence supporting the theory. A critique that is shared by Luis BenitezBribiesca, who argues that nobody really knows what a meme is. In relation to Blackmore’s ‘The Meme Machine’ he mentions the differences between genes as clear cut, scientifically proven entities, where memes are ‘... heterogenous imaginary entities...’ and ‘The superficial analogy with genes cannot be more farfetched.’ (3). According to Aunger the special characteristic of memetics is their role as replicator in culture. He defines replication as the special relation between source and copy that adheres top four conditions: causation2 , similarity , information transfer and duplication . In genetics, one of the core principles is that 3 4 5 information is stored in a system that strictly adheres to a set of rules: DNA. Without these rules, a mutation is impossible and would defeat the purpose of genetic evolution. Where genes are encoded by four molecules, memes are encoded in constantly changing variables that are different each time they move from one mind to another (Smith and Szathmary 1995). Aunger argues that a string of DNA copied to a piece of paper and fed to a machine that then produces another piece of DNA is a causal chain, but not an evolutionary chain. An evolutionary chain requires direct copies that all have the same (or close to the same) abilities. When compared to the four conditions mentioned before, only the similarity lacks. The symbolic piece of paper (or the story that the father tells to the son) cannot perform the same functions as a piece of DNA. Instead, according to Aunger, it seems that replication depends on the substrate or, in other words, the context/surroundings. There are no replicators known that can replicate in different or multiple substrates. Conditions need to be similar at the beginning and at the end. If memes are based on replications, then a common substrate is needed. This is often perceived as being the brain, as this is where most of culture is thought to be located/saved. An idea that comes close to Dawkins's conception of the meme as ‘a unit of information residing in the brain’ ( Dawkins 1982, p. 109) . This problem with memetics, that a replicator can exist 2 the source must play some role in bringing about the conditions that lead to a copy being made 3 the source and copy must resemble each other in relevant respects 4 what makes the copy similar to the source must be derived from the source 5 the source and copy must coexist for some time
in different substrates, can only be solved by imagining a reverse engineered process where a machine reverse engineers the gene based on the information in the symbols on the paper. A similar process occurs with memes according to Aunger: from author to book to reader. Without direct contact, a reader can still gain access to the ideas of an author. Brains never come in direct contact with one another, so even speech consists of replicators with different substrates. However, replication in social learning proves to be much more difficult. When someone speaks, the meaning is not only formed by the words, but also by the stance of the speaker, his or her tone of voice, gestures and so on. Because replication is not a viable mode of learning then: ‘... it seems unlikely that culture can be viewed productively as the creation of lineages of information transmission with high fidelity duplication and the longterm maintenance of cultural content.’ (8). This results in the absence of memes in their strict definition. ‘Message receivers will only care about copying what is in someone else’s head if that information is relevant to them, in their situation. But this won’t often be the case, given that individuals are typically in different situations, with different interests.’ (Sperber and Wilson, 1995). The assumption here is however that agency rests only in human beings. This is simply not the case. Dawkins already argued that memes have ‘some influence or power over their own probability of replication’ (Dawkins 1999, xvi). A gene has no intention or view on creation, but through the process of natural selection there is a form of design. Others have argued that memes, like genes, do everything to ensure their own survival. In that case it is not only the relevance that counts, but also a memes’ ability to penetrate its host and reside there. Memes might still be able to parasitize communication by planting themselves in other people's heads and hence replicate. One example where this is the case is religion. Religion proved to be a good asset to have in earlier days as it assured a community, prevented others from killing you and created groups. Richard Dawkins already argued why religious ideas (or memes) are so successful, even when they are not true. This has mostly to do with fear and their ability to answer human questions without giving the possibility of testing the answers. God is almighty and works in mysterious ways. In relation to Sara Ahmed’s article, the term truth can be applied. As God is often mentioned in conjunction with ‘truth’, having another opinion is shying away from the truth. The core of her argument is that memes, like genes, are focussed on their own survival and reproducing. In doing so, they help to create religion and keep it thriving. The memes are untestable, which prohibits them from being rejected. The memes encourage duplication, because religious texts literally encourage the reader to ‘spread the word’. Blackmore argues that the great faiths with all their clever tricks were not designed by anyone, but rather evolved that way because of memes ensuring their own survival (Blackmore 1999). She has called this process memetic drive, a gene’s increased chance of survival due to a meme’s replication (Blackmore 2001). In Viruses of the Mind , Dawkins explained religion and the motivation of people believing, using memetics (1993). Dawkins argues that the minds of younger humans are prone to ‘soak up’ as
much of their culture as possible. The language, ideas and traditions are all transferred from older members’ minds to the child’s. This mode, one of learning as much as possible in a short period of time, makes the child’s mind more vulnerable to damaging ideas or memes according to Dawkins. Computers too are vulnerable to what Dawkins compares to parasitic genes. These digital viruses spread from computer to computer, infecting entire systems. One of these is slightly different from other viruses: the Trojan Horse. It is different because it relies on humans to aid its spread and does so by presenting ‘… pornographic or otherwise appealing content’ (Dawkins 1993). All viruses have in common a shared wish to stay undetected, to stay hidden from its host as this might compromise their lives. All hosts must have two characteristics according to Dawkins in order for the viruses to successfully replicate. They must be ready to copy information and they must be willing to obey orders. Dawkins finds the first in human brains as childs do a pretty good job copying information when for example learning a language. The second requirement is supported by the fact that children follow their parents blindly in accepting a religion as the truth. Combining this with the observation of ‘crazes’ among young children such as yoyos, he argues that ‘human minds, especially perhaps juvenile ones, have the qualities that we have singled out as desirable for an informational parasite.’ (7) and ‘... if the evolved parasite was the memic descendant of a long line of successful ancestors, we are entitled to expect the typical “mind virus'' to be pretty good at its job of getting itself successfully replicated.’ (8). The religious meme is one that knows a long line of ancestors, making it strong and not susceptible to criticism. In fact the lack of evidence supporting the claims made by the meme are used to support the claim made (Hofstadter 1983, p. 52). 2.2 The Internet meme True to its roots, the word meme evolved into something that is still related, but was probably unimaginable when Dawkins first thought up the concept: the Internet Meme. In its essence it is still true to the original meaning, but the rise of the Internet made the sharing of ideas and pieces of information incredibly easy. It distilled the meme to its purest form almost. Or perhaps it is the meme’s goal all along. In chapter sixteen of her book The Meme Machine , Susan Blackmore argues that it is a meme’s purpose to reproduce and spread as widely as possible. So far this is nothing new as Dawkins already made statements along the same lines. But she goes further than that and poses an interesting theory that will sound weird to many people: memes created modern communication technologies. A memes’ wish for greater fidelity, fecundity and longevity creates the design of newer technologies for communication. Blackmore suggests that memes are doing the same as genes in that they aim for the greatest fidelity, fecundity and longevity, but that we now only see it’s infant stage. All modern technologies can be explained according to Blackmore as being ways in which the memes can replicate themselves more efficiently. She mentions the quick replacement of different mediums such as fax and cassette, but could not however predict the demise of the Compact Disc as a medium
within the past years. According to Blackmore the ease of replicating a cd and the amount of data it could store was already so advanced that ‘ ... an enormous step forward in fidelity or fecundity of copying would be needed to oust the system for a new one.’ (224). Instead we have seen a system develop that is becoming more advanced every year and already made the CD obsolete. This system, the Internet, is a meme’s dream. It is built for sharing and spreading information and ideas, or as Daniel C. Dennett states: Memes now spread around the world at the speed of light, and replicate at rates that make even fruit flies and yeast cells look glacial in comparison. They leap promiscuously from vehicle to vehicle, and from medium to medium, and are proving to be virtually unquarantinable (Dennett 131). What we see today is the sharing of endless amounts of images that are combined with text to amuse, make fun of or simply shock its viewer. The meme is nine out of ten times a joke (Knobel and Lankshear 209), one that can only be understood when the viewer understands and is part of the meme culture. It is a world that requires a lot of reading and viewing in order to truly understand it, but once you’re a part of this world you can see its vastness. The Internet Meme is most often made up of an image and a caption, creating a pun or funny remark. This format allows for easy remixing and replication, encouraging the rapid spread. There are now numerous websites which main purpose is to allow for the efficient sharing of memes. Large parts of Reddit , 4Chan and Buzzfeed for example are devoted to memes. This new form that often embeds older images and media is moving so fast that it often changes the meaning it had. It is the sheer pace alone that influences the core of the meme as a communication medium. This can be seen in the light of Manovich’s view on contentinterface where ‘Content and interface merge into one entity and can no longer be apart’ (67). The ‘interface’ or form of the meme forces its content to adhere to certain rules and in doing so it influences its meaning. It is driven by puns. As the Internet grew into a communication tool for the masses, the Internet meme has become a widespread phenomenon on its own and claims its right to be a research subject. It has or soon will become part of mainstream culture. Many people are eager to draw a line between the physical world and the digital/online world, but this is a distinction that is becoming more blurry as the Internet is used by more people. Perhaps the most striking overlap is the printing out of memes to apply them on any situation in real life (White & Fiebrig 2015). In this case, where a broken university door in Germany is accompanied by dozens of A4 papers with memes on them, we can really see the merger of the on and offline world. Nathan Jurgenson is persistent in critiquing what he calls ‘Digital dualism’ that clouds judgement of many including scholars (2011a; 2011b). In Jurgenson’s view our world is both digital and physical and the forced division is a fallacy. Instead, he proposes an
augmented reality where both our digital and physical selves influences each other and are effectively the same or at least part of the same. An idea that is clearly manifested in wearable products such as Google Glass and numerous smart watches. This augmented reality is manifested too in our work and spare time. As Lev Manovich argues in The Language of New Media , our information society is different from industrial society in ‘... its clear separation between the field of work and the field of leisure.’ (Manovich 65). In ‘Competition and Success in the Meme Pool: a Case Study on Quickmeme.com’ a 2013 paper, Michele Coscia describes the analysis of a group of Internet Memes on Quick Meme . The aim of the research is to discover inherent characteristics of the memes that lead to its success or failure. The paper is highly technical and focuses on applying statistics on data to extrapolate results. The distinction the author(s) make between memes and internet memes is that the latter is traceable. This distinction lacks a bit of finesse as the term ‘meme’ has very different connotations online than in the scientific world: ‘From these examples, we can define a meme as a combination of a picture and a tacit concept linked to the picture.’ (3). It is this description that most aptly describes the online usage of the word meme. The author puts forward the idea that Internet memes compete for the reader’s mind, similar to the idea that memes do, that in turn act similarly to genes. As a huge number of memes are created everyday, only few can survive due to our limited brain capacity. This competition is measured through a range of methods. I feel the methods are slightly general and cannot really distinguish competition between memes, but chart the overall ups and downs in popularity of different memes. Although some memes are made to compete with each other by their creators, correlation does not imply causation. Besides competition the author(s) define another trait as collaboration. One can wonder whether these two are really different, as competition implies a direct link between two memes, unwittingly aiding the other’s popularity. However, the idea that memes influence each other is correct I feel and very much applies to the characteristics of the Internet. Moreover, this influence happens at an unprecedented rate. Images with text follow each other up in great speeds, one meme is already forgotten when the next is created. The last interesting idea put forward in this paper is the notion of meme organisms, which according to the author's is the clustering of competing memes (6). Again, competing is not my choice of word, but the observation of clusters of memes is correct/apt. Most research done on Internet Memes is quantitative rather than qualitative. Many have examined the spread and the characteristics of Internet Memes in their environments (Bauckhage 2011; Bauckhage 2013) or focus on methods for analyzing this spread (Shifman et al 2009). Some qualitative analysis can be found in ‘Online Memes, Affinities, and Cultural Production’, where Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear explore the propagating of Internet Memes in relation to cultural production and transmission (2007). They too claim that the Internet Meme’s existence is of lesser concern to many scholars in the field of memetics (199). Their paper’s purpose is threefold according
to the authors, with the most interesting being the assessment of an Internet Meme’s characteristics that result in increased popularity and the comparison to Dawkins’ original conception of a successful meme. Dawkins’ three key elements of successful memes, fidelity, fecundity and longevity are used here to assess Internet Memes. Although the longevity online can in no way be compared to the longevity Dawkins was referring to, a type of longevity that far surpasses the existence of the Internet, let alone one meme (201). The analysis does not focus on qualitative characteristics of Internet Memes, but ‘[r]ather, we are invested in identifying key characteristics of successful online memes’ (206). One of the main findings is that Dawkins’ fidelity changes into a concept that is more like replicability in the online space. Internet Memes do not remain intact and their vehicles change quickly. Its core concepts remain however, even after many iterations, helping the meme’s fecundity (209). Furthermore the authors see three main characteristics that contribute to an Internet Memes’ success: ‘Some element of humor, ranging from the quirky and offbeat, to potty humor, to the bizarrely funny, to parodies, through to the acerbically ironic, and/or A rich kind of intertextuality, such as wry crossreferences to different everyday and popular culture events, icons or phenomena, and/or Anomalous juxtapositions, usually of images.’(209) The humor is found in nearly every meme in the study and seems to be a required property. The rich intertextuality is very interesting in relation to ideological memes. It means that for an Internet Meme to be successful, it must pertain to popular cultural events, icons or phenomena. To reach someone in a certain type of society via an Internet Meme, the meme must in some way connect to his/her everyday life and thus to the society (s)he lives in. The anomalous juxtaposition is found in the combining of images that one their own describe very different things, but combined create a shocking effect. The authors mention the juxtaposition of Bert, the Sesame Street character, and Osama Bin Laden, creating the Internet Meme ‘Bert is Evil’. Overall humor is mentioned as the most important characteristic, in both the merely funny Internet Memes, but also the more serious ones: ‘All the social critique memes in this study have playfully serious qualities, which may further serve to enhance their contagiousness and fecundity.’ (217). What is interesting too is the notion of affinity spaces as crucial to the Internet Memes’ success: Overall, the playfulness seen in most of these online memes—whether absurdist or aimed at social commentary—taps into shared popular culture experiences and practices. This in turn helps to define certain affinity spaces (e.g., gamer spaces, photoshopper spaces,
manga/anime spaces, leftleaning political spaces, “good” community member spaces, spaces created by fans of Asian popular cultures, blogger spaces) by semiotic nods and winks to those “in the know” as it were. “Outsiders” to these spaces will often have difficulty seeing the humor in or point to many of these memes. (217) The Internet Meme space is one that a person is either a part of or not. It is very hard to penetrate the space with one's own message. Outsiders not only have difficulty understanding the humor, but also contributing to the space. 2.3 Examples of Internet Memes Internet Memes and viral content are very similar: they both aim to spread to as many users as possible, they are both easy to understand and are often funny. But there is an important distinction to be made. It is the nature of the Internet, as a medium of mediums, to reuse, remix and re appropriate images, words and meaning, to be self reflective (Benckler 2006; Barabasi 2002). This is true for the meme as well. There is hardly a meme that is not meta, as one of its main characteristics is the remixing of other images. Something that is viral is not to be considered a meme per se. It is only when other users comment and eventually repurpose the image that it becomes a meme. A viral video stays true to its original content, where a meme is reshaped and its content remade with every iteration. In order to fully understand the characteristics of an Internet Meme, there follows a number of examples that provide an insight into the general working, explain the wide variety in the Internet Meme space and give an insight in the spreading and remixing of these Internet Memes. Firstly, there is the Kilroy was Here meme. This meme is not an Internet Meme, but is one of the first know memes that moves according to similar paths. Kilroy was Here consists of an image of a drawing of a bald human figure with a large nose looking over a wall (see fig. 1). The cultural expression was popularized during the second World War and used by soldiers. It is said to have been first used by James L. Kilroy who allegedly wrote the three words on the inside of a ship. As time passed the image and the text became a symbol for US Military’s ability to reach any location: ‘The phrase has popped up in the caves of Afghanistan, and in Iraq. It’s still a symbol of just how great the American spirit can be. It still means something to people.’ (Condon quoted in Washington Times 2005). Apparently inking a foreign country’s cave system is a sign of the great American spirit. Apart from the ‘land of the free’ connotations that very much make Kilroy was here what it is, it is a beautiful example of a meme. A seemingly meaningless phrase is turned into a symbol for a greater idea that appeals to many. Soldiers started using the combination of the image and text as a sign of their forthcoming victory, their American spirit or just feel connected to their brothers in arms. Perhaps it is one of the memes that evolved or replaced the urinating animals that mark their territory.
Fig. 1. Engraving of Kilroy on the WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C.; “Kilroy was here”; Wikipedia; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here, 17 Feb. 2005; Web; 20 May. 2015. The term YOLO, an abbreviation of ‘You Only Live Once’, bridges the realm of the physical world and the digital. It was first used by Adam Mesh in the NBC reality show The Average Joe. Mesh launched an accompanying tshirt line that featured the abbreviation and phrase (YOLO 2012). The term spread through nightlife, indie rock band The Strokes and caught on to mainstream public slowly. Its success skyrocketed once Canadian rapper Drake used the term in his single ‘The Motto’ featuring the New Orleans rapper Lil’ Wayne in october 2011: ‘Now she want a photo, you already know, though / You only live once: that’s the motto, nigga, YOLO’. After Drake’s use of the term in the chorus of the song, its popularity grew steadily with the video getting 450,000 views within 21 days (YOLO 2012) and became an important part of American youth culture (Leavitt 2013). The hashtag #yolo quickly dominated Twitter and Instagram after that. Although its original meaning had to do with a free lifestyle or ‘living in the moment’, it became a term that was used for everything. Going from the 21st century equivalent of ‘carpe diem’ it went on to describe pretty much anything that was out of the ordinary. From being banned at a bar (Clay 2015) to not paying attention when driving (Nicholas 2012). We can see the Internet Meme change through different iterations and remixes as well. Like a gene (or virus) it mutates when it moves from mind to mind. Looking at figures 2 and 3 there is a clear mixing of the term with the popular film series Star Wars. One shows Harrison Ford pouring some vodka into a glass at a party. The caption reads ‘Han Yolo’, which is a reference to his appearance in the movie Star Wars as the protagonist Han Solo. The other image displays the fictional character Yoda, also from the Star Wars series. A typical character trait in the movies is his unique phrasing, resulting in the Internet Meme as: ‘OOYL, Only once you live’.
Fig. 2. Han YOLO.; “Funny Memes Han Yolo”; Funniest Memes; http://www.funniestmemes.com/funnymemeshanyolo/, 14 Jan. 2014; Web; 22 May. 2015. Fig. 3. OOYL.; “OOYL”; Funny Junk; http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3797418/Ooyl/, 14 Jun. 2012; Web; 22 May. 2015.
More remixing with other popular content can be seen in figure 4, where we see Timon and Simba discussing the YOLO phrase. This image remixes the popular Disney movie Lion King , specifically its famous song/phrase Hakuna Matata and claims that to have been the original motto. Its reference to the hit song by Drake becomes more obvious by using the word ‘Nigga’. Fig. 4. Hakuna Matata is the motto nigga.; “Fuck YOLO, Hakuna Matata is the Motto Nigga”; Quickmeme; http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3t5hsp, Web; 28 May. 2015. The widespread use of the term caused a movement against it for being an ‘ acronym you'll love to hate’ ( The Evolution of YOLO 2012) and ‘dumb’ (Lupkin 2012). The last article describing a rapper’s last tweet shortly before he died in a car accident: ‘ Drunk af going 120 drifting corners #F***It YOLO.’ (Lupkin 2012). The YOLO Internet Meme describes a generation that is influenced highly by popular culture and in a way obsessed with splurging and a day to day lifestyle. This recklessness is parodied in the music video ‘YOLO’ by The Lonely Island’, in which YOLO is call ‘The battlecry of
a generation’. Here YOLO is used to advise its listeners to make wise life decisions focused on the future converting the abbreviation into: ‘You oughtta look out’. The reappropriation of the phrase is illustrated clearly in figure 5, where we can see a girl regretting her ‘YOLO’ lifestyle. This Internet Meme is a remix of the YOLO meme and the ‘At first I was like...’ meme that is used to describe a change of emotion ("At First I Was Like..."). It also makes use of the hashtag often used on popular social media such as Twitter and Instagram. Fig. 5. At first I was like #YOLO.; “At First I Was Like Yolo. But Then I Was Like…”; Gagnamite; http://gagnamite.com/atfirstiwaslikeyolobuttheniwaslike/, 05 May. 2013; Web; 29 May. 2015. Another Internet Meme is the ‘Ehrmagerd’ meme, sometimes called ‘Gersberms’ and/or ‘Berks’. The meme features a girl holding a couple of books from the Goosebumps series. She is clearly wearing an orthodontic retainer, on which the ‘Ehrmagerd’ rendering of the phrase ‘O my god’ is based (see fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Gersberms.; “Gersberms”; Funny Junk; https://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3459840/Gersberms/, 15 Mar. 2012; Web; 15 Jun. 2015. The phonetically written captions are meant to allude to the speech impediment many people experience when wearing a retainer. On the 14th of March 2012 the photo without caption was posted to Reddit with the description ‘Just a book owners smile…’ (Ermahgerd 2012). The top comment was a link to an edited version of the image that featured the caption ‘Gersberms / Mah fravrit berks.’, meaning ‘Goosebumps, my favourite books’. This version of the image received 17.000 upvotes within two weeks and reached the frontpage of Reddit (Ermahgerd 2012). For comparison, an average post that reaches the frontpage has around 4.500 upvotes. On June 8th, 2012, a website called I Can Haz Cheeseburger posted an image of a dog looking at dogfood frantically with the caption ‘Ermahgerd Merlkbehrns’ meaning ‘O my god Milkbones’, Milkbones being the brand of dogfood (see fig. 7). This in turn led to an outbreak of images of animals looking at food with captions in the ‘Gersberms’ style (see fig. 8 and fig. 9).
Fig. 7. Merlkbehrns.; “All dogs love merlkbehrns”; EyesLikeHeadlights; http://eyeslikeheadlights.tumblr.com/post/25720359472/lovesexmusicalldogslovemerlkbehrns, 2012; Web; 12 Jun. 2015. Fig. 8. Ferncer First.; “Ermahgerd Ferncer Ferst”; Luv Images; http://www.luvimages.com/image/ermahgerd_ferncer_ferst999.html, Web; 19 Jun. 2015.
Fig. 8. Kerrets.; “ERMAHGERD. KERRETS. ”; Plurk; http://www.plurk.com/p/gpeaee, 24 Jun. 2012; Web; 16 Jun. 2015.
2.4 Hacking the meme In the 1999 essay ‘The essence of the Meme’, Stephen Downes sets out to tackle what the meme means in the landscape of popular culture and advertising. The meme is a virus that is used to sell products by taking hold of a person or internalizing itself (1). Big corporations do this by hacking memes that have nothing to do with a product per se, but have everything to do with the identity of a person: ‘Even rebellion is commodified — if it is not commodified, it is not shown.’ (2) and ‘Products are often “pitched” to specific ethnic groups, minorities, or sub–cultures, often using the Marcusian strategy of appealing to their own sense of difference or deviance (“Wear our clothes, and then you’ll be a real rebel.”).’ (4). It is this hijacking of cultural values that have dominated the corporate strategies over the last decades. Nike doesn’t sell shoes or sportswear, they sell the ‘just do it’ attitude, one that clearly finds resonance with consumers. Downes observes a counter movement at the time of writing his essay in the form of what he calls the ‘antimeme’. It is the fight against the memes such as the McDonald's jingle that parasitize our minds: ‘The methodology of counterattack involves inserting counter–memes into the media mainstream. It is the idea of the meme conceived as virus taken to its logical extreme.’ (7). These countermemes are antibodies or other viruses that are supposed to drive out the popular consumer memes. Artists were already hijacking big commercial billboards at the end of the 90s and slightly altering the message. With the invention of the Internet however, things changed. Where the reach of meme hackers was limited to a few billboards per person, this reach was greatly increased with the coming of the world wide web: With increased public access to the Internet in the late 80s and early 90s, meme hacking was given a new life. While their access to mainstream media was still limited, activists could now communicate with each other in rapid, free and uncensored messages. Moreover, the Internet — and especially the World Wide Web — gave them a means of reaching directly into the mainstream consciousness, bypassing the media altogether. (Downes 9) This hacking of memes is now part of everyday life online. Internet Memes very often appropriate popular cultural ideas and remix them into something else. The goals are not always to undermine the corporate system however and in some cases we can see big corporate brands using the meme space to their advantage (Berman 2011). In some cases undermining a system is still the goal of memes. The Islamic State is clearly out to weaken its opponents. One of their tactics in achieving this goal is to use memes to their advantage. On an abstract level one could say they use the meme of religion and insert their terrorist virus to influence their followers. But on a more literal level we can see them using Internet Memes and actually hack them, the process described by Downes. Analysis of propaganda material online by Al
Qaeda showed Islamic keywords and motifs as the tools to ‘[trap] sympathizers and potential recruits ...’ (Fighel 2007, p. 34). What was new was the use of techniques that we until then knew as marketing techniques, being used for ideological goals. Now however, the Islamic State uses popular cultural ideas that exist in the West and hijacks these to create viruses that parasitize the minds of people viewing the Internet Memes. They use the distributed nature of the Internet to spread their ideological message, one of the vehicles being Internet Memes. As Downes writes in his essay: ‘The answer lies in the nature of the Internet. Everybody will have access to information. The very nature of cyberspace is that it is interpersonal and multidirectional. ‘[C]ommunication is deeply personal, exactly the opposite of the mass media message.’ (10). The combination of the interpersonal and multidirectional nature of the Internet and the fact that it is the opposite of the mass media allows the Islamic State’s memes to be so successful. This dualism between online interpersonal networks and mass media is where the United States is losing the battle against the Islamic State, as I will discuss later on. 2.5 The internet meme as an ideological statement The Internet Memes described so far are playful and mostly harmless. The Kilroy Was Here meme may indirectly do harm as it has strong connotations to war and the military. The ‘YOLO’ meme appears in combination with the death of a rapper, but it is clear that his death had more to do with drinking and driving than the meme. The last example of ‘Ermahgerd’ is not innocent and comparable to other times people have made fun of retainers. It happens and sometimes it can cause real distress to the people being picked on. However the meme is not directed at the girl whose image is used. The actual girl may very well feel differently about this, but the ‘Ermahgerd’ meme is not inherently harmful. A meme that is in fact aimed at killing and bloodshed is the ‘This is our call of duty’ meme (see fig. 9).
Fig. 9. Call of Duty.; “Militants In Iraq Are Better On Social Media Than Most Actual Companies”; Business Insider; http://www.businessinsider.my/isispropaganda20146/#Hs4YOow2o6Ky41DG.97, 25 Jun. 2014; Web; 15 Jun. 2015. The image features two men carrying weapons and wearing military gear somewhere out in what is likely a dessert. The caption on the image reads ‘This is our call of duty / And we respawn in Jannah’. The image has a watermark that consists of an arabic text and the Islamic State logo. The arabic text reads ‘ﺪﻴﺣﻮﺘﻟﺍ ﻖﻳﺍﺭ’ or ‘Banner of Tahwid’. Tawhid is the foundation of Islam. It declares there is only on god and describes ‘... the unity and uniqueness of God as creator and sustainer of the universe’ (The Oxford Dictionary of Islam 2015). It is not only a religious concept but is also used by reformers and extremists as a principle by which to form human society. The black and white logo of the Islamic State is featured throughout their propaganda efforts and also alludes to the unity of the one true god. The black and white logo is based on the ‘Black Standard’ or ‘Black Banner’ that ‘goes back to the 8th century, when the Second Dynasty of Islam came to power with black banners,’ (Jonathan Bloom
quoted in Porzucki 2014). The logo is part of the original flag and reads ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of God’. IS often uses the black flag or part of it to brand their propaganda. The main caption on the image, set in a bold font reading ‘This is our call of duty’ refers to Call of duty, a popular video game franchise. Call of Duty is what is known as a first person shooter, a videogame where the player can either play a singleplayer campaign or play against other players. The first person aspect refers to the view the player has as if (s)he were looking through the eyes of the character played. The goal of the game is to survive by shooting and ‘killing’ the other players. An important aspect of the game is the concept of ‘respawning’, meaning being placed in the level or ‘map’ again so a player can continue to play. If a player would be unable to play after another play has shot him/her the game would end fast and wouldn’t be much fun to play. Instead the creators opted for a system based on point whereby every death counts as a point for the person who ‘killed’ the other player. Coming back to the Internet Meme, it reads ‘And we respawn in Jannah’, referring to the respawn concept found in Call of Duty . Jannah, literally meaning garden, is the Muslim concept of the eternal paradise one finds himself after death (Schimmel 2003). It is the equivalent of the Christian heaven. The ‘This’ in the first caption likely refers to the depicted soldiers fighting and shooting for the IS cause. Joining IS and fighting for their beliefs is the ‘Call of duty’ of the two people in the image. It alludes to a religious connotation of your duty as a Muslim to pick up arms in Jihad. The people in the image have no choice but to join IS, as it is their duty to help their Muslim brothers. The religious belief in an afterlife supports their cause, as they don’t have to fear death, they will simply respawn in the garden after all. Fighters that have already gone East to join IS say the real life shooting of people is better than Call of Duty (Kang 2014). It is this mixture of both religious and nonreligious, both Eastern and Western concepts that make these ideological Internet Memes so interesting. In the campaign of Call of Duty , one often finds oneself in combat against enemies of the United States. Rarely do missions feature terrorist activity. In the first version of the game the war being fought is the second world war. One can either choose to play the game from the point of view of a US soldier, a soldier from the United Kingdom or a Soviet soldier to fight a common enemy: Germany. This Western videogame is used as a vehicle to spread the message that fighting for IS is your duty as a Muslim. Not directly, as the caption describes the beliefs of the two people wearing military gear. But combined with the mention of Tahwid, the unifying concept for Muslims all over the world, the message becomes a religious pamphlet for the IS cause. There is even humor in the caption, comparing the respawning of a video game character to dying in real life and entering the garden or afterlife. It makes the actual topic of the image feel light and the choice futile. It casually slips some ideological thoughts into your brain:
Like a soldier ant programmed to sacrifice her life for germline copies of the genes that did the programming, a young Arab or Japanese is taught that to die in a holy war is the quickest way to heaven. (Dawkins 1993, 11)