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Memes to Movements: How the World's Most Viral Media Is Changing Social Protest and Power
A global exploration of internet memes as agents of pop culture, politics, protest, and propaganda on- and offline, and how they will save or destroy us all.
Memes are the street art of the social web. Using social media-driven movements as her guide, technologist and digital media scholar An Xiao Mina unpacks the mechanics of memes and how they operate to reinforce, amplify, and shape today's politics. She finds that the "silly" stuff of meme culture--the photo remixes, the selfies, the YouTube songs, and the pun-tastic hashtags--are fundamentally intertwined with how we find and affirm one another, direct attention to human rights and social justice issues, build narratives, and make culture. Mina finds parallels, for example, between a photo of Black Lives Matter protestors in Ferguson, Missouri, raising their hands in a gesture of resistance and one from eight thousand miles away, in Hong Kong, of Umbrella Movement activists raising yellow umbrellas as they fight for voting rights. She shows how a viral video of then presidential nominee Donald Trump laid the groundwork for pink pussyhats, a meme come to life as the widely recognized symbol for the international Women's March.
Crucially, Mina reveals how, in parts of the world where public dissent is downright dangerous, memes can belie contentious political opinions that would incur drastic consequences if expressed outright. Activists in China evade censorship by critiquing their government with grass mud horse pictures online. Meanwhile, governments and hate groups are also beginning to utilize memes to spread propaganda, xenophobia, and misinformation. Botnets and state-sponsored agents spread them to confuse and distract internet communities. On the long, winding road from innocuous cat photos, internet memes have become a central practice for political contention and civic engagement.
Memes to Movements unveils the transformative power of memes, for better and for worse. At a time when our movements are growing more complex and open-ended--when governments are learning to wield the internet as effectively as protestors--Mina brings a fresh and sharply innovative take to the media discourse.
Memes are the street art of the social web. Using social media-driven movements as her guide, technologist and digital media scholar An Xiao Mina unpacks the mechanics of memes and how they operate to reinforce, amplify, and shape today's politics. She finds that the "silly" stuff of meme culture--the photo remixes, the selfies, the YouTube songs, and the pun-tastic hashtags--are fundamentally intertwined with how we find and affirm one another, direct attention to human rights and social justice issues, build narratives, and make culture. Mina finds parallels, for example, between a photo of Black Lives Matter protestors in Ferguson, Missouri, raising their hands in a gesture of resistance and one from eight thousand miles away, in Hong Kong, of Umbrella Movement activists raising yellow umbrellas as they fight for voting rights. She shows how a viral video of then presidential nominee Donald Trump laid the groundwork for pink pussyhats, a meme come to life as the widely recognized symbol for the international Women's March.
Crucially, Mina reveals how, in parts of the world where public dissent is downright dangerous, memes can belie contentious political opinions that would incur drastic consequences if expressed outright. Activists in China evade censorship by critiquing their government with grass mud horse pictures online. Meanwhile, governments and hate groups are also beginning to utilize memes to spread propaganda, xenophobia, and misinformation. Botnets and state-sponsored agents spread them to confuse and distract internet communities. On the long, winding road from innocuous cat photos, internet memes have become a central practice for political contention and civic engagement.
Memes to Movements unveils the transformative power of memes, for better and for worse. At a time when our movements are growing more complex and open-ended--when governments are learning to wield the internet as effectively as protestors--Mina brings a fresh and sharply innovative take to the media discourse.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published January 8, 2019
33 people are currently reading
1297 people want to read
About the author
An Xiao Mina
4 books3 followersAn Xiao Mina is a technologist, writer, and artist whose work has been featured in the New York Times, the Economist, the Atlantic, and Hyperallergic. She was a research fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and she works at the technology nonprofit Meedan. The author of Memes to Movements, she splits her time between New York and California.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
February 17, 2019
Fascinating analysis written in an accessible and thoughtful way. The book covers a vast range of topics, and touches on political moments and cultures from many areas of the world in a nuanced way. It’s beautifully written, too, and provides insights that will be invaluable to help us all understand social media, visual culture and the impact on our political climate.
July 31, 2019
This is a fascinating and readable look at memes as connected to social movements, with clear ideas that one (memes) does not create the other but works hand in hand. Or can. Also explored us how authoritarian governments use memes and media for their own purpose, and it's not a stretch to see how Trump is doing the same.
January 29, 2023
I found this book very fun to read, and one of the most entertaining non-fiction book in my field of social movement studies. Many of the underlying concepts I already am familiar with (e.g., remix culture, memetic theory, the cute cat theory of digital activism, etc.). But I like how clearly the book ties the evolution of memes to political activism through such a wide variety of example, from BLM to the LGBTQ movement. However, the best contribution of this book, in my opinion, is its examples from China and in particular the Hong Kong protests. These cases are often left out of the Western literature, and so I learned a lot of new information about that context. For instance, seeing the parallels between the Umbrella movement and BLM. I will definitely add this work this to my undergraduate social movements course.
February 26, 2019
When I think of internet memes it’s silly ones like the nope octopus or lolcats that immediately come to mind, so I was intrigued by the idea that they are becoming a serious and powerful driving force behind social movements. This book explores how they are remixed and transformed, how they foster narrative building and cultural shifts, how they mirror, reflect, amplify and distort culture, and how they move from the digital world to the physical world. I never paid memes much attention before but will from now on!
I was familiar with most of the American memes so it was interesting to read about their origins and effects, as well as to learn about memes from other countries (China, Mexico, Uganda, etc.) that were new to me. It was also interesting to learn about the various forms internet memes take.
I was surprised that, despite being about a visual subject, this book included no images. On the one hand, the memes were well described and are easy enough to google if needed. On the other hand, many people (like me) read physical books in order to take a break from screens, so including some images would have been convenient and appreciated.
The one bad part of the book was the coverage of the “Hands up! Don’t Shoot!” (and #BlackLivesMatter) memes inspired by the death of Michael Brown. The author says they “echoed early testimony that had suggested Brown had died with his hands up” (pg 81). Witnesses did say that, but those witnesses ultimately admitted to lying and the officer was found to be justified in defending himself. At first I figured the point of the book is how memes push social movements, so going into the details of how a specific meme was built on lies might have been a digression. But a later chapter focuses on memes founded on falsehoods that spread misinformation, so why wasn’t the Brown story brought up again there? Social injustices deserve attention, but it’s also an injustice to ignore when deceptions are used to fuel protests. Perhaps this rush to blindly ignite outrage is why Jussie Smollett thought he could get away with staging a hate crime recently?
Other than that it was a good book, so I would recommend it albeit with reservations that the book may have some glaring omissions as far as historical fact goes.
(Please note that I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
I was familiar with most of the American memes so it was interesting to read about their origins and effects, as well as to learn about memes from other countries (China, Mexico, Uganda, etc.) that were new to me. It was also interesting to learn about the various forms internet memes take.
I was surprised that, despite being about a visual subject, this book included no images. On the one hand, the memes were well described and are easy enough to google if needed. On the other hand, many people (like me) read physical books in order to take a break from screens, so including some images would have been convenient and appreciated.
The one bad part of the book was the coverage of the “Hands up! Don’t Shoot!” (and #BlackLivesMatter) memes inspired by the death of Michael Brown. The author says they “echoed early testimony that had suggested Brown had died with his hands up” (pg 81). Witnesses did say that, but those witnesses ultimately admitted to lying and the officer was found to be justified in defending himself. At first I figured the point of the book is how memes push social movements, so going into the details of how a specific meme was built on lies might have been a digression. But a later chapter focuses on memes founded on falsehoods that spread misinformation, so why wasn’t the Brown story brought up again there? Social injustices deserve attention, but it’s also an injustice to ignore when deceptions are used to fuel protests. Perhaps this rush to blindly ignite outrage is why Jussie Smollett thought he could get away with staging a hate crime recently?
Other than that it was a good book, so I would recommend it albeit with reservations that the book may have some glaring omissions as far as historical fact goes.
(Please note that I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
May 10, 2019
There are only a few books that so directly cut to the core of what memes are about. First is _This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things_ by Dr. Phillips, Shifman's definitional text _Memes In Digital Culture_, and then Dr. Phillip's student and co-author Dr. Milner's _The World Made a Meme_.
Although many of these texts hint at various common themes, this book does two things directly that most books on memes and memetic new media do not. Firstly, it is the first text that regularly distinguishes between the technology of signs and political iconography, and the protocols and power affiliated with social movements. Many books, articles, and presentations on memes (by Shifman's definition) confuse these two things in their analysis. Secondly, this book spends a great deal of time showing how memes function, and how they develop alternative framings of political and social issues and functions that counter what historic geo-governances tend to orient under.
This is an essential read for anyone interested in 21st century counter-cultures, activism, or memetic work.
There are a few things, as with any book, I find troubling. First, this book sub-titularly mentions "virality" but never justifies what that is. Virality almost has nothing to do with this book explicitly. Secondly, a case could be made for arguing that much of this is a one-sided metaphor. There are little to no arguments for how establishment institutions are finding these kinds of media easy/difficult to control... but this book's primary argument is that memes are "seeds" of progression and change in culture. Although occasionally such mentions of institutions are made implicitly, but only in the context of a success of a movement. It would have been interesting to see cases where governments or companies attempted to control memetic narrative and an explanation of success or failure.
Although many of these texts hint at various common themes, this book does two things directly that most books on memes and memetic new media do not. Firstly, it is the first text that regularly distinguishes between the technology of signs and political iconography, and the protocols and power affiliated with social movements. Many books, articles, and presentations on memes (by Shifman's definition) confuse these two things in their analysis. Secondly, this book spends a great deal of time showing how memes function, and how they develop alternative framings of political and social issues and functions that counter what historic geo-governances tend to orient under.
This is an essential read for anyone interested in 21st century counter-cultures, activism, or memetic work.
There are a few things, as with any book, I find troubling. First, this book sub-titularly mentions "virality" but never justifies what that is. Virality almost has nothing to do with this book explicitly. Secondly, a case could be made for arguing that much of this is a one-sided metaphor. There are little to no arguments for how establishment institutions are finding these kinds of media easy/difficult to control... but this book's primary argument is that memes are "seeds" of progression and change in culture. Although occasionally such mentions of institutions are made implicitly, but only in the context of a success of a movement. It would have been interesting to see cases where governments or companies attempted to control memetic narrative and an explanation of success or failure.
June 3, 2019
“Can the Internet lead to positive social change or simply encourage peoples worst appetites for narcissism isolationism, polarization, of hate and propaganda?”
Photo remixes, selfies, YouTube songs, hashtags jokes- How the silly and serious are deeply intertwined
Meme- a unit of culture.
coined by Richard Dawkins 1978 work the selfish Gene. His worked sparked field of memetics.
Basic human cultural practices spread like biological genes
Really informative & thought provoking. Protests & countermovements such as The hoodie that sparked a movement (Trayvon Martin) Hands up,
Umbrellas up, Michael Brown & Hong Kong universal suffrage.
How Contemporary disinformation attempts to do at least two things: (1) overwhelm people with a series of conflicting and confusing narratives such that they give up trying to make sense of it all, and (2) string along those who do sincerely believe the story, and recruit them in amplifying the disinformation.
Selfies & # create a sense of co-presence
Pieces of content that travel from person to person and change along the way.
Sharing & creating were different means to the same end. Making meaningful connections with others.
Break pluralistic ignorance
Synchronization of opinion
Slacktivism
“Messages repeated, thereby reinforced, quite frequently & the narrative changes.”
Profile photo tactic
Microaffirmation
Microaggressions
Censorship is designed to keep communities in the dark about what they might collectively believe. By stamping out public expression, authorities ensure that people remain in a state of ignorance, receiving only a singular view
The great firewall of China GFW
Hashtag - digital public assembly
Social media- an addictive form of self affirmation
Milieu- persons social environment
“Shit-posting” - intending to derail conversations & meming Trump to victory. Alt-right called it meme magic
New political environment called Dissensus
Networked authoritarianism
China implemented a system that tracks online activity & ties it to offline consequences
No clear lines leads to fear & self censorship
The potential of the images circulating online is that they can easily be Memed into messages that amplify these images and draw attention to critical social issues. The risk of images circulating online is if they can so easily be Memed into the messages that amplify a counter message.
Narratives & counternarratives can have lasting effects as they influence media & legislation.
Memes that play a role in advocacy or expression of social issue or policy change simple functional definition: I think of Internet Memes as digital objects that are remixed, transformed, and shared both in digital and physical space and a community
Memes are like mirrors, reflecting, amplifying, and distorting culture
Just because people are paying attention and hearing the narrative you are generating doesn’t mean they come to the same conclusions. Human believe has a much deeper core, influenced by cultural upbringing, family conversations, religious background, and other factors.s
The narrative capacity of Memes in particular can be a matter of concern: the easy ability to create and test different Memes means that governments can create multiple narratives, thereby spreading alternative narratives or exhausting people about the source of trust and truth. Opposition groups can Remax an existing narrative for their own purposes and transform that into a larger counter story.
Photo remixes, selfies, YouTube songs, hashtags jokes- How the silly and serious are deeply intertwined
Meme- a unit of culture.
coined by Richard Dawkins 1978 work the selfish Gene. His worked sparked field of memetics.
Basic human cultural practices spread like biological genes
Really informative & thought provoking. Protests & countermovements such as The hoodie that sparked a movement (Trayvon Martin) Hands up,
Umbrellas up, Michael Brown & Hong Kong universal suffrage.
How Contemporary disinformation attempts to do at least two things: (1) overwhelm people with a series of conflicting and confusing narratives such that they give up trying to make sense of it all, and (2) string along those who do sincerely believe the story, and recruit them in amplifying the disinformation.
Selfies & # create a sense of co-presence
Pieces of content that travel from person to person and change along the way.
Sharing & creating were different means to the same end. Making meaningful connections with others.
Break pluralistic ignorance
Synchronization of opinion
Slacktivism
“Messages repeated, thereby reinforced, quite frequently & the narrative changes.”
Profile photo tactic
Microaffirmation
Microaggressions
Censorship is designed to keep communities in the dark about what they might collectively believe. By stamping out public expression, authorities ensure that people remain in a state of ignorance, receiving only a singular view
The great firewall of China GFW
Hashtag - digital public assembly
Social media- an addictive form of self affirmation
Milieu- persons social environment
“Shit-posting” - intending to derail conversations & meming Trump to victory. Alt-right called it meme magic
New political environment called Dissensus
Networked authoritarianism
China implemented a system that tracks online activity & ties it to offline consequences
No clear lines leads to fear & self censorship
The potential of the images circulating online is that they can easily be Memed into messages that amplify these images and draw attention to critical social issues. The risk of images circulating online is if they can so easily be Memed into the messages that amplify a counter message.
Narratives & counternarratives can have lasting effects as they influence media & legislation.
Memes that play a role in advocacy or expression of social issue or policy change simple functional definition: I think of Internet Memes as digital objects that are remixed, transformed, and shared both in digital and physical space and a community
Memes are like mirrors, reflecting, amplifying, and distorting culture
Just because people are paying attention and hearing the narrative you are generating doesn’t mean they come to the same conclusions. Human believe has a much deeper core, influenced by cultural upbringing, family conversations, religious background, and other factors.s
The narrative capacity of Memes in particular can be a matter of concern: the easy ability to create and test different Memes means that governments can create multiple narratives, thereby spreading alternative narratives or exhausting people about the source of trust and truth. Opposition groups can Remax an existing narrative for their own purposes and transform that into a larger counter story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 22, 2020
If you are unfamiliar with the memes and movements mentioned in this book, it will be a useful primer. Even if you are fairly knowledgeable regarding its material, there is a value in the way the book provides a mosaic of global movements that is useful in thinking relationally to one another. Essentially, the book is a plot summary of other people's ideas regarding memes, and Mina is there to familiarize readers with this work. Although I conduct a bit of research on this area, I found some useful sources because of the book. By its end, I found the book a bit monotonous in that it offered interesting new examples but the core ideas had been largely exhausted midway into the book. The writing is okay, spreading bland, friendly tone of much popular writing that you can't help but feel secretly considers you slightly dumber than you are.
Most troubling are the moments when the author's authoritative tone offers information that is somewhat murky. She writes, for example, "In 2005 linguist and cognitive scientist George Lakoff popularized the concept of framing in politics" (157). Well, it depends on what you mean by "popularized" and "politics." Sociology has a long tradition that predates this with the work of Todd Gitlin, David Snow, and others. Although Lakoff did popularize this notion to people outside of sociology and other academic fields, the concept long predated it.
Another point: "As meme culture spills into the physical world, it becomes more difficult to say that something happening on the internet is just on the internet when in fact it could be happening culture in ways that are not immediately apparent . . . " (155). Sure, that is fair enough, but the statement assumes that there ever was a clear and easy divide between online and offline worlds, which is debatable. Even if we are talking about protest actions, they still depend on physical infrastructure, bodies behind keyboards, and the like. Yes, the lines might be blurring more than ever. but there were always bleeding together between these worlds. If anything, we need to draw our sites offscreen more often to explore how grounded much of this work is. I am not saying that Mina doesn't explore the relations between virtual and physical worlds throughout her book, but there are times when the writing can get slightly caught up in an ebullient frenzy about the power of memes that curdles one's critical faculties.
These are all minor quips with a good basic primer about memes and movements. Overall, if you want to learn more in-depth about the subject, Mina provides a decent secondary bibliography to to pursue later.
Most troubling are the moments when the author's authoritative tone offers information that is somewhat murky. She writes, for example, "In 2005 linguist and cognitive scientist George Lakoff popularized the concept of framing in politics" (157). Well, it depends on what you mean by "popularized" and "politics." Sociology has a long tradition that predates this with the work of Todd Gitlin, David Snow, and others. Although Lakoff did popularize this notion to people outside of sociology and other academic fields, the concept long predated it.
Another point: "As meme culture spills into the physical world, it becomes more difficult to say that something happening on the internet is just on the internet when in fact it could be happening culture in ways that are not immediately apparent . . . " (155). Sure, that is fair enough, but the statement assumes that there ever was a clear and easy divide between online and offline worlds, which is debatable. Even if we are talking about protest actions, they still depend on physical infrastructure, bodies behind keyboards, and the like. Yes, the lines might be blurring more than ever. but there were always bleeding together between these worlds. If anything, we need to draw our sites offscreen more often to explore how grounded much of this work is. I am not saying that Mina doesn't explore the relations between virtual and physical worlds throughout her book, but there are times when the writing can get slightly caught up in an ebullient frenzy about the power of memes that curdles one's critical faculties.
These are all minor quips with a good basic primer about memes and movements. Overall, if you want to learn more in-depth about the subject, Mina provides a decent secondary bibliography to to pursue later.
June 30, 2021
I love memes and anyone that speaks to me knows this cause I don't hide and am constanstantly referencing trends and memes in the way I hold a conversation. When I found this book I was incredibly excited to find a deeper understanding of how memes work and why they are relevant and serious in our social sphere, I was not let down. An Xiao Mina presents an array of cases in which memes are strongly connected with social movements and how they aren't only mirrors that reflect and distort reality in the virtual world, but how they are also seeds that propel social change.
In this way, she divides the book in different aspects of memes such as how they grab attention, the powerful narratives they hold and so on. Not only that, but we are presented with a somewhat global perspective, in which the author clearly shows a need to present memes that appear and are reproduced in "periphery" areas such as Africa and Latin America.
My only problem with this book was that even with the interesting topics and good organization, I was a bit confused as to the center topic of each chapter. Maybe it is mostly a me problem but I found that a lot of times I suddenly lost the main idea and had to remind myself or just give up and hope there was a conclusion that would tell me what aspect of memes we were referring to. Other than this, I liked it very much and will probably use it somehow in future research.
In this way, she divides the book in different aspects of memes such as how they grab attention, the powerful narratives they hold and so on. Not only that, but we are presented with a somewhat global perspective, in which the author clearly shows a need to present memes that appear and are reproduced in "periphery" areas such as Africa and Latin America.
My only problem with this book was that even with the interesting topics and good organization, I was a bit confused as to the center topic of each chapter. Maybe it is mostly a me problem but I found that a lot of times I suddenly lost the main idea and had to remind myself or just give up and hope there was a conclusion that would tell me what aspect of memes we were referring to. Other than this, I liked it very much and will probably use it somehow in future research.
March 28, 2019
The Meme machine and the social media
This book looks at media created by users of social media who express their emotions, feelings, thoughts, deeply-held beliefs; social and political, and the highs and lows of their lives. They bring a variety into the online world where they share, laugh and cry. The social media evolve continuously and educates us into socio-political movements. Photo-remixes, selfies, YouTube videos, hashtag-tweets, and all the silliness of meme culture. Sometimes the silly creations lead to social and political revolutions. This book is not about comprehensive history of memes in social movements nor is this a guide book to be creative online. The author explores the digital culture to illuminate broader-side social media. Memes are analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures. They are a viral phenomenon that may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. That is through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influences a meme's reproductive success.
This book is very enjoyable, and the author’s style of writing add an extra-dimension to the meme culture that has evolved. So, what is next? Perhaps a cloud feature where we can upload our thoughts and emotions in place of videos, music, pictures and emojis.
This book looks at media created by users of social media who express their emotions, feelings, thoughts, deeply-held beliefs; social and political, and the highs and lows of their lives. They bring a variety into the online world where they share, laugh and cry. The social media evolve continuously and educates us into socio-political movements. Photo-remixes, selfies, YouTube videos, hashtag-tweets, and all the silliness of meme culture. Sometimes the silly creations lead to social and political revolutions. This book is not about comprehensive history of memes in social movements nor is this a guide book to be creative online. The author explores the digital culture to illuminate broader-side social media. Memes are analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures. They are a viral phenomenon that may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. That is through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influences a meme's reproductive success.
This book is very enjoyable, and the author’s style of writing add an extra-dimension to the meme culture that has evolved. So, what is next? Perhaps a cloud feature where we can upload our thoughts and emotions in place of videos, music, pictures and emojis.
October 15, 2020
Memes to Movements: How the World's Most Viral Media Is Changing Social Protest and Power é um livro que promete muito, mas que entrega pouco. Principalmente nas descrições dos movimentos que ele planeja cobrir, que trata com muito mais na própria descrição do que ao trazer novas discussões para forma como memes e movimento sociais podem ser trabalhados. Ou seja, se não fosse pela prórpia ação dos memes já ocupando um lugar de comunicação e expressão a largo de nossa sociedade não teria nada de novo neste livro. Bem, talvez os melhores capítulos desta publicação sejam aqueles em que a autora faz dos memes que se utilizam de animais, como os mais conhecidos utilizando-se de gatinhos, mas também faslando sobre como cabras e assemlehados (e no Brasil, o Bode Manêro) tomaram de assalto a cultura. Contudo se você está procurando um livro que faça uma associação de memes e de contruções digitais com movimentos sociais, recomendo esquecer este livro aqui e procurar o livro El Ciberaconcimento, de Ronaldo Henn, esse sim, recheado de boas análises.
July 26, 2019
The author does a decent job of offering some insight to how memes have moved from being fun to being utilized within politics. I liked being able to read about how memes are used in other countries other then the USA. I expected some examples as in images of these memes, not sure if there was a copy-write issue with that or not but I think seeing them would have been useful. It’s unfortunate that the author decided to utilize this book for their own political propaganda, and it seems clear they are left leaning. It would have been so much better if it could have been neutral information and it’s such a pity that it’s so difficult to find anyone willing or capable of writing a book that is neutral and fair to both sides.
February 25, 2019
Even if you're already familiar with memes as a concept, this book will likely expand your understanding about what memes "do" for us and how they begin. It will definitely expand your appreciation for memes as an important and growing force across the world. If the strategy of using memes began among suppressed movements, Mina shows how authoritarian governments quickly became adept at using and diluting memes. Memes tend to travel on the most adored, familiar creatures common to their local culture. Perhaps that phenomena means it will be hard for any one force to commandeer control over humanity's latest means of communicating.
April 2, 2019
"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.
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.
September 5, 2024
The Publisher Says: A global exploration of internet memes as agents of pop culture, politics, protest, and propaganda on- and offline, and how they will save or destroy us all.
Memes are the street art of the social web. Using social media-driven movements as her guide, technologist and digital media scholar An Xiao Mina unpacks the mechanics of memes and how they operate to reinforce, amplify, and shape today's politics. She finds that the "silly" stuff of meme culture—the photo remixes, the selfies, the YouTube songs, and the pun-tastic hashtags—are fundamentally intertwined with how we find and affirm one another, direct attention to human rights and social justice issues, build narratives, and make culture. Mina finds parallels, for example, between a photo of Black Lives Matter protestors in Ferguson, Missouri, raising their hands in a gesture of resistance and one from eight thousand miles away, in Hong Kong, of Umbrella Movement activists raising yellow umbrellas as they fight for voting rights. She shows how a viral video of then presidential nominee Donald Trump laid the groundwork for pink pussyhats, a meme come to life as the widely recognized symbol for the international Women's March.
Crucially, Mina reveals how, in parts of the world where public dissent is downright dangerous, memes can belie contentious political opinions that would incur drastic consequences if expressed outright. Activists in China evade censorship by critiquing their government with grass mud horse pictures online. Meanwhile, governments and hate groups are also beginning to utilize memes to spread propaganda, xenophobia, and misinformation. Botnets and state-sponsored agents spread them to confuse and distract internet communities. On the long, winding road from innocuous cat photos, internet memes have become a central practice for political contention and civic engagement.
Memes to Movements unveils the transformative power of memes, for better and for worse. At a time when our movements are growing more complex and open-ended—when governments are learning to wield the internet as effectively as protestors—Mina brings a fresh and sharply innovative take to the media discourse.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Definition of a meme, via Wikipedia:
Which has given rise to the Internet meme, again via Wikipedia:
I doubt a lot of my readers are unfamiliar with the concept of a meme, in its initial formulatiion by Richard Dawkins, or in its new sense from the internet. It pays not to be caught out by omitting the definitions, partial though they may be. There will always be someone who wants to invalidate any information that offers context for judging modern information culture.
The meme machine is decades old at this point, and a book six years old is going to miss some modern context...the internet moves very fast and seldom stays in one lane even when it isn't moving at top speed. That is clear, and undeniable, but it in no way invalidates the author's thesis that the internet and social media have a large, possibly growing, influence on how much and what kind of attention we pay to different cultural memes on the internet as well as in real life. There are examples of internet-inspired real life actions, eg The Arab Springs of the Teens, so her thesis is that governments began to use countermemes to spread doubt, dissension, and overwhelmed apathy among internet users. The hashtag culture that looks for its own people via searching hashtags on Twitter (still refuse to call it X), and the multivarious pretenders to its throne, to find those whose views align with their own, and whose voices they wish to amplify by reposting or remixing their memes, has proven distractable and cooptable. This was at an earlier phase when the author was writing the book, and thus gets comparatively little play. I would have been more satisfied had there been illustrative memes in the text, but it had, I feel sure, pragmatic reasons like copyright clearances and the sheer exposure to malicious actors challenging the book. In other words, a species of the self-censorship the author discusses, as a consequence of state-sponsored botfarms etc. etc. that act in search of diluting messages they do not like.
That being more of a reason for the publisher to bring out a second edition, one including climate denial in its evolving, still spreading, form, than for you to skip reading it. I encourage you to get your eyes on the author's trenchant, intelligent analysis of the intersection between meme culture and personal resistance to oppression and totalitarian ambitions and actions.
Memes are the street art of the social web. Using social media-driven movements as her guide, technologist and digital media scholar An Xiao Mina unpacks the mechanics of memes and how they operate to reinforce, amplify, and shape today's politics. She finds that the "silly" stuff of meme culture—the photo remixes, the selfies, the YouTube songs, and the pun-tastic hashtags—are fundamentally intertwined with how we find and affirm one another, direct attention to human rights and social justice issues, build narratives, and make culture. Mina finds parallels, for example, between a photo of Black Lives Matter protestors in Ferguson, Missouri, raising their hands in a gesture of resistance and one from eight thousand miles away, in Hong Kong, of Umbrella Movement activists raising yellow umbrellas as they fight for voting rights. She shows how a viral video of then presidential nominee Donald Trump laid the groundwork for pink pussyhats, a meme come to life as the widely recognized symbol for the international Women's March.
Crucially, Mina reveals how, in parts of the world where public dissent is downright dangerous, memes can belie contentious political opinions that would incur drastic consequences if expressed outright. Activists in China evade censorship by critiquing their government with grass mud horse pictures online. Meanwhile, governments and hate groups are also beginning to utilize memes to spread propaganda, xenophobia, and misinformation. Botnets and state-sponsored agents spread them to confuse and distract internet communities. On the long, winding road from innocuous cat photos, internet memes have become a central practice for political contention and civic engagement.
Memes to Movements unveils the transformative power of memes, for better and for worse. At a time when our movements are growing more complex and open-ended—when governments are learning to wield the internet as effectively as protestors—Mina brings a fresh and sharply innovative take to the media discourse.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Definition of a meme, via Wikipedia:
A meme (/miːm/; MEEM) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme.
Which has given rise to the Internet meme, again via Wikipedia:
An Internet meme, or simply meme (/miːm/, MEEM), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations. Characteristics of memes include their susceptibility to parody, their use of intertextuality, their propagation in a viral pattern, and their evolution over time.
I doubt a lot of my readers are unfamiliar with the concept of a meme, in its initial formulatiion by Richard Dawkins, or in its new sense from the internet. It pays not to be caught out by omitting the definitions, partial though they may be. There will always be someone who wants to invalidate any information that offers context for judging modern information culture.
The meme machine is decades old at this point, and a book six years old is going to miss some modern context...the internet moves very fast and seldom stays in one lane even when it isn't moving at top speed. That is clear, and undeniable, but it in no way invalidates the author's thesis that the internet and social media have a large, possibly growing, influence on how much and what kind of attention we pay to different cultural memes on the internet as well as in real life. There are examples of internet-inspired real life actions, eg The Arab Springs of the Teens, so her thesis is that governments began to use countermemes to spread doubt, dissension, and overwhelmed apathy among internet users. The hashtag culture that looks for its own people via searching hashtags on Twitter (still refuse to call it X), and the multivarious pretenders to its throne, to find those whose views align with their own, and whose voices they wish to amplify by reposting or remixing their memes, has proven distractable and cooptable. This was at an earlier phase when the author was writing the book, and thus gets comparatively little play. I would have been more satisfied had there been illustrative memes in the text, but it had, I feel sure, pragmatic reasons like copyright clearances and the sheer exposure to malicious actors challenging the book. In other words, a species of the self-censorship the author discusses, as a consequence of state-sponsored botfarms etc. etc. that act in search of diluting messages they do not like.
That being more of a reason for the publisher to bring out a second edition, one including climate denial in its evolving, still spreading, form, than for you to skip reading it. I encourage you to get your eyes on the author's trenchant, intelligent analysis of the intersection between meme culture and personal resistance to oppression and totalitarian ambitions and actions.
June 1, 2019
I got this as an advanced reader copy. This was not the book that I though it was going to be. It was a little dry, but I was able to get through it. I did want to read something outside of my normal, and this was it. It was interesting to see where certain memes came from and how much power they had to sway people into becoming social political movements. When you think something is just a funny gif or picture, sometimes there is a whole story behind it. I don't think I can look at certain memes the same again.
January 31, 2019
Mina's case studies on global applications of memes in cultural/social organizing are a breath of fresh air in a discourse too often focused on Western organizing not weakened by state-sanctioned Internet censorship. The book concludes with a terrific framework on identifying and qualifying visual, charismatic, and political features of memes that stands to be useful to anyone seeking to dig deeper into what makes certain memes develop traction on the internet and "IRL."
April 1, 2019
Mina has written a thoughtful and thorough analysis of “meme culture” that explores the power of activism through the making and sharing of memes. Unfortunately, this was a much more academic take on the subject than I was looking for. The cover is somewhat misleading in my opinion, as I was expecting a book with color images of popular memes and more of an overview of social protest memes than an academic analysis of their creation and power. Well-written and important, just not for me.
July 29, 2019
This book was a very interesting read. It wasn’t necessarily “captivating,” but it really made me think. I’d recommend this to anyone who is interested/involved in internet culture. The author did a great job of taking a global look at the topic, (focusing mainly on China & the US) helping to avoid the typical Eurocentric approach many non fiction authors take to sociological explorations such as this one.
September 13, 2019
Super fascinating!!! An in-depth look at some of the world's memes and how they are shaping and affecting real social movement. From Black Lives Matter to the Yellow Umbrella movement, this is an extremely interesting analysis of how memes are shaped by culture and then go on to affect culture itself. Definitely worth checking out if you have any interest in memes, how internet culture and irl culture interact, and the way that the world functions in a digital age.
March 28, 2019
Memes are deceptively simple
A book to address memes in our time can confuse old timers like me who use different terminology. Mina is a trendsetter who knows her subject well, however, and was able to keep my interest and give me a greater appreciation for what it is that makes memes matter in this age.
A book to address memes in our time can confuse old timers like me who use different terminology. Mina is a trendsetter who knows her subject well, however, and was able to keep my interest and give me a greater appreciation for what it is that makes memes matter in this age.
December 15, 2021
I really wanted to give this 5 stars, but there were a few times things dragged for. If you're looking for a book reflecting on the silly internet mene culture, this book is not for. Highly informative (dare I say academic) and interesting read on international phenomenon of the historical growth of memes.
March 2, 2023
This was so interesting! You never know which level of depth you are going to get with books about the Internet, but this one was great and made a lot of really interesting connections. It talks about art, politics, cats, and many other things and highlights their connection to memes with interesting examples from different countries. Definitely worth reading!
February 23, 2019
A very sound analysis of the ways in which memes impact, expand and influence social movements on both ends of the political spectrum. It’s an interesting book even if you aren’t a political scientist or a technologist.
March 11, 2020
This book was pretty cool, and as a rhetorician looking at social movements, this book has some pretty cutting edge perspectives of how memes and the study of memetics affects the political realm! I hope more books and studies like this keep coming out and going further in depth on the topic!
December 22, 2021
a wonderful book, i really enjoyed how it explored non-american internet and compared/ through place/time/metaphor how the digital and virtual are so interconnected and influence one another. many ideas that will stick with me and take a while to unpack, a fantastic read
January 15, 2023
Recommend this very insightful book
This intelligent and insightful book illustrates how “memes can fuse new narratives in society and influence behavior.” It provides a fascinating international perspective on the use of imagery in Social Media.
This intelligent and insightful book illustrates how “memes can fuse new narratives in society and influence behavior.” It provides a fascinating international perspective on the use of imagery in Social Media.
June 19, 2024
I think this book brought up interesting points but since it has come out - in 2019 - a lot of predictions in the book have not panned out, making it hard to read the optimism in the face of the much darker reality.
December 23, 2018
It was a good read.
February 3, 2019
Very interesting! I learned a lot of tidbits that will stick with me. Author clearly did the work to know what she's talking about.
March 23, 2019
I think it's more that I'm too old than the book is not all that interesting.
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