A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Of Image Macros As Internet Memes

Internet Memes,as a ramification of traditional memes facilitated by the rapidly developing technology,refer to some kind of idea or piece of information that spreads rapidly across a large number of Internet users.As a typical type of multimodal discourse,Internet Memes may take the form of image(typically Image Macros),hyperlink,video,website,or hashtag.And similar to traditional memes,Internet Memes also contain cultural connotations in them besides their entertainment function.In this thesis,the author takes Image Macros as the research object for their representativeness and popularity among Internet Memes.Image Macros are often defined as captioned images typically consisting of a picture and a caption in which the caption is governed by the unspoken rules provided by the image.As an approach to expressing the attitude and stances of Internet users,Image Macros also indicate something of values and ideology in a specific cultural background except for their entertainment value.Hence,this thesis takes two series of Image Macros,namely First World Problem Macros(FWP)and Third World Success Macros(TWS)as the corpus to probe into the hidden values and ideology behind them and to reveal how they are achieved in the form of Image Macros,also a binary contrast will be made to show some cultural connotations behind.The theoretical framework for the current study is composed of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar(SFG)and Kress and van Leeuwen’s Visual Grammar(VG).Here,the thesis will be carried on by analyzing the textual message of Image Macros under SFG and the visual image under VG.Then the Image Macros will be analyzed as a whole in a quantitative method and a comparative study of FWP memes and TWS memes will be conducted for value and ideology analysis.In the current study,VG and SFG will act as foundations to explain how the images and captions in Image Macros cooperate with each other to convey values hidden behind them.Through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the top 100 Image Macros of FWP and TWS selected from the www.memegenerator.com,the following conclusions are achieved:Under VG framework,both FWP memes and TWS memes apply a reactional process and symbolic process in terms of representational meaning,but they provide different information.In FWP memes,the white woman offers a reaction towards what she is experiencing by showing a sad and depressed facial expression.While in TWS memes,the boys are reacting to the happenings by giving a smiling and dancing.The symbolic process includes the use of synecdoche in image,the white crying woman representing the whole of white people in the first world,specifically representing Americans for the current study,and the black African boys standing for all people in undeveloped countries,such as African countries.Moreover,these meme series are different in their perspective as well as the shooting angle of picture.In FWP memes,the viewers take an eye-level angle to see the woman while a downward angle to see the African children,which indicates different social status between the participants and the viewers.Also,a close-up shot of the white woman is taken and a long shot for the African children,symbolizing different social distance between viewers and participants.Under SFG framework,the material process in transitivity is most frequently used in both two memes.Also,different actors,goals and action verbs are chosen in these material processes,which helps to convey different values and ideology.In terms of Interpersonal function,FWP Macros and TWS Macros choose different pronouns,which indicates different social relations between the creators and the viewers.In regard to their thematic meaning,different themes are chosen by meme makers when creating FWP and TWS memes.Themes including technology,Internet and food are mostly chosen in FWP to criticize some values in American culture such as overreliance on technology,overemphasis of efficiency and personal achievements,while themes like disease,hunger and war affairs comprise the majority of TWS memes to reflect the impoverished situation.Also,TWS memes are used to criticize some American values,such as their requirement of instant gratification and material comfort by forming a sharp contrast with FWP memes.In this thesis,the author manages to reveal the ideology and values hidden in Image Macros based on VG and SFG.As a popular phenomenon in people’s daily life,Image Macros deserve much more attention than they have gained until now.Also,few scholars have focused on the study of Internet Memes based on the VG and SFG.Therefore,the author aims to arouse people’s attention on this popular phenomenon as Internet Memes and tries to contribute to the theoretical framework of MCDA.