Lazalde 1 Luis Lazalde Dr.

Erin Dietel-McClaughlin WR-13300-11 28 March 2014 Annotated Bibliographies My topic involves investigating the phenomena of internet memes across the internet as a form of communication, and will require looking at the history, characteristics, usage, and overall effectiveness of internet memes. This topic greatly interests me as I have had a fondness for internet memes and viral phenomena since about my freshman year in high school, and since then, I have had a love of seeing whats new in internet culture and phenomena. Ive also been interested in the academic study of memes, although I was convinced no such study had yet existed because of the novelty of the phenomena. Thus, I seek to see if the use and effectiveness of internet memes can be quantified and evaluated, especially in terms of communication and idea sharing on the internet.

Blackmore, Susan. "Why We Need Memetics." Behavorial and Brain Sciences 29.4 (2006): 349. Print.Printed in the academic journal Behavorial and Brain Sciences Published by the Cambridge University press, "Why We Need Memetics" describes an alternate view of memes than that of other memetic scholars previously seen. Although Dawkins defined memes as being units of cultural transmission, Blackmore does not think this means that memes are found solely in the brain. Blackmore speculates that memes can survive without the need of humans, as a future civilization could potentially rebuild aspects of the previous culture by studying the memetic leftovers of that civilization (much like Greek philosophy can be

Lazalde 2 extrapolated by the remnants it has left over in other philosophies) (Blackmore 349). This is a potentially useful source as it provides an alternative view of memes within the context of memetics. Such an analysis could be useful in the study of internet memes by comparing the behavior of internet memes to their cultural-biological counterparts.

Castao Diaz, Carlos Mauricio. "Defining and Characterizing the Concept of Internet Meme." Revista CES Psicologa 6.1 (2013): 82-104. Revistas Cientficas Universidad CES. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. This journal entry was written recently, in 2013, in the Spanish Peer-Reviewed Psychology journal Revista CES Psicologia, curiously enough in English. The journal is from CES University in Colombia, written by the Masters (in Cognition and Communication) student Carlos Mauricio Castao Daz, who studies at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In the Article, Daz gives a history of the definitions of memes since the days of Dawkins to the modern day and the evolution and comparison between different ideals since then. In addition, Daz includes two case studies of particular internet memes, Zalgo and Pepper Spray Cop. In the article, Daz takes the original concept of the meme farther from the original meaning given by Dawkins in order to update and better define the concept of an Internet Meme, an entity which is different from a traditional meme (83). This article is very useful as it helps to identify the characteristics that make an internet meme, an internet meme, and how it is that these characteristics are used to communicate ideas, a central theme of my essay. The history and evolution of the understanding of what a meme is, is also helpful as it allows one to see how it is that modern scholars define and categorize memes.

Lazalde 3 Coscia, Michele. "Competition and Success in the Meme Pool: a Case Study on Quickmeme.com." The Seventh International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The AAAI Press, 2013. 100-109. Print. This is an interesting source as it has bridged empirical data with theoretical data provided by scholars of memes. Using data from Quickmeme.com and analytical models provided by mathematical algorithms, the author is able to model the growth and decline of a meme over time in a certain meme-pool. These models show the interactions of memes through the medium of internet memes are able to survive through cooperation and competition in the meme-pool (Coscia 100). Submitted to the Conference on Weblogs and Social Media this report had to be evaluated to be included into the proceedings of the conference and must be trustworthy enough to be cited. This source will be especially useful in exemplifying the usage of internet memes over a given time, as these must be used in order to facilitate some kind of communication, and will also show how it is that these have their own rise and fall with empirical data.

Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976. Print. Written by Richard Dawkins, the renowned ethnologist and evolutionary biologist, in 1976, this book put forth the theory of selfish genes in evolutionary biology. This does not necessarily mean that the genes themselves act selfishly, but only that they act in such a way, promoting altruism among individual organisms carrying the same traits. Toward the end of the book, Dawkins makes the first argument for the existence and spread of memes, a newly coined word at the time. Memes, as defined by Dawkins, are units of cultural transmission which are a new yet unique offshoot of genetic evolution (208). The book was written for the academic community, particularly those who were interested in the function of genes in the context of

Lazalde 4 evolution. This book, particularly its closing acts, may help my research by giving the original definition of memes in the biological context. In this way, the way internet memes function in the internet can be contextualized based on their biological understanding.

Kersting, Kristian. "Mathematical Models of Fads Explain the Temporal Dynamics of Internet Memes" The Seventh International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The AAAI Press, 2013. 100-109. Print. This source, like the previous source, also models internet memes mathematically but with a difference source, google Trends, and assumes that internet memes are merely a subcultural fad (Kersting 22). Written for the same Conference, this source must also have been evaluated and accepted into the proceedings of the conference. My particular interest in this source stems from comparing its mathematical models to that of the other report above, seeing where it is that differences in either calculations or models are and seeing what assumptions are made of the memes. This source tends to focus more on the temporal nature of memes rather than their long term effects. One of the comparisons drawn to internet memes is that of an epidemic, citing that the model of the spread of an internet meme is similar to that of an epidemic among a population (Kersting 22). Additionally, it is stated that internet memes go through a hype cycle of popularity, where if their popularity outgrows their novelty too quickly, they die out (Kersting 29). This will certainly prove an interesting part of analysis for the effectiveness of these as forms of communication.

Know Your Meme, Internet Meme Database. Cheezburger, n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. <http://knowyourmeme.com/>.

Lazalde 5 Founded in 2008, Know Your Meme has held as its goal the research and documentation of Internet memes and viral phenomena. Phenomena on internet communities or elsewhere believed to be internet memes are submitted for research and evaluation by a team of staff researchers and users (About page). Know your meme contains data on the usage of particular memes over time, aggregating data from Google Trends. In addition to graphical data, there is also information on the usage of internet memes in general, encompassing studies in memetics and online social media. This site, although comical at times, is integral to the understanding of memes and their usage, as it details the origins and growth of memes through the cultural landscape of the internet. Such information will be useful to compare given information from scholarly sources on the same matter, using data from Know Your Meme as empirical data patterned by scholarly theorization.