From a Marketplace to a Cultural Space: Online Meme as an Operational Unit of Cultural Transmission

Junhua Wang University of Minnesota, Duluth ; Hua Wang Liaoning Normal University

Abstract

Culture as a research site and tool has been well established in the field of intercultural business and technical communication. In recent years, the perspective of culture as an ongoing process responding to contextual forces has been widely embraced in the field. Acknowledging the dynamic nature of culture helps communicators make contextual evaluations in intercultural business communication practices. While researchers strive to examine the dynamic nature of culture and contextual factors’ influence on culture and communication, little efforts has been made to examine the process of a cultural element’s generation, development, and transmission. To understand the notion of culture as a dynamic process for effective intercultural business and technical practices, it is necessary to conceptualize or describe how a cultural element or unit originates and develops along an evolutionary path. In this study, we focus on how the online meme serves as an empirically useful unit of culture, explore an online meme’s evolution process when it successfully transfers from an online marketplace to cultural space, and identify the qualities that constitute the success of the online meme.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2015-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0047281615578847
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (24)

  1. Bauckhage C. (2011). Insights into Internet memes Proceedings of the Fifth AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Soc…
  2. The meme Machine
  3. Video vortex reader: Responses to YouTube
  4. Chick G. (1999). The units of culture. Obschestvennie nauki I Sovremennost (Social Science Today) 5 pp. 101–1…
  5. Chinese foreign ministry touts jobs in informal ‘Taobao' style (2011). Retrieved from http://www.wantchinatim…
Show all 24 →
  1. CNNIC. (2013). Statistical Report on Internet Development in China. Retrieved from Chinahttp://www.cnnic.cn/h…
  2. The selfish gene
  3. The blind watchmaker
  4. Consciousness explained
  5. Darwin’s dangerous idea
  6. Dispute on the Taobao Style Wanted Notice (2011). Retrieved from http://www.chinanews.com/fz/2011/11-23/34812…
  7. Do you know these online patois? (2013). Retrieved from http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2013-08/31/c_125281985.htm.
  8. Erickson J. & Li T. (2013). Taobabble: Basic vocabulary. Retrieved from http://www.alizila.com/taobabble-basi…
  9. Creating ‘Memes’ whilst creating advertising
    Journal of Advertising Research  
  10. Heylighen F. (1998). What makes a meme successful? Selection criteria for cultural evolution. Proc. 16th Int.…
  11. Jenkins H. (2007). Slash me mash me spread me. Retrieved from http://henryjenkins.org/2007/04/slash_me_mash_m…
  12. A new literacies sampler
  13. Mameli M. (2005). The selfish meme: A critical reassessment (a review). Retrieved from https://ndpr.nd.edu/ne…
  14. Mulligan M. (1996 March 25). Superhighway to heaven. Financial Times p. 11.
  15. 10.3998/mpub.11394721
  16. 10.1111/jcc4.12013
  17. Taobao Style Helps Promote Safe Driving (2011). Retrieved from http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-08/11/…
  18. Linking contextual factors with rhetorical pattern shift: Direct and indirect strategies …
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  19. In Human by nature: Between biology and the social sciences