Week 10: Analyzing your Sample

The next two weeks we will be working on analyzing our meme samples in relation to your chosen research question.  We will be looking at two aspects: Memes features and Messages features.  This week we will be focusing on Meme Features, or how the structure and communication style of memes might influence they way they are read and interpreted in relation to your chosen research question.

In the first few weeks of your research blogging you were asked to look at the work of Shifman (2013) and consider how traits of memetic success (week 3), types of humor used (week 40 or motivational strategies employed (week 5) can influence how memes are understood and interpreted.  This week you will pick one of these aspects and apply it to your memes sample to see how it helps you interpret the ideas about gender/religion/race they communicate. 

Before you begin this analysis you need to do the following.

PART 1:
First, if necessary based on comments posted on your blog, please revise your research question.

Second, use this research question and the criteria you set out in last week's blog to select the 10 memes that best allow you to explore your chosen topic.

Three, create a blog post in which you post these 10 images and the web links associated with them.  Title this post Week 10: Final Meme Sample

PART 2:
After you have completed this portion of the assignment the you will create a second blog post for week 10.  Here you will identify which of the aspects from Shifman's research will be of most use to you.  Write a paragraph that identities which aspect you will use, offers a clear definition and explanation of what Shifman's ideas are, quoting as relevant from her book.  And then explain how you apply this to your sample. 

After you perform this analysis then write 1-2 paragraph that starts with your findings, provides examples from 2 or 3 exemplar blogs that demonstrate your claims. And then end your paragraph with a summary of what these finding might mean in light of your research.  This should be written in essay format, using a structured paragraph format, rather than an open ended response to an exam question.