Participation practices of consumer brands in post-digital meme culture
Research Question:
How can brand memes be analysed to make sense of commercial participation in post-digital internet culture and the consumption narratives they produce?
Abstract:
This dissertation analyses brand memes to find out how commercial entities participate in the creation and adaptation of digital folklore. Brand memes can be read as fictional stories about consumption. By layering elements of irony and sincerity, alliance and antagonism, reality and fiction, brand memes tell the ambiguous tales of contemporary consumption. I am decoding the underlying logics of internet memes created by consumer brands to find out how commercial intentions and branded elements are merged with established memetic practices into new narratives. In a detailed netnographic analysis, I am looking at humor mechanisms, narrative practices, and aesthetic strategies of commercial meme-making.
Doctoral student: Jacqueline Brantschen
Universität Zürich, Institut für Sozialanthropologie und Empirische Kulturwissenschaft
Erstbetreuung: Prof. Dr. Moritz Ege (UZH)
Zweitbetreuung: Dr. Francis Müller (ZHdK)
2024 - 2028
