Ephemeral mimetics:
Ephemeral mimetics:

memes, an X-ray of Covid-19

Summary/Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a crisis with consequences for public health, but also with economic, social and cultural implications that have affected all layers of society to a greater or lesser extent. Communication has been impacted by the immediacy and virality of messages and misinformation has galloped across social platforms. Against this backdrop, memes have emerged as a powerful means to channel citizen sentiment. During the Covid-19 crisis, social sciences and, in particular, the study of social interaction through digital platforms has played a significant role. A study of these digital objects is essential to understanding social network-based communication during the pandemic. The qualitative research reported here analyses the role of memes in communication on Covid-19, studies their development and defends their status as one of this generation’s cultural artefacts that, as such, merits preservation. Meme evolution is studied using Kübler-Ross’ (1969) stages of grief, which has been applied in a number of contexts involving psychological change. A corpus of 980 memes was analysed according to iconographic and sociological criteria. Studying memes in those terms both brings information on the evolution of citizens’ concerns to light and proves useful to identify the trends present in social media communication around the pandemic. The challenges to be faced in meme preservation are defined, along with the ways in which heritage institutions should ensure the conservation of these cultural objects, which mirror early twentyfirst century communication and world views and, in this case, provide specific insight into one of the most significant historical circumstances of recent decades.

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