Discuss and critique of the notion of memes. Is it a plausible theory to explain the effectiveness of viral advertising?

Guidance

For general guidance see the guidelines for writing essays and reports.

What Key Features Do I Look For? Familiarity with relevant texts Evidence - the stronger the better Argument - coherent and balanced Theoretical discussion - relation to relevant theories Understanding of relevant concepts Reflexivity - reflections on methodology Examples - insightfully analysed Style - readability and effective presentation

Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here. For examples of essays by UWA students click here.

Advice for this particular assignment:

Offer an account of the notion of memes as well as criticisms from Henry Jenkins and others. As a point of comparision it may be useful to draw upon the debates between 'effects' and 'uses and gratifications' theorists. Note also that this is an assignment for which the inclusion of relevant pictorial illustrations is likely to be an advantage. For guidance on capturing stills, click here.

Some suggested reading

• Blackmore, Susan J. (1999) The Meme Machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Chandler, Daniel & Munday, Rod (2011) A Dictionary of Media and Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Dawkins, Richard (1989) The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford
• Godin, Seth (2000) 'Unleashing the ideasvirus' [PDF document] URL http://www.sethgodin.com/ideavirus/downloads/IdeavirusReadandShare.pdf
• Gould, Stephen J. (1997) ‘Evolution: The pleasures of pluralism’. New York Review of Books 44: 47-52; [WWW document] URL " STYLE="text-decoration: none" target="_top"> http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Debate/Gould.html
• Hyde, Lewis (2006) The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms The World. Edinburgh: Canongate Books.
• Jenkins, Henry (2009) 'How Susan Spread and What It Means' [WWW document] URL http://henryjenkins.org/2009/04/how_sarah_spread_and_what_it_m.html
• Jenkins, H., Li, X., Domb, A., & Green, J. (2008) 'If It Doesn't Spread It's Dead: Creating Value in a Spreadable Marketplace' [PDF document] URL http://www.convergenceculture.org/weblog/2010/04/convergence_culture_consortium.php
• Katz, Elihu (1957) 'The two-step flow of communication: An up-to-date report on an hypothesis', Public Opinion Quarterly 21(1): 61-78.
• Levison, J. Conrad (2001) Guerrilla Creativity. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
• Lister, Martin, Jon Dovey, Seth Giddings, Iain Grant & Kieran Kelley (2009) New Media: A Critical Introduction (Second Edition). London: Routledge.
• Mauss, Marcel (2001) The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. London: Routledge.
• Midgley, Mary (2003) ‘Tidying the Inner Scene: Why Memes?’ In Mary Midgely (Ed.) The Myths We Live By. London: Routledge, pp. 56-60.
• Rushkoff, Douglas (1994) Media Virus!: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture. New York: Ballantine Books.
• Schramm, WIlbur L. (1971) ‘How Communication Works’, In W.L. Schramm (Ed.) The Process and Effects of Mass Communication (Second Edition). Urbana, IL: Illinois, pp. 2-55.
• Shifman, L. (2013) 'Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a Conceptual troublemaker', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 18(3): 362-77; [WWW document] URL http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcc4.12013/pdf