Meme wha-?

MEMES. 
What's the deal with memes??

So in case you are still not familiar with the concept of a "meme", it's pretty much a picture with a witty caption used to construct or add to a cultural paradigm. In this case, it's Big Brother. Ever since the meme generation burst through our social-media doors, even television reality shows like BB have their own Facebook pages, Instagram sites, just posting memes. In short, memes are a new adaptation in visual media.

Now I chose the above example, because I think it perfectly exemplifies the purpose of a meme. Obviously the picture is poking fun at a Big Brother contestant, saying she looks like a hooker. As I explained in my last post, much of the power of a photo comes from its polysemic nature. It can be interpreted in a million and one ways... And our generation is very clever. Using digital technology and social networking distribution, we have capitalised on this interpretive nature of photos, and have used words to give them meaning. And to sway the opinions of our audience. So rather than letting a picture speak for itself, the power is now in captions.

That in mind, I wonder: Is the visual web as powerful as we think it to be? What is a photo without words? What are words without a photo? Which has greater weight?

xx Nicola