The biologist Richard Dawkins is credited with coining the term meme to refer to ideas and behaviors that spread throughout a population in a way analogous to biological evolution. In the context of online media, the term is used to refer to viral open texts that subvert meaning by juxtaposing image and text. They spread quickly across social media and encourage users to adjust them and produce their own versions. Memes are most often sarcastic and often comment on popular culture, politics, or the digital environment. Online memes encourage users’ contribution and therefore enhance communication and the exchange of ideas.

Internet memes have become a subject of academic research only recently but have drawn interests from various disciplines, including mathematics, social sciences, psychology, linguistics, and media ...

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