‘Vamo a calmarno’. Los memes como dispositivos de referencialidad comunicativa

Abstract

An image is shared in a social network. Instantly, many people are able not only to see it, but they can, through their digital devices, save it, edit it, and even share it. A long time later, the image is published again, but now, it has a filter, a couple of low-quality editions, and a text that accompanies it in a sarcastic tone. It travels the web again, but this time, millions of people read it, laugh at it, and save it to be shared later in future conversations. Like this small example, thousands of images are created every day and can ‘speak’ in several contexts, without any limits and even crossing geographical and linguistic borders. This digital phenomenon, named ‘meme’ (a term adapted from sociology) is commonly related to mockery and parody, and academically speaking it has been studied from different positions, but mainly from linguistics and discourse analysis.