THE ROLE OF THE MEMES IN THE STRUCTURE OF MODERN INTERNET COMMUNICATION

Abstract. The present work analyzes the corpus of memes of language media content during the 2020 pandemic and respond why some memes become popular and long-lasting. Can a good mem overcome local boundaries? Do memes always appear spontaneously or are memes introduced intentionally? Is it reasonable that a meme can be identified with a cultural universal and be the main broadcaster of society and culture? In this work, the authors use a semiotic-linguistic approach, because a semiotic approach lets us understand how a sign transforms into a meme, while a linguistic approach narrows the object of analysis to communication phenomena expressed both verbally and non-verbally and used for specific purposes (Wiggins, Bradley & Bowers G.B., 2014). The main difference between a meme and other ways of representing information on the Internet is playing with the effect of mass character both emphasizing the globality of a process (with its subsequent positive or negative assessment) and indicating one’s own belonging to something. That is, by users who satisfy both their internal needs and achieve the desired communicative response from the interlocutor with the help of a meme. In social networks, the meme becomes the main marker of the wide involvement of users in any process, therefore, memes can be deemed as the main way of transmitting information on social networks or a way to represent the opinions of various groups about political and social problems. The events of 2020 became a fertile field for the emergence of a huge number of memes, while the study conducted suggests that, despite the universality of the problem of the COVID-19 pandemic, national culture finds its manifestation in memes and determines the attitude of citizens to the situation. Analyzing the corpus of memes as a focal point of 2020 allowed us to identify culturally significant stereotypes and values in each linguistic community. The analysis shows that the meme plays a double role in the structure of modern Internet communication, and then such popularization of the meme leads to the fact that memes become an obligatory feature of communication of any community.

Keywords: memes, memetic space, media content, digital culture, pandemic