Date of Award

Spring 4-29-2022

Document Type

Honors Project

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Communication and Digital Studies

Department Chair or Program Director

Anand Rao

First Advisor

Adria Goldman

Major or Concentration

Communication and Digital Studies

Abstract

This paper explores how a community is formed in the Facebook group The M in UMW Stands for Memes and what role memes play in shaping a sense of community and sharing information. Based on previous research, there was a common theme found within the results of the studies; memes can be used to communicate information and a shared understanding is needed to have a sustainable online community. I chose to complete this study using a content analysis which allowed for an evaluation of the shared language used in the posts revealing how this mode of communication creates a sustainable online community. In doing so, I was able to answer the questions; what are the shared language and cultural capital needed to understand the discussions in the group and how are memes used to create community and communicate to the group members? I found that cultural capital played a crucial role in understanding the content of the group which was formed by the shared language in the posts and that humor was used across all posts to communicate information. In this paper, I argue that the effects of the group’s norms and values, consistent use of humor in posts, and creation of cultural capital through the shared language revealed how this community was formed and maintained using memes.

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