Research trends in memes: insights from bibliometric analysis
| Date | 04 June 2024 |
| Pages | 144-158 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IDD-07-2023-0069 |
| Published date | 04 June 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Library & information services,Lending,Document delivery,Collection building & management,Stock revision,Consortia |
| Author | Charunayan Kamath,Sivakumar Alur |
Research trends in memes:
insights from bibliometric analysis
Charunayan Kamath and Sivakumar Alur
VIT Business School, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
Abstract
Purpose –The growth of social media globally has led to brands adopting memes as a tool for communication. They have influenced digital
culture, politics and marketing. This study aims to highlight theresearch gap in meme literature by profiling and science mapping.
Design/methodology/approach –This study has performed a bibliometric analysis of research papers on memes from the Scopus database. The
authors profiled the literature and found the most relevant journal, author and document. Science mapping techniques such as thematic analysis,
thematic evolution and co-citation of papers with content analysis were used.
Findings –Profiling of literature revealed that the most relevant journal, based on a number of papers and citations, is New Media and Society. The
top researcher on memes is Shiffman L (seven papers), and the most cited author is Menczer F (717 citations). The paper titled “Towards A Unified
Science of Cultural Evolution”has the highest number of citations (402). Thematic mapping revealed “Social Movements”and “Twitte r”are the
currently trending themes. The co-citation analysis clustered the literature into two. The first cluster elucidates the theore tical underpinnings of
memes, while the second cluster explicates the various contexts in which memes are studied.
Practical implications –This study will be vital to researchers hoping to study internet memes by providing directions for future research.
Furthermore, the insights from this study will enable social media managers to use memes effectively.
Originality/value –To the best of the authors’knowledge, this study seems to be the first to use bibliometric analysis to profile and map meme literature.
This study provides a new perspective for meme researchers to explore memes and su ggests marketers implement novel meme-based strategies in their
marketing communications.
Keywords Internet memes, Internet, Bibliometric analysis, Profiling, Science mapping, Co-citation analysis
Paper type General review
Introduction
Richard Dawkins proposed that memes are like viruses that
replicateand disseminate into the human population(Dawkins,
1989). The original Greek word for meme mīm
ema, means to
imitate. Memes withtime have evolved from a unit of imitation
to linguistic discourse (Malodia et al.,2022). Earlier, memes
were transmitted orally in everyday conversations, gatherings
and fairs. Presently, memes spread through the internet in the
form of text,image, video, graphics interchangeformat (GIF), a
song/jingle, etc. For example, the viral ice bucket challenge,
which spread awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a
neurodegenerative disease, was one of the first viral internet
memes. A contestant in this challenge had ice water dumped
over their heads in a bucket. The participant then nominated
other potential individuals to take part in the challenge.
Therefore,the imitation of this act across time and peopleled to
it being calledan internet meme (Rossolatos,2015).
Social media use has grown in the past decade. More than 58%
of the world’s population uses social media. Active social media
users spend 2.5 h daily on them. They spend 26.3% on social
media on product search. Therefore, brands can leverage this usage
to promote their offerings on social media (Kemp, 2022). Memes
have increasingly become powerful marketing communication
tools as they have greater brand engagement compared to
conventional advertisements. Brands must strategize on how
memes can be incorporated in their social media marketing plan.
Brands can promote their offerings subliminally through a mem e
(Cole, 2018). These could include aligning with latest popular
culture trend, using humour in communications, finding the right
platform (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) to communicate
and be involved with videotrends and challenges (Boyd, 2021).
Meme marketing has attracted the attention of marketing
academics due to its impact. Using memes in a brand’s social
media posts, has increased their customer engagement rate.
One such exampleis the meme marketing of Zomato India,who
uses memes in advertising to enhance consumer belongingness
and to increase t he advertisement’s fun component. Prominent
rappershailing from North Americaand Canada partnered with
Zomato to create a videosong titled “Jalebi baby”following the
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/2398-6247.htm
Information Discovery and Delivery
53/1 (2025) 144–158
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 2398-6247]
[DOI 10.1108/IDD-07-2023-0069]
Erratum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article,
Charunayan Kamath and Sivakumar Alur “Research trends in memes:
insights from bibliometric analysis”, published in Information Discovery and
Delivery, was published with misleading Figure captions that may have made
the data difficult to interpret. The errors were introduced in the editorial
process and have now been corrected in the online version. The publisher
sincerely apologises for this error and for any inconvenience caused.
Received 10 July 2023
Revised 9 November 2023
5 April 2024
Accepted 14 April 2024
144
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