Talking About Religious Context
In a 2013 comparative study conducted by professors at Texas A & M University, they highlight different way that religion is expressed in internet memes. They also present findings on the intention behind these memes and how they relate to lived religion. 1 This studied is presented as a way of understanding how religious memes are part of both lived religion and participatory culture. 2
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Anyone can create a meme. Memes provide a medium in which people can share their beliefs through visual expressions of religion. They also provide an interesting way of examining how religious understanding is created, consumed, and spread on the internet. 3 Religion-oriented memes also give us insight into how faith is perceived in modern day culture. 4
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“Internet memes tend to boil down complex ideas into broad generalizations that can express popular assumptions or biases about religion, so that images and messages about religion often become over-simplified or distorted in memes”
- Professor Heidi Campbell, Texas A & M University 5
“We found that memes break down, or essentialize, religion, in positive and negative ways, making religious ideas more accessible and popularized”
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-Professor Heidi Campbell, Texas A & M University 6
Genres of Religious Memes 7
There are six common genres of internet memes in which religious themes are present:
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1- Stock Character Memes with Religious Themes: These memes adrd wroitten religious-themed elements on non-religious, stock-character templates. Stock characters are stereotypes of people that audiences easily recognize from their re-occurrences in the literary tradition. (see example 1-1)
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2- Religious Figure Memes: These memes are similar to the stock character genre, but the characters used are all religious figures. All four of the memes discussed under the "memes?" tab fall under this category as they all depict Jesus or God.
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3- Reaction Memes: These memes are created as reactions to the news and current events. Oftentimes these events have religious affiliation. (see example 1-2)
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4- Implicit Religion Memes: These memes often depict fake or made up religions. These religions are often born out of or spread through digital mediums. Sometimes these religions are referred to as " folk religions". (see example 1-3)
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5- Religious Spoof Memes: These memes imitate or alter original material by exaggerating the characteristics. They often function as a parody. These memes differ from the other kinds as they do not use superimposed text. (see example 1-4)
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6- Video Memes: These memes are separated into two subcategories: Video Response Memes and Video Spoof Memes. These are made as a way of responding to a religious figure or event. They can be comical or used as a method of social justice.
(ex. 1-1)
(ex. 1-2)
(ex. 1-4)
(ex. 1-3)
1 Bellar, Wendi, et al. “Reading Religion in Internet Memes.” Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture, vol. 2, no. 2, 2013, pp. 3
2 Ibid., pp. 4
3 Ibid., pp. 6
4 Ibid., pp. 7
5 Terry, Andrea. “Internet Memes Provide Unique Insights Into How Faith Is Viewed.” Texas A&M Today, Texas A&M University, 1 May 2014, today.tamu.edu/2014/05/01/internet-memes-provide-unique-insights-into-how-faith-is-viewed/.
6 Ibid.
7 Aguilar, Gabrielle K, et al. “Communicating Mixed Messages about Religion through Internet Memes.” Information, Communication &Amp; Society, vol. 20, no. 10, 2017, pp. 1498–1520.