Sample Task

The sample task for "The Language of Technology" asks you to analyse a viral meme: what message does it convey, and how does it use humour or satire? This lesson shows how to choose a meme, analyse it in five steps and write up the analysis.

Analysing a meme uses the same skills as analysing any text, applied to a short multimodal form. First choose a suitable, widely shared meme with a message beyond a simple joke. Then work through five steps: the context of its format, what each mode (image, words and layout) contributes, the message and its target, the humour techniques it uses, such as incongruity, irony, exaggeration and satire, and its audience and effect, including the shared knowledge it depends on and its limits. A worked example, an original meme in a familiar two-panel format about friends who message instead of talking, models each step, followed by a model analytical paragraph and advice on citing sources and choosing memes responsibly.

Sample Task: Analysing a Viral Meme

Memes are among the most widely shared texts of the digital age, which makes them worth analysing as carefully as any poem or speech.

The task

"Analyse a viral meme. What message does it convey? How is humour or satire used?" The command term analyse means breaking the meme into its parts and explaining how they work together to create meaning. A meme is a multimodal text, so you must consider images, words and layout, not just the caption.

Choosing a meme

A good choice is:

• appropriate for school, with no content that mocks people for their identity or targets a private person;
• widely shared, so it really is viral and its format is recognisable;
• meaningful, saying something about society, school, technology or culture rather than being only random;
• traceable, so you can say where you found it and, if possible, where its format came from.

A five-step method

1. Context: Where does the format come from, where did it circulate, and what do people usually use it to say?
2. Modes: Describe what each mode contributes: the image (expressions, gestures, setting), the words (labels or captions) and the layout (top and bottom, left and right, before and after).
3. Message: What point is the meme making, and who or what is its target?
4. Humour and satire: Which techniques create the humour? Common ones include incongruity (putting together things that do not belong), exaggeration, irony (a gap between what is expected and what happens), juxtaposition (placing contrasting things side by side), parody (imitating something to mock it) and satire (using humour to criticise people, institutions or behaviour).
5. Audience and effect: What shared knowledge does the reader need? Why might it spread? What are its limits: who might not understand it, and could it oversimplify or reinforce a stereotype?

Worked example

This meme was invented for this lesson, using a widely shared two-panel format. In the top panel, a figure turns away with a look of disgust; in the bottom panel, the same figure smiles and points approvingly.

• Top caption: "Talking to the friend sitting next to me"
• Bottom caption: "Sending that friend a meme about talking to friends"

Applying the steps:

• Context: the format is used to show a preference for one option over another, usually a surprising or silly one.
• Modes: the gestures and expressions show rejection and approval; the captions tell us what is being rejected and preferred; the top-to-bottom layout creates a simple contrast, like a before-and-after.
• Message: the meme suggests that digital communication has replaced face-to-face conversation, even between people in the same room.
• Humour and satire: the humour comes from incongruity and irony: the speaker chooses a meme about talking over actually talking. It is self-satire, because the meme criticises the very habit of sharing memes, and the exaggeration makes the point easy to recognise.
• Audience and effect: it targets young people who share memes, and it works only if they know the format. By inviting readers to laugh at themselves, it makes its criticism easy to accept, though it may be shared without changing anyone's behaviour.

Writing up the analysis

The meme satirises the way digital communication can replace real conversation (point). In the top panel, the figure rejects "Talking to the friend sitting next to me", but in the bottom panel approves of "Sending that friend a meme about talking to friends" (evidence). The contrast created by the two-panel layout and the irony of preferring a meme about talking to actual talking make the behaviour look absurd, while the self-mocking tone lets readers laugh at their own habits rather than feel attacked (explanation). This shows how memes can use humour to criticise digital culture from within it (link).

Taking care

Cite where you found the meme, avoid memes that mock real private individuals or groups, and check whether a meme is spreading misinformation. These choices connect this task to the ethical use of media studied later in the chapter.