The contingent macro

Abstract

This paper investigates how internet memes are complex and stratified objects, going beyond the standardized definition of ‘image macro’ habitually employed by scholars. To this end, we take the 2019 Italian government crisis as a case study and analyze a dataset of related 1.269 memes using a combination of computational and qualitative methodologies. Our analysis shows the emergence, proliferation, and fading of popular templates, which remix images and text from the political crisis and occasionally serve as frames for other events: the Contingent Macro. Together with less standardized memetic instances, we found that Contingent Macros concur to create metaphoric narratives, which develop as the event unfolds. Besides formalizing the concept of Contingent Macro, this work provides scholars with a methodological toolkit for the analysis of event-related meme production, which can capture the fluidity of memes. Overall, the article concurs to underline the need for a clear, context-specific definition of memes, tailored to specific social, cultural, and research contexts.