A Viewpoint Study Of Chinese College Students' Comprehension Of Multimodal Internet Memes

Multimodal Internet memes(memes for short),as a type of medium which combines images and texts to express personal opinions on social networks,have drawn growing interest from scholars.Previous research on multimodal Internet memes greatly emphasizes their cultural values and cognitive features,while research in viewpoint on memes mainly focuses on meaning construction.In previous research,little attention has been paid to the comprehension of memes.Since the study on the interpretation of readers' comprehension of memes can be a concrete and unique starting point for interpreting their comprehension of the world,the study on the readers' comprehension of memes is of great necessity.Therefore,this study selects Chinese college students as subjects,trying to interpret their comprehension of multimodal Internet memes in light of viewpoint theory.This thesis attempts to answer the following three research questions:(1)What are the types of multimodal Internet memes based on Chinese college students' comprehension?(2)How can Chinese college students' comprehension of different types of multimodal Internet memes be interpreted in light of viewpoint theory?(3)What factors affect Chinese college students' comprehension of multimodal Internet memes?In traditional viewpoint theory,viewpoint refers to a narrative method.The study of one's viewpoint is restricted to narrative discourses.However,in new viewpoint theory,which is applied in this research,viewpoint is conceived as an inescapable part of cognition that is naturally embedded in all forms of discourse(Dancygier & Sweetser,2014;Lou,2017).Dancygier & Vandelanotte(2016)suggest that multiple viewpoints can independently evoke complex frames or spaces,enabling readers of a particular discourse to construct a viewpoint network in order to construct meaning.Therefore,viewpoint theory is best studied through discourses containing complex structures.As a unique form of discourse,a multimodal Internet meme contains a complex interaction between the image and the text.Thus,viewpoint theory makes it possible to interpret the comprehension of multimodal Internet memes.Through a preliminary investigation,13 multimodal Internet memes are selected as the research material.They are presented to 30 Chinese college students for their comprehension.Quantitatively,multimodal Internet memes are classified according to college students' comprehension of the relationship between their images and texts.Then,college students' comprehension of each type of multimodal Internet memes is interpreted through a qualitative method.Influential factors that affect their comprehension are also ascertained by the same method.This study arrives at three major findings:(1)According to Chinese college students' comprehension of the relationship between image and text,multimodal Internet memes can be classified into four types,namely “meme in similarity”,“meme in contrast”,“meme in complement” and “meme in mixed relationship”.(2)Chinese college students' comprehension of all types of memes can be interpreted in terms of a multilevel viewpoint structure.However,their comprehension processes vary according to the different types of memes.As for “meme in similarity”,there is a slight difference between the image viewpoint and the text viewpoint.To reconcile this difference,a higher-level discourse viewpoint is constructed by readers.As for “meme in contrast”,the discourse viewpoint is constructed to resolve the incongruous clash produced by image and text viewpoints.As for “meme in complement”,the discourse viewpoint is set up to meaningfully combine the two complementary viewpoints.As for “meme in mixed relationship”,readers' comprehension process includes those of the previous three types of memes.(3)The influential factors for comprehension of multimodal Internet memes can be divided into three aspects: the type of multimodal Internet memes,readers' frame knowledge which is represented by the frame viewpoint,including common sense,character impression,stereotype,preconceived assumption,personal experience and youth subculture and the design of the multimodal Internet memes.