Our contemporary digital communication faces a critical literacy crisis as traditional media frameworks struggle to adapt to the complexity of modern environments. A new media form has instead emerged as the dominant mode of global discourse—internet memes. They circulate virally due to their capacity to be easily modified, compressed, and transcoded across contexts. Such viral circulation inevitably shapes their discursive dynamics, particularly for those memes that center on paradoxical and ironic rhetoric. Their complex interpretive mechanisms remain largely unexplored. A systematic investigation of meaning interpretation from such deliberately ambiguous, self-contradictory, and absurdist content is therefore indispensable. As paradoxical and ironic memes become highly influential in public discourse, political communication, and cross-cultural understanding, such investigation becomes increasingly crucial. This research undertakes this investigation through an innovative application of Roland Barthes's semiotics. It develops a three-stage literacy framework—encoding, decoding, and understanding—to investigate the meaning construction in paradoxical and ironic memes that resist conventional interpretation. By revealing how memes function as meaningful artifacts for cultural commentary and social critique, this study examines the new meaning interpretation mechanisms within contemporary digital communication environments. This research seeks not only to reveal the ideologies behind paradox and irony, but also the inner workings of meme culture as a vital component of our communication culture. The findings of this research contribute to critical media literacy studies and offer practical applications for various disciplines, including digital marketing and cross-cultural communication strategies. Furthermore, it responds to the urgent concerns about misinformation and digital discourse quality in global media environments.

Authors:
Xingman Cheng, Keio University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Xingman Cheng is a doctoral student in Media Design at Keio University, Japan, and an adjunct professor of Communications at Lakeland University, Japan. Her research centers on digital communication, simulation literacy, and human-media connections.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/xingman-cheng-xc/

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

Bookmark