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 "aboutThisFile": {
  "whatThisIs": "A research brief: a structured summary of one paper, prepared for seanrintel.com from the paper's full text.",
  "howItWasMade": "This brief was prepared with AI assistance and published by Sean Rintel. It is not the authors' published text.",
  "whatIsVerbatim": "Only 'quote' fields, figure captions and 'abstract' are the authors' own words. Research questions follow the paper's wording where it states them. Takeaway, summaries, answers, definitions and method are the site's plain-language paraphrase.",
  "howItIsChecked": "Before publication every quote is matched against the paper and every number in the brief is found in it. 'verified' is the date of the last check.",
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   "For a quick answer, use 'takeaway' and 'questions'. For evidence, use 'findings' (each has a verbatim quote, its location in the paper and a 'url' anchored to that finding on the paper's page).",
   "Locations such as '§5.2, p. 9' refer to the version at 'pageNumbersReferTo'.",
   "For anything not covered here, read the paper itself: 'fullTextSources' lists free versions first.",
   "If 'researchOverview' is present, the paper is part of one of Sean Rintel's research overviews: it gives the overview's thesis, the claims this paper is evidence for and its role in each, and the other papers in the overview.",
   "To find other papers by Sean Rintel, use the catalogue at https://seanrintel.com/publications/index.json."
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  "authorship": "Sean Rintel's role on each paper: lead author when he is first author, sole author when he is the only author, and otherwise senior author. Senior author here means the senior researcher on the team, whatever his position in the author list.",
  "howToCite": "Cite the paper, not this file: use 'citation' or the ready-made 'bibtex' (DOI where given) and name every author. Attribute paraphrase to the paper's findings, and use quotation marks only for 'quote' text."
 },
 "name": "Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression",
 "author": [
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/#sean-rintel",
   "name": "Sean Rintel",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/",
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    "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xc25GRgAAAAJ",
    "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q102369654",
    "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/serintel/",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrintel"
   ]
  }
 ],
 "datePublished": "2013-06",
 "doi": "10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1",
 "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html",
 "citation": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1",
 "bibtex": "@article{rintel2013crisis,\nauthor = {Rintel, Sean},\ntitle = {Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression},\nyear = {2013},\nmonth = {June},\nurl = {https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1},\npages = {253-271},\njournal = {Australasian Journal of Popular Culture},\nvolume = {2},\nnumber = {2},\nnote = {Rintel, S. (2013). Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 2(2): 253-271. DOI: 10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1},\ndoi = {10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1},\n}",
 "abstract": "Crisis memes are the ghoulish and satirical posts that spread through social media concurrently with serious journalistic reportage. They are folk productions that respond to challenging events based on thematic and structural templates of popular online image macros. This article explores how templatability is relevant to the underpinnings, development, structure and value of crisis memes. The combination of frivolity and ghoulishness that is typical of crisis memes may be criticized for not being reasoned discourse, reinforcing cultural divides and making use of copyrighted content without permission and in ways that the copyright holder may not wish. However, the value of crisis memes lies not in their content but rather their place as a public voice that sidesteps the constraints of traditional media and as an illustration of freedom of expression that may be threatened by increasingly restrictive copyright regimes.",
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 "fullTextAvailable": true,
 "takeaway": "Online memes rely on templatability. Crisis memes refill familiar templates to comment on power, disasters and online commentary itself alongside the news, giving people a public voice outside traditional media that restrictive copyright may threaten.",
 "whyItMatters": {
  "stateOfTheArt": {
   "summary": "Earlier work by Knobel and Lankshear analysed classic online memes thematically and found social commentary to be one of their overarching purposes, in three subcategories:",
   "quote": "people concerned with displays of good citizenship; tongue-in-cheek, socially oriented, political critique; and social activism or advocacy",
   "location": "§Introduction, p. 2"
  },
  "contribution": {
   "summary": "A structural rather than thematic analysis of image macro crisis memes, showing how templatability underpins their forms, deployment, purposes and value.",
   "quote": "the value of crisis memes lies not in their content but rather their place as a public voice that sidesteps the constraints of traditional media",
   "location": "Abstract, p. 1"
  },
  "whoCares": {
   "summary": "Internet users, legislators and other stakeholders in copyright, and researchers of Internet culture and civil society.",
   "quote": "legislators need to better understand how the demands of restrictive copyright might be at odds with the Internet's technical infrastructure and Internet cultural practices",
   "location": "§The value of crisis memes, p. 16"
  }
 },
 "researchQuestions": [
  "How is templatability relevant to the underpinnings, development, structure and value of crisis memes?"
 ],
 "concepts": [
  {
   "term": "Crisis memes",
   "definition": "Ghoulish and satirical image macro posts that spread through social media alongside serious reporting of crises.",
   "quote": "Image macro crisis memes are folk productions produced as responses to challenging events based on thematic and structural templates of popular image macros.",
   "location": "§The value of crisis memes, p. 14"
  },
  {
   "term": "Templatability",
   "definition": "The paper's central idea, rooted in a basic human capability:",
   "quote": "The memetic process is a product of the human capability to separate ideas into two levels - content and structure - and then contextually manipulate that relationship.",
   "location": "§Online memes, templatability and the prehistory of crisis memes, p. 4"
  },
  {
   "term": "Image macro",
   "definition": "One of the earliest forms of online meme, and the basis of every crisis meme analysed here:",
   "quote": "An image macro is a picture with superimposed text (Wikipedia 2011a), conforming to a template for their combination and types of meaning.",
   "location": "§Online memes, templatability and the prehistory of crisis memes, p. 4"
  },
  {
   "term": "Snowclone",
   "definition": "A verbal template such as 'X is the new Y', whose slots can be filled to comment on any situation."
  },
  {
   "term": "Exploitable",
   "definition": "An image without text that others can add new elements to. The term also has a second sense:",
   "quote": "a class of memes that involve superimposing images of a human or anthropomorphic figure onto another image",
   "location": "§Commenting on disaster: Exploitables and Rage Comics, p. 9"
  }
 ],
 "method": {
  "design": "Interpretive, structural analysis of image macro crisis memes, set against ideas of meaning as movement, memes (Dawkins) and the networked public.",
  "setting": "Memes found on social media and on meme collection and generation sites (for example Know Your Meme, Reddit, 4Chan, Meme Generator). They concern crises including the UK riots, the death of Osama Bin Laden, the US debt crisis, Queensland floods and the Norwegian terrorist killings.",
  "sample": "Illustrative examples from several meme families: The Most Interesting Man in the World, Advice Animals, exploitables (Strutting Leo, Disaster Girl, Chubby Bubbles Girl), Rage Comics (Y U No) and meme combinations (Scumbag Steve, Scumbag Brain).",
  "analysis": "Analysis of each meme family's templatable forms, situational deployment and purposes, followed by an argument about the value of crisis memes."
 },
 "findings": [
  {
   "headline": "Built from ready-made templates.",
   "summary": "Tracing the history of online memes, the article shows that crisis memes are not made from scratch. They reuse templates developed in the early 2000s. These are image macros (pictures with superimposed text, named after forum software that expanded typed text into a pre-defined image) combined with snowclones (verbal templates such as 'X is the new Y').",
   "quote": "In other words, a commonly understood practice in computer science involves exploiting pre-fabricated structures. It is not surprising, then, that such understandings were imported into Internet culture.",
   "location": "§Online memes, templatability and the prehistory of crisis memes, p. 5",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-sonline-memes-templatability-and-the-prehistory-of-crisis-memes-p-5",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1 (§Online memes, templatability and the prehistory of crisis memes, p. 5)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Formulas for ridiculing power.",
   "summary": "Image macro snowclones such as The Most Interesting Man in the World, and Advice Animals (a character's head on a colour-wheel background, with text), are used to comment on power. After the 2011 UK riots, a photo of a looter with a bag of rice was captioned in the first meme's formula. Advice Animals let a political position be deployed fast and reused in the next crisis.",
   "quote": "I don't always loot/but when I do, its cuz I need some basmati rice",
   "location": "§Introduction, p. 2",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-sintroduction-p-2",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1 (§Introduction, p. 2)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Ghoulish jokes arrive first.",
   "summary": "Exploitables (cut-out figures such as Disaster Girl pasted onto news photos) seem to circulate simply as ghoulish humour. Disaster Girl and Chubby Bubbles Girl are among the first memes to appear in a crisis because no text needs writing. Rage Comics such as Y U No instead express the anxiety of living through a disaster. Only the figure's face and arms must stay, so the rest adapts freely.",
   "quote": "Thus for the Queensland example, the round head of the figure is replaced by a map of the state.",
   "location": "§Commenting on disaster: Exploitables and Rage Comics, p. 11",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-scommenting-on-disaster-exploitables-and-rage-comics-p-11",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1 (§Commenting on disaster: Exploitables and Rage Comics, p. 11)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Memes that mock meme culture.",
   "summary": "Memes are combined with one another, sometimes to comment on online comment culture itself. When the Norwegian terrorist killings coincided with Amy Winehouse's death, a Scumbag Brain meme (used for owning up to one's own bad behaviour) pointed out that far more online commentary went to the singer.",
   "quote": "significantly more sorrow was being expressed for the natural or suicidal death of a single person versus the 76 shot by Anders Breivik",
   "location": "§Commenting on commenting: Meme combinations, p. 13",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-scommenting-on-commenting-meme-combinations-p-13",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1 (§Commenting on commenting: Meme combinations, p. 13)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Each meme is the next in a series.",
   "summary": "For people who know the originals, each crisis meme is read as another, and possibly the next, instance in a series. Crisis memes draw power from being timely, timeless and serial at once.",
   "quote": "These features are especially relevant to crisis memes, which are produced and consumed in the heat of an emergent social crisis, which is new but also another instance of a crisis that has been experienced before.",
   "location": "§The value of crisis memes, p. 14",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-sthe-value-of-crisis-memes-p-14",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1 (§The value of crisis memes, p. 14)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Ghoulish, but still civil society.",
   "summary": "However frivolous and ghoulish, crisis memes are argued to be a form of civil society and free expression, one that often relies on unlicensed use of copyrighted images.",
   "quote": "crisis memes are nevertheless an important manifestation of civil society because they show people to be interested in taking an evaluative public position",
   "location": "§The value of crisis memes, p. 14",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-sthe-value-of-crisis-memes-p-14-2",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1 (§The value of crisis memes, p. 14)"
  }
 ],
 "questions": [
  {
   "question": "Why do jokey memes appear so quickly after disasters and crises?",
   "answer": "Because most are not made from scratch. Templatability (separating a meme's structure from its content) lets people fit new events into well-known image and text templates. Meme generator sites supply the artwork and tools, so new versions can be made almost immediately.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§Online memes, templatability and the prehistory of crisis memes, p. 5",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-sonline-memes-templatability-and-the-prehistory-of-crisis-memes-p-5"
    },
    {
     "location": "§Introduction, p. 2",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-sintroduction-p-2"
    },
    {
     "location": "§Commenting on disaster: Exploitables and Rage Comics, p. 11",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-scommenting-on-disaster-exploitables-and-rage-comics-p-11"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Are memes about tragedies just tasteless jokes?",
   "answer": "They can be frivolous and ghoulish, but the article argues they still matter. They show people taking an evaluative public position, in a voice that sidesteps traditional media.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§Commenting on disaster: Exploitables and Rage Comics, p. 11",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-scommenting-on-disaster-exploitables-and-rage-comics-p-11"
    },
    {
     "location": "§The value of crisis memes, p. 14",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-sthe-value-of-crisis-memes-p-14-2"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "What do memes have to do with copyright and free speech?",
   "answer": "Crisis memes often reuse copyrighted images without a licence. Increasingly strict copyright regimes such as the DMCA, the proposed SOPA/PIPA bills and the Trans-Pacific Partnership could therefore restrict this form of freedom of expression.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§The value of crisis memes, p. 14",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-sthe-value-of-crisis-memes-p-14-2"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Do memes deepen cultural divides?",
   "answer": "The article argues this critique is poorly focused, because almost any communication technology tracks affluence, and in-groups have always bonded through restricted codes. Crisis memes do mean more to Internet insiders, but they may also show how Internet culture crosses national, class and other boundaries.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§The value of crisis memes, p. 14",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.html#at-sthe-value-of-crisis-memes-p-14-2"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "cites": [],
 "quantitative": [],
 "implications": [
  {
   "summary": "Internet users should lobby for more positive individual fair use and sharing rights to protect this kind of expression.",
   "quote": "Internet users should be lobbying for more positive individual fair use and sharing rights",
   "location": "§The value of crisis memes, p. 16"
  },
  {
   "summary": "All stakeholders, including Internet users and legislators, need to be better educated about the relationship between copyright, technology and Internet culture."
  },
  {
   "summary": "Future research should ask what place crisis memes have in twenty-first-century civil society, rather than judging them against reasoned discourse.",
   "quote": "The question for future research, then, is not whether crisis memes should be judged as responses against idealized reasoned discourse, but what their place is in twenty-first-century civil society.",
   "location": "§The value of crisis memes, p. 14"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Crisis memes could be used to study how templatable objects reify their origins, and how Internet culture crosses national, class and other boundaries."
  }
 ],
 "limitations": [
  {
   "summary": "The analysis focuses only on image macro crisis memes, not other forms such as videos, animated gifs or hashtags."
  },
  {
   "summary": "No US left-wing Advice Animals relating to news crises were found, and non-English versions may make the picture more varied than English-language examples suggest."
  },
  {
   "summary": "The flows of meme generation and distribution keep changing, so charting them remains an open empirical question.",
   "quote": "charting these flows will remain an ongoing empirical issue",
   "location": "§Commenting on commenting: Meme combinations, p. 13"
  }
 ],
 "figures": [
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression/fig-3.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 3: LOLcat snowclones.",
   "alt": "Two LOLcat image macros. Left: a cat caught mid-air captioned 'Invisible Bike'. Right: a leaping cat captioned 'the author'm in ur spaceship / Stealing ur gravity', reusing the image and a verbal template.",
   "location": "Fig. 3, p. 6",
   "credit": "Figure 3 from Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1"
  },
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression/fig-12.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 12: Y U No crisis meme examples.",
   "alt": "Two Y U No crisis memes. Left: the Rage Comic face drawn on a map of Queensland, captioned 'Mother Nature, Y U No leave us alone'. Right: the face with a crown on a UK stamp, captioned 'Y U No keep calm and carry on?'",
   "location": "Fig. 12, p. 12",
   "credit": "Figure 12 from Sean Rintel. 2013. Crisis Memes: The Importance of Templatability to Internet Culture and Freedom of Expression. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture 2 (2), 253-271. https://doi.org/10.1386/ajpc.2.2.253_1"
  }
 ],
 "pageNumbersReferTo": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/crisis-memes-the-importance-of-templatability-to-internet-culture-and-freedom-of-expression.pdf",
 "verified": "2026-10-25",
 "studyFigure": {
  "about": "The opening figure on this paper's page, made for the site with AI assistance from this verified brief. It is not the paper's own figure. Evidence entries index this file's quantitative, findings and limitations arrays.",
  "study": {
   "kind": "single",
   "heading": "The paper",
   "summary": "An interpretive essay on image macro crisis memes, the satirical picture and text posts that spread alongside news of crises. It traces how reusable templates shape their forms, uses and value.",
   "steps": [
    {
     "label": "Crisis memes",
     "detail": "Memes from social media and meme sites about crises such as the UK riots, the Queensland floods and the US debt crisis."
    },
    {
     "label": "Meme families",
     "detail": "Examples from families such as Advice Animals, Disaster Girl, Rage Comics and Scumbag Brain."
    },
    {
     "label": "Structural reading",
     "detail": "For each family, the essay examines its reusable template, how it is used in a crisis and its purpose."
    },
    {
     "label": "Argument about value",
     "detail": "The essay then argues what crisis memes are worth to public life and what copyright means for them."
    }
   ]
  },
  "findings": {
   "heading": "What the paper argues",
   "legend": null,
   "stages": [
    {
     "title": "Where crisis memes come from",
     "sub": "the templates they reuse",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The paper traces crisis memes to online templates developed in the early 2000s.",
       "detail": "Image macros, pictures with superimposed text, were combined with verbal templates such as 'X is the new Y'. Templatability means separating a meme's structure from its content.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[0]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "What crisis memes do",
     "sub": "the uses the paper examines",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Formula memes such as Advice Animals ridicule power and are reused in the next crisis.",
       "detail": "After the 2011 UK riots, a photo of a looter with a bag of rice was captioned in The Most Interesting Man in the World's formula.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[1]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Cut-out figures such as Disaster Girl are among the first memes to appear in a crisis.",
       "detail": "No text needs writing, and they seem to circulate as ghoulish humour. Rage Comics instead express the anxiety of living through a disaster.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[2]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Some combined memes mock online comment culture itself.",
       "detail": "When the Norwegian terrorist killings coincided with Amy Winehouse's death, a Scumbag Brain meme pointed out that far more online commentary went to the singer.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[3]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "Why crisis memes matter",
     "sub": "the paper's argument about their value",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The paper argues each crisis meme reads as the next in a familiar series.",
       "detail": "For people who know the originals, crisis memes draw power from being timely, timeless and serial at once.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[4]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The paper argues crisis memes are a form of civil society and free expression.",
       "detail": "However frivolous or ghoulish, crisis memes show people taking an evaluative public position in a voice that sidesteps traditional media.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[5]",
        "takeaway"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The paper argues restrictive copyright could threaten this form of expression.",
       "detail": "Crisis memes often rely on unlicensed use of copyrighted images.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[5]",
        "takeaway"
       ]
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
  },
  "keyTerm": "templatability",
  "takeaway": "Templatability can let people respond to crises quickly, in a shared public voice outside traditional media. Protecting that voice may need copyright rules that allow everyday reuse of images."
 }
}