How Memes Can Destroy Iconicity: The Digital Recycling of Iconic Photographs

• In Event: Pushing the Boundaries of Journalism Studies: Photojournalism in Transition

Abstract

Iconic photographs possess broad social and symbolic significance, are widely replicated over time and circulated across media platforms, and fuel public discussion. In an era of digital memes, they have become generative resources for memetic performances that can draw on the original image’s historic authority, but can also undermine it. Nick Ut’s 1972 “Accidental Napalm” photograph offers an ideal case study: initially a journalistic object, it has become an historic and iconic image, inspiring a variety of memes. Our analysis of these memes leads us to a four-fold taxonomy, ranging from the expansion of the meaning of the original picture to the narrowing and eventual destruction of its significance. Assessing Hariman and Lucaites’ contention that appropriations of iconic images enhance civic engagement and deliberation, we argue that some memes actually dissolve the original significance of iconic photographs, thus degrading rather than enhancing public culture.

Sandrine Boudana is a Lecturer in the Department of Communication at Tel-Aviv University. Her research interests lay at the intersection of political communication, media sociology and journalism studies. Her work focuses on the cross-national comparison of journalistic values and practices, and on the press and photo-journalistic coverage of wars and conflicts.

Paul Frosh teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His work centres on visual culture, photography theory, cultural production and media aesthetics. His publications include The Image Factory: Consumer Culture, Photography and the Visual Content Industry and Media Witnessing: Testimony in the Age of Mass Communication (co-edited with Amit Pinchevski).

Akiba Cohen is Professor (Emeritus) of Communication at Tel Aviv University and currently chair of the Department of Communication at the Yezreel Valley College. A past president of ICA and an elected Fellow of the Association, his main area of interest is television news, especially in the cross-national and global context.

Authors

• Sandrine Boudana, Tel Aviv University

• Paul Frosh, Hebrew U of Jerusalem

• Akiba A. Cohen, Tel Aviv University