Alright, full disclosure, any chance I have to post about ‘dank memes’ as part of my degree will be taken fairly quickly. But this recent piece on ABC Insiders is an awesome example of how a hyperactive audience reacts to messages they are exposed to, typically within digital media more rather than broadcast media, and how these reactions are shared through platforms and methods independent of traditional media.

These “Ironic expression[s] used to mock online viral media and in jokes that have exhausted their comedic value” are products of a consumer who has a platform for transmission and the tools to produce media, interestingly in this context ‘quality’ and ‘value’ isn’t of high importance, instead their popularity is typically dependant on the speed of the reaction and the bizarreness of the final product. It is an interesting counterpoint to institutions which value high production quality and originality when a five minute remixed video can reach equal or higher numbers of audiences just as quickly if not quicker than them.

So yeah. Watch for dank memes.