Liquid surveillance: A conversation

For Shifman, memes have to be taken seriously, since “the meme is the best concept to encapsulate some of the most fundamental aspects of the Internet in general, and of the so-called participatory of Web 2.0 culture in particular” (p. 18). Memes in Digital Culture, published as part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series along with other introductions to current topics of interest in media and technology such as crowdsourcing and open access, does just this: by taking Internet memes seriously, it provides a great point of access to what the author identifies as “the fundamental building blocks of digital culture” (p. 175).