Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA19421 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 31 Jul 2000 15:46:48 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D310174596B@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: memes in minds, or memes in media? Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 15:44:37 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hiya everyone,
I've just been catching up on the debate generated by Derek Gatherer's
questioning of thought contagions, mind viruses etc. etc. on the journal's
website.
As a media academic, who tends to study the external phenomena of media
content (particularly journalism), I suppose my sympathies lie with Derek,
since his views take the subject more into my territory than other models
that lie more in neuroscience, psychology that consider thigns like what
constitutes (if anything) differences between information and beliefs.
After all, I have encountered all sorts of religious beliefs, some I know
more about than others, but being an openly 'militant atheist' (I love that
phrase), I don't believe any of them.
However, it is in the commentaries, that I found a point I thought worth
developing.
In Paul Marsden's commentary emerged the idea of how one can operationalise
memetics, and he linked to a piece about suicide and the media. I want to
say something briefly about this, because I think it demonstrates this
internal/external problem of memetics.
Marsden cites Phillips' research into the relationship between incidences of
suicide and media reporting of suicides (and other similarly structured
studies). Marsden acknowledges some of the criticisms of this research, but
not the most obvious and glaring problems.
The problems I refer to stem from one of the first rules of social science-
correlation does not equal causality. Let's look at the claim in essence-
findings- suicide rates go up when the media report suicides more frequently
conclusion- media reporting of suicides lead to more suicides.
Let's ask some simple questions of this conclusion:
How many of the suicides were committed by people known to have encountered
media communication about suicides before they committed suicide?
How much of a time lag exists between when a person encounters suicide
information through the media and then commits suicide?
Assuming that mediated communication about suicide is what directed these
people to commit suicide, then why didn't everyone exposed to that
communication commit suicide also?(Or, to put it another way, since this
communication reached many people, but only a few of them committed suicide,
what were the characteristics of the people who committed suicide that
differentiated them from everyone else?)
Assuming that mediated communication about suicide is what made these people
commit suicide, what was the nature of that communication? (e.g. did the
reports say 'good news- another person did the right thing and killed
themselves' or 'bad news- another selfish idiot left his family feeling
greif and guilt after killing themselves'?)
Phillips, and other like him have produced all sorts of studies showing
these relationships, but they are clearly non-causal, not just because of
the methods used, but also because none of the above questions are
answerable (or quite often even considered) in the terms of such research.
I do not therefore think that such work offers a means to operationalise
memetics, and (hopefully bringing this back to the problem Gatherer raised
in the first place) the problem is that the effects of any meme are
context-sensitive, and the context in which memes operate includes the
context of individuals' memes.
If these things have been discussed at length previously on the list, feel
free to ignore (or perhaps be so kind as to direct me in the direction of
some good material on the matter).
Vincent
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