A Discourse Analysis of Education Memes on Instagram

Copyright@2021 (author/s) Abstract: In the modern era, human has many ways to communicate, interact, and spread the idea. With the advancement of digital technologies, various media convey messages, one of which is through internet memes. The present study aims to investigate memes on Instagram through the lense of Critical Discourse Analysis. The objectives are to find out (1) the similarities and differences between Indonesian students and foreign students, (2) to analyze the relationship between pictures and text, and (3) to know the social function of memes. To seek answers, the researchers chose the ten best memes randomly from two Instagram accounts: Best Memes and Zona Mahasiswa”. Furthermore, the memes have been taken randomly. The study revealed no significant evidence of differences in education culture between Indonesia's and other countries’ memes. The results also indicated that the memes were able to serve as a means to communicate people’s activities to the readers. Further, the memes could be a compliment in communication and serve as a medium for internet literacy development.


INTRODUCTION
Social media has an extensive connection that territorial borders cannot limit. It connects people from various parts of the world. Thus, the information access is unlimited; it may include information banned in the mainstream media like televisions or newspapers. Besides, people are free to write or share their thoughts, feelings or expose their daily routine on it. That makes social media-rich information with various perspectives. Al-Sharqi et al. (2015) asserted that social media is becoming part of our society, changing social norms and culture. It means that social media brings a significant number of influences worldwide. One of the contents on social media is a meme.
There are many themes on memes created by the creators. One of them is education memes. The creators have made them share a joke, make funny things, or provoke people. People can find memes on the internet through google pictures, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Instagram is one of the applications popular recently from the young generation to the old generation. To investigate the meaning of the memes, the researchers conduct this study with the following research questions: are there any similarities between Indonesian students and foreign students through the ten memes? What is the purpose of the ten memes? What is the deep meaning of those memes?. To seek the answer, the researchers employed a critical discourse analysis.
Discourse is a form of written or oral text or visual description that unites the whole. Discourse Analysis (DA) itself is a theory and method (Rogers, 2004). Discourse analysis can be defined as "above the sentence or outside the sentence". That means DA is about sentence structure and the meaning and power behind the sentence. In a similar vein, Wodak and Meyer (2001) stated that the discourse focuses not only on the text, oral, or written. As a field of inquiry full of 'critical' discourse requires theorization and description of the social processes and structures that publish the production of a text, and about social structures and processes in which groups or individuals, as subjects of social history, create meaning in their interactions with the text.
In the present study, the researchers employed CDA concerning critical theories of the social world of education, language relations and discourse in constructing and representing this social world, and methodologies that enable them to describe, interpret, and explain the relationship (Rogers, 2004). Fairclough and Wodak (1997, cited in Rogers, 2004) offer eight basic principles of analysis of discourse. These principles are a beneficial starting point for researchers who are interested in doing CDA. The principles are: CDA discusses social issues, power relations are discursive, discourse is society and culture, discourse does ideological work, historical discourse, the socio-cognitive approach is needed to understand how the relationship between society and text is mediated, discourse analysis is interpretive and clear and use systematic methodology, and CDA is a socially committed scientific paradigm. On the other hand, CDA also has several approaches stated by Schiffrin (1994). These principles are the speech act approach, variations in approach, communication ethnography, interactional sociolinguistics, pragmatic approach, conversation analysis, and systemic functional linguistics (SFL). In this study, researchers used a pragmatic approach used to analyze memes. Pragmatic is the study of meaning in context. Besides, Griffiths (2006) states that pragmatics relates to the use of tools in meaningful communication. This is about the interaction of semantic knowledge with our knowledge of the world, considering the context of use. Levinson (1983) concluded pragmatic as a study of language use. Furthermore, memes are a part of the humor in the digital world, and it is an exciting phenomenon. Memes have a simple way to deliver simple language, funny illustrations, emoticons, and some other visualization. Furthermore, behind its simplicity, memes have the power as a propaganda tool to unite and also to disperse some religions, races, and ethnic groups. Nowadays, in Indonesia, the viral meme can influence the netizens to side in a particular issue. The origin of memes is associated with the fundamental theory of self-replicating unit of cultural transmission, which deals with imitation (Chandler, 2012).
On the other hand, internet users think it refers to the sequence of images and phrases produced to criticize or make funny jokes about social phenomena. Dawkins (2006) stated that a meme is a form of lifestyle, belief, behavior, fashion. It is adopted and propagated to be shared from individuals to others in social culture over social interaction by using media like images and writings.
Instagram has been developing since 2010 (Becker, 2017). Instagram is an application in many circles because users can create, share, and upload photos or videos, and can be linked to other social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. The sides copy Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social media applications of the current century. In contrast, according to Marwick (2015), Instagram presents a "convergence of cultural forces": it means mania to document something digitally. Therefore, it can encourage users to become individuals who like to show off everything they own or produce. It is consistent with Thumim's (2012) statement that self-representation is always part of our culture, from museums to reality TV. In this edition, images play an increasingly increasing role in our visual communication and constructing our identities (Rose, 2000). Running with commercial marketing, Instagram can lead users to edit and filter every image they have using various boomerang or snap grams. After seven years of manufacture, it has become good in popular culture (Becker, 2017).
Some previous research studies have been conducted related to this study. First, Kariko's (2013) study where there are five memes as the object he took randomly; as the specific one, he made an image that contains humor character and is based on the caption. Furthermore, those memes are shared anywhere on the internet from 4chan.org or 9gag.com, and the other users are even posted on social media like Facebook. Besides, the difference between this study and Kariko's study is that this study has found out the similarities and differences among ten memes from two accounts on Instagram. Those are "best memes (foreign memes) and Zona Mahasiswa (Indonesian memes)." These memes about education experience. While Kariko's (2013) study limits the sample only to humor memes, he took the internet sample like 4chan.org, 9gag.com, and Facebook. The second related study is by Zubaidah and Ardelia (2018). In their research, the memes come from google pictures and five memes only. The purpose of the study is to expect and give an in-depth explanation of those memes using critical discourse analysis. After they know the deep meaning of the five memes themselves, they know the aim of the five kinds of memes. While in this study, the researchers have found the similarities and differences among ten memes from two accounts on Instagram: best memes (foreign memes) and Zona Mahasiswa (Indonesian memes). These memes focus on ten educational experiences.

METHOD
The researchers have conducted this research using Critical Discourse Analysis or CDA. As the first step, the researchers found the ten memes, five from the best memes account and five more from the zona_mahasiswa account. The ten memes focus on education experiences among Indonesian students and foreign students.
After finding the ten memes randomly through both Instagram accounts, the researchers answered the research question by describing the context of the memes. It was done by finding out the meaning of the ten memes by analyzing the picture and its text. In the next step, the researchers found the differences and similarities of each meme. After that, the researchers found the deep meaning, and in the last step, the researchers revealed the purpose behind the memes.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Based on the analysis, the table below presents the ten best education memes from two Instagram accounts: B.5 This meme shows the reality in the process of examination.
Sometimes an examiner will go outside to answer a call on their mobile phone while the students are happy to cheat together.
In memes number one, a) it brings people into the education domain. It means those memes have four pictures, and all of them are in different positions in sitting. b) the chair is a thing to make people relax to do the task or type something on the computer. Imagine if, in this world, there is no chair, how people can do their assignments in a standing position. People will feel tired and will find difficulties, and also it will take a long time to finish. However, based on meme B.1, the chair is not appropriately used. It means that it shows reality. Sometimes the chair becomes a bed for sleeping and becomes a toy, such as in memes in number one above. c) it is to entertain and remind people of reality in a class where the chair is not appropriately used.
In memes number two, a) the memes encourage us to a flashback of the examination process and use a similar picture. Then both memes use different languages. Meme A.2 use English while meme B.2 use the Indonesian language. b) the teachers have realized so many strategies done by the students in a test. The students will use a plan to get the best answer. There are honest students but also dishonest students. For the honest one, the student does the test by their own effort. However, they do not care to answer the key (it is correct or not). They do not think it much; they think, "I can do the test." c) tell us how the students do the test. On the other hand, they will give many expressions when the teacher knows what they have done. They will become awkward, and not all smart students are stingy.
In memes, number three, a) those memes talk about two cultures in different countries, such as Germany and Indonesia. b) according to meme A.3 and meme B.3, in Germany, the students do not care about their friend and their teacher; they feel relax with their drinking, and maybe the teacher is not worried about that. Nonetheless, the culture in Indonesia is different. The students will stop eating their food and beverage if there is a teacher in the class. It means that they will feel unhappy and worry if the teacher does not allow them to eat and drink. c) to persuade the reader to believe that every country has a different culture.
In meme number four, a) meme A.4, there are four people pictures, meme B.4, there are six pictures, and also both memes have a different topic, and even on those memes using a sequence of time. b) Where in the first meme, tell about time for sleep start from nine hours of sleep until no sleep at all while in the other meme, tell about the sequence of time to bring school stuff to school. Of course, it can occur because the man is simple, while the girl is complicated. c) to explain to the reader if everything has a sequence of time.
In meme number five, in these memes, there are significantly similar and different memes. a) the memes tell us about a testing process in a class. Then, meme A.5 using a penguin picture while meme B.5 using a children's image. b) to know how the student can answer questions on a sheet because sometimes they make mistakes without them knowing. It like they give a false answer because they do not read the instruction carefully on the question. On the other side, the teacher cares for the students, while in the second meme, the teachers in Indonesia often receive calls. Automatically, it can allow students to find the correct answer from their friends or another resource. c) the memes can persuade readers to imagine the cause and effect of teacher's concern in the teaching and learning process.
According to Diago (2012), people can do many things, whether socializing, working, collaborating, communicating, learning, or spreading information. The statement was related to the memes above, where the memes describe student's behavior in class. When the learning and teaching were stopped or not, so many actions were done by the students. All of them were shown on the ten memes, starting from the chair is not appropriately used until the testing process at the class. On the other hand, the memes can make the readers guess and imagine what was happening at school. It was related to Leigh (2010) that memes utilize communication as one of the methods to reproduce themselves. It means that the memes could communicate to the reader about the student's activities at school. As we realize in the modern era, so many people can unleash their creativity through memes. They can pour their ideas into the memes, and the memes could convey the intent of the meme creators.
Furthermore, the memes could be a compliment in communication. It means that not all memes communicate about satire, but the meme could complement it. A compliment is a speech act that expresses an award implicitly or explicitly to a person considered positive by both the speaker and the hearer (Holmes, 1988). The compliment on meme B.2, where the memes were able to make the readers appreciate smart students who are not stingy to share answers with their friends. It means that the memes were not just given a satire, but the memes provided a compliment.
Moreover, the memes created on sites can symbolize a net culture for all its assets and faults; they exemplify the cultural logos of participation (Shifman, 2011(Shifman, , 2014. As we know, memes have become a culture net because of social media. One of them was Instagram. The memes can be shared by the creators and the readers from their social media accounts. This is intended for purposes such as jokes, humor, satire, even praises. For another function, the memes serve as a media to support internet literacy. It means that the internet users would be a reader of the memes. Media literacy involves understanding how media represent and construct what they depict, what media techniques are used, what effects are produced, and how media products are created (Livingstone, 2007). Hence, the ten best memes in this research support internet literacy.

CONCLUSION
The present study has revealed that the memes from best memes and Zona_mahasiswa on Instagram are intended not only for humor purposes but also for other purposes. The researchers found out other meanings besides humorbased memes. There is a persuasive meme to see the reality in a class where the chair is not appropriately used. Then, the memes encourage the readers to a flashback of the examination process. Those memes show us there is no significant difference in education culture between Indonesia and other foreign countries. The memes explain to the readers that if everything has a sequence of time, the memes can convince readers to imagine the cause and effect of teacher's concern in the teaching and learning process. In other words, memes can give a unique sense of the education domain because meme has a function to internet literacy. Every user of social media would read and interpret the meaning of the memes. Moreover, to understand the purpose of the meme, the readers should focus and read the text carefully, and of course, know what was booming at the time.