

Master's dissertation on Lolcats - alexholehouse
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/37681185/MILTNER%20DISSERTATION.pdf

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kevinconroy
To give you a flavor of it without downloading, here's the introductory
paragraph:

<quote> The rise of ‘Web 2.0’ (O’Reilly, 2007) has changed the way that people
interact with theworld and with each other. Developments in ICT have enabled
changes in commerce, politics, and interpersonal communication. Widespread
consumption and creation of user-generated content (UGC) has ushered us into
an era of participatory culture, breaking down the barriers between producer
and consumer (Bruns, 2007), and allowing us to “take media into our own hands”
(Jenkins et al., 2009: 29). This has contributed to the election of the first
African-American President (Painter, 2009), and provided new tools for
fighting governmental corruption (Shirky, 2010a). It has also given us Peanut
Butter Jelly Time. </quote>

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MartinCron
It's disheartening to see the strong negative reactions to this. If human
society and culture is worth studying, then "internet culture" is a necessary
part of the story. I know from experience that there are multiple distinct
communities that orbit the lolcat universe. There's more than enough depth
here to warrant academic study.

Live and let live.

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jeremyarussell
I also wonder how many people have read it at all, let alone the entire thing.
It would seem evident that when you have as many people online as we do, and a
rather large chunk finds LOLcats and the like really funny, than studying the
phenomenon shouldn't be this off putting to so many people.

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martythemaniak
Is it not worth studying such a pervasive aspect of our culture, especially if
it says something novel about ourselves?

I'm also quite interested in the rise of Rage Comics as a new medium and what
it might evolve into. Certainly people love telling and listening to short
stories, but today's tools are quite crude, yet still addictive (much like
very early video games). I'd love to see the successor to Rage Comics 10 years
from now.

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corysama
Having seen so many amazing cultural events appear and disappear over the
course of the internet timeline, I'm very happy that we are finally starting
to get internet culture historians such as KnowYourMeme popping up to record
and analyze these events for posterity.

As for rage comics, I'm confident that their crudeness is an important feature
that let's ordinary people feel comfortable telling their ordinary stories
without feeling they are required to be extraordinarily polished and
professional just to have a voice.

Here is a wonderful rage comic that was made by an 86 year old man which has
been viewed 2.8 million times. <http://imgur.com/Cpdaq> I doubt that his story
would have ever been told without an MSPaint-based storytelling movement to
work within. I doubt that many people would have the patience to read a
professionally illustrated and typeset remake of the story even if it existed.

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Groxx
First time I've seen that rage comic. Thanks for linking :)

Rage comics have always fascinated me. Simple and intentionally 'bad', but
more relatable than anything I've seen prior. That's a great example of how
effective they can be in communication - both for producing and consuming.

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jawns
Two people with master's degrees bumped into each other on the street.

One's dissertation was "Preparation of Substituted Enol Derivatives From
Terminal Alkynes and Progress Toward the Total Synthesis of Nigricanoside A."

The other's was "An Investigation Into the Appeal of LOLcats."

"Hi, I have a master's degree," said the one.

"Hi, so do I," said the other.

Guess who punched who in the face.

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_wesley_
Guess who punched whom in the face.

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jawns
I humbly accept this correction.

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pathdependent
My view on a dissertation -- whether it be for a masters degree or a Ph.D. --
is that the contribution is not the important part. Instead, the goal is to
demonstrate an ability to do "good research" (TM). People find very narrow
topics because thesis advisors prefer it. If you had an already well-studied
topic, it is more difficult to access as original work. Yes, ideally you want
to find something novel, narrow, and _practically useful_ , but grad students
primarily want their degree first.

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nemo1618
For some reason I get really upset when people try to analyze internet
culture. Especially if it earns them a Master's degree.

Is this normal?

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artmageddon
On the first point, I might say, "Don't sweat it so much", especially if it
yields some new previously undiscovered trend that wasn't widely known prior
to the research(i.e. "People who enjoy LOLcats, on average, are immune to the
common cold"), but if this were real I would definitely be upset.

The majority of me feels that this is satire strictly meant to explain LOLcats
in a way that strongly resembles Master's thesis(especially the manner in
which the acknowledgments are written), but another tiny part of me feels
compelled to email Ms. Powell and ask if she's aware of this paper.

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sp332
This looks pretty real. Who would write 100 pages as a joke?

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AskHugo
While I think that the rise of internet subculture is very interesting from a
sociological point of view, I doubt the phenomena is researched enough to
warrant a study as narrow and specific as this.

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sp332
This thesis includes new research including focus groups.

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vecinu
The transcript for the focus meetings is hilarious...

MODERATOR: So the Lolspeak made sense to you?

JT: The Lolspeak made sense to me, and I found um, the Lolspeak translator,
and I started sending all my emails in Lolspeak—

RK: That exists? I’m learning so much now!

MODERATOR: Well AB, the Cheez Town Cryer is almost all in Lolspeak, and—

AB: Uh, the Cween speaks perfect Lolspeak

RK: Hee heee!

Also, make sure to look at the focus group content full of Lolcats.

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brechin
New title suggestion: "I can haz dugree plz?"

