Editing Meme (section)

=== After Dawkins: Role of physical media ===
Initially, Dawkins did not seriously give context to the material of memetics. He considered a meme to be an idea, and thus a mental concept. However, from Dawkins' initial conception, it is how a medium might function in relation to the meme which has garnered the most attention. For example, [[David Hull (philosopher)|David Hull]] suggested that while memes might exist as Dawkins conceives of them, he finds it important to suggest that instead of determining them as idea "replicators" (i.e. mind-determinant influences) one might notice that the medium itself has an influence in the meme's evolutionary outcomes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hull |first=David L. |title=Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2001 |isbn=9780192632449 |editor-last=Aunger |editor-first=Robert |edition=1st |pages=43–67 |chapter=Taking memetics seriously: Memetics will be what we make it}}</ref> Thus, he refers to the medium as an "interactor" to avoid this determinism. Alternatively, [[Daniel Dennett]] suggests that the medium and the idea are not distinct in that memes only exist because of their medium.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dennett |first=Daniel C. |title=From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds |date=2017 |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/957746925 |publisher=HighBridge Audio |isbn=9781681684390 |oclc=957746925 |access-date=11 January 2023}}</ref> Dennett argued this in order to remain consistent with his denial of [[qualia]] and the notion of materially deterministic evolution which was consistent with Dawkins' account. A particularly more divergent theory is that of [[Limor Shifman]], a communication and media scholar of "[[Internet meme]]tics". She argues that any memetic argument which claims the distinction between the meme and the meme-vehicle (i.e. the meme's medium) are empirically observable is mistaken from the offset.<ref>{{cite book  |last=Shifman |first=Limor |title=Memes in Digital Culture |date=2014 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9781469063256 |oclc=929971523}}</ref> Shifman claims to be following a similar theoretical direction as [[Susan Blackmore]]; however, her attention to the media surrounding Internet culture has enabled Internet memetic research to depart in empirical interests from previous memetic goals.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lankshear |first1=Colin |last2=Knobel |first2=Michele |date=2019 |title=Memes, Macros, Meaning, and Menace: Some Trends in Internet Memes |url=https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/memes-macros-meaning-and-menace |journal=The Journal of Communication and Media Studies |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=43–57 |doi=10.18848/2470-9247/CGP/v04i04/43-57 |s2cid=214369629 |issn=2470-9247 |access-date=11 January 2023 |archive-date=4 January 2023  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230104172842/https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/memes-macros-meaning-and-menace |url-status=live}}</ref> Regardless of Internet Memetic's divergence in theoretical interests, it plays a significant role in theorizing and empirically investigating the connection between cultural ideologies, behaviors, and their mediation processes.