Perusing this site, George Lakoff's Rockridge Institute, today. Lakoff and memetics -- both subjects expounded upon on this blog in the past.
From the site, "The Secret Behind Why Ideas 'Stick' -- NPR Morning Edition"
"Chip and Dan say frames must have six characteristics to 'stick' in people's minds: simplicity, unexpected, concreteness, credibility, emotional and story. Their example was the urban myth of the stolen kidney and waking up in a bathtub full of ice."
In other words: clarity, estrangement, thick description, truth value, narrative and emotional resonance are what matter in the realm of memes and their survival. Notably, kind of backwards to how much analytical/critical discourse is crafted, structured and evaluated in the artificial discursive economy found within the academy -- backwards to what types of discourses are generally privileged, that is.
The Made to Stick website.
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