Do debate comments that catch fire online influence the election?
To run for president in the age of the internet is to risk that your words, your image and - most importantly - your mistakes, will be photoshopped, clipped, edited, remixed and remastered online in the form of a viral meme.
A "meme" is a bit of cultural zeitgeist trapped in the form of bits and pixels, passed along via Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.
"Whether it's a quote or a video clip or an advertisement any media that gets passed around on the internet - when that media changes in form or meaning, that would be considered an internet meme," says Brad Kim, editor at Know Your Meme, a website devoted to explaining and charting memes.
Remember when Facebook was full of that image of Hillary Clinton on her Blackberry, texting from inside a plane? That was a meme.
The same with the graphic-heavy depictions of "What I think I do/What my friends think I do/What I actually do" for various professions.
Kim says elections are particularly suited for widespread internet memes because they attract a lot of media attention. "There are tons of people watching like a hawk, waiting for the candidates to say something particularly funny," he says.
But these memes aren't just about getting a laugh - they make a political point too, says Elsbeth Roundtree, a co-founder of Know Your Meme.
"If you look at history, characters and cartoons have been made as a way of expressing yourself. It's about trying to deliver your thoughts or opinions in a different type of way."
How much these memes in turn directly influence the election will remain to be seen. Yet with one debate of the 2012 election cycle still to come, several memes have already driven the next-day conversation.
