Persuasion Through Bitter Humor: Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Rhetoric in Internet Memes of Two Far-Right Groups in Finland

Abstract

This study focuses on the role of Internet memes in the communication of two far-right groups in Finland. The material consists of 426 memes posted by Finland First and the Soldiers of Odin between the years 2015 and 2017 on Facebook. Multimodal discourse analysis was applied to understand the contents, forms, and rhetorical functions communicated via the Internet memes. The analysis shows that the contents of the memes revolve around six themes: history, humor, mythology, symbols, news and mottos. By using Internet memes, the groups aim to construe a heroic imagined past, to lend legitimacy to the nationalist cause, to arouse moral anger and hate toward refugees, and to encourage the movements’ followers to fight. We argue that, for the extreme groups, Internet memes are tools to crystallize their arguments in an easily shareable and concise form, which makes the memes useful tools in persuasion and mobilization, as well as attracting new audiences.

COVID-19 memes going viral: On the multiple multimodal voices behind face masks

“…Importantly, through their choices across modalities, meme authors make some components of meaning more salient while suppressing others (Smith, 2019). Memes are also conducive to complex meaning-making in the light of the relevant socio-political and cultural context (see Dynel and Poppi, 2020; Hakoköngäs et al, 2020; Jiang and Vásquez, 2019; Milner, 2016; Ross and Rivers, 2018; Smith, 2019). Overall, situated in the pertinent socio-cultural context, the memes in the dataset were examined for their multimodal content, as well as had their online history traced, all in line with the critical discourse analytic tradition, where micro- and macro-levels of social structure are pertinent (e.g.…”

This Must Surely be the Way to Happiness!: Divergent “bite-size wisdoms” about Happiness in inspirational internet memes

“…While they share many similarities with hedonic memes, such as being created as a composition of text and image and their highly "shareable" nature, there are also some important differences. Hedonic memes are in fact defined by the widespread use of humorous text, which is usually typed in a plain white font and superimposed on what are often virally shared images, in order to accomplish various rhetorical and communicative functions through humour (Hakoköngäs et al 2020). Inspirational memes instead combine different kinds of fonts, colours and images and/or backgrounds to create a graphically and aesthetically appealing quote.…”

“…To answer the research objectives, the collected inspirational memes were analysed by means of two-step analysis (see Hakoköngäs et al 2020 for a similar approach). First, to provide a systematic and comprehensive description of the contents of memes addressing happiness in Finland and Italy, the material was analysed by using qualitative data-driven content analysis (Research question 1) (Bauer 2000).…”

Mobilizing collective hatred through humour: Affective–discursive production and reception of populist rhetoric

“…Similarly, in their analysis of Facebook comments about the Roma, Breazu and Machin (2019) show that humour can be mixed with frustration, extreme racism, and sexual violence, entertaining and requiring violent ethnic extermination. Likewise, a recent study of populist Internet memes suggests that humour and irony are especially powerful in invoking moral rage (Hakoköngäs, Halmesvaara, & Sakki, 2020). Following Billig’s (2001) argument of the integral link between extreme hatred and humour, in this article we examine how humorous devices are connected in the construction of social categories in populist appeal.…”

“…Thus, by focusing on both populist rhetoric and its like‐minded and opposing audience’s affective–discursive reactions, we hope to contribute to the recent call to investigate social and political polarization of contemporary societies by studying the simultaneous construction of populist and anti‐populist discourse (Stavrakakis, 2014; Stavrakakis, Katsambekis, Kioupkiolis, Nikisianis, & Siomos, 2018). Second, the article responds to the call to broaden the analysis of political communication in the field of multimodality (Hakoköngäs et al ., 2020; Hameleers, Powell, Van Der Meer, & Bos, 2020). We seek to show how the shift from the analysis of verbal and textual communication to the multimodal analysis of narration, images, sounds, voice, light, and speed enables the grasping of the complex interplay between different communication modes in populism’s persuasiveness.…”