“You Can't Run Your SUV on Cute. Let's Go!”: Internet Memes as Delegitimizing Discourse

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.

Section: Memes As a Form Of Political Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Hakoköngäs

Halmesvaara

Sakki

2020

“…Studies of Internet memes are increasing and have focused on a number of topics, including how meme virality has the capacity to create a collective identity (Gal, Shipman, & Kampf, 2016), how memes tend to rely on irony and critique (Milner, 2013), the ways irony in memes allows for the portrayal of more than one idea at once in an attempt to delegitimize a subject (Davis, Glantz, & Novak, 2015), and how variations on a meme can be used to address specific topics and present a finely focused argument (Huntington, 2015). Due to their viral nature, it is difficult to determine who created a given meme, and therefore difficult to determine the precise original intent of that meme.…”

Section: Defining and Studying Internet Memesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dissonance of “Civil” Religion in Religious-Political Memetic Discourse During the 2016 Presidential Elections

Campbell

Arredondo

Dundas

et al. 2018

This article explores the interrelationship between religion and politics as presented through memetic discourse surrounding the 2016 presidential election. Based on a study of 150 Internet memes of political candidates and core issues framed by religious discourse, and a case study of memes focused on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, we investigated the distinct understanding of what constitutes religion that arises. Overwhelmingly, these memes evoke what is known as "Civil Religion," where religion becomes a tool to interpret politics, with roots in nationalist ideologies. This challenges previous research suggesting religious memetic discourse primarily promotes a view of "lived religion," or personalized interpretations of traditional religious beliefs and practices. Drawing on previous research of the dominant genres of religious memes and ways they frame religion, we find religious-political memes enact distinct strategies of political God Talk where religious discourse is read through a political lens, and vice versa. This is highly problematic as it presents religion in broad brushstrokes that fail to acknowledge the diversity of religious communities and their responses to politics within American cultural discourse. Overall, we argue religious-political memes showcase the dissonance created by mixing religion and politics in public discourse online, especially when meme messages representing conservative Christianity suggest they speak for all of American religious culture.

“…One strand of research has explored memes as a form of political subversion. For instance, Davis et al (2015) analyze an Internet-based media campaign launched by Greenpeace against the oil and gas company Shell. Drawing on “legitimacy theory,” they explore the political effects of this “culture jamming” campaign in undermining Shell’s justifications for commencing oil drilling projects in the Arctic.…”

Section: Australian Colonialism: Terra Nullius and Peaceful Settlementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indigenous Memes and the Invention of a People

Frazer

Carlson

2017