Figure 4 - uploaded by Ioana Literat
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
This article advances a narrative approach to internet memes conceptualized as partial stories that reflect, capture, and contribute to wider storylines. One key difficulty in studying memes as stories rests in the fact that narrative analysis often focuses on plot at the expense of roles and characters. Building on narrative psychology and, in par...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... kind of depictions also bring up issues related to moral relativism (Harman, 1996) especially considering the fact that most participants in the subreddit are likely to come from Western countries where there was a rise in anti-Chinese sentiment at the beginning of the pandemic. Figure 4 depicts a meme that uses a template from the movie Thor: Ragnarok and shows the uneven fight between Thor (here, Hong Kong) and Hella (here, China). Finally, the WHO features in some of the memes related to China where it is mostly a fellow Persecutor (by joining China in downplaying the virus) or a Fool (by refusing to listen to its own experts). ...
Citations
... We based our study on the thematic content of the visuals. Still, considering the rich political and historical context of the citizenship concept, a narrative-based approach can also be adopted for future accounts focusing on visuals or memes (de Saint Laurent et al., 2021). ...
Reflecting on the legal relationship between the individual and the nation-state, citizenship has long been considered a framework consisting of rights and obligations. However, in the last two decades, it has become intertwined with individuals’ meaning-making processes of their social world as well as with the dynamics of constructing group boundaries and (re)producing the hierarchies between groups. In this paper, we will present how the lay representations of citizenship prevailed on social media through publicly sharing visuals after the issuance of an amendment for a regulation stating the new conditions for granting Turkish citizenship to foreigners. After thematically analyzing the tweets containing visuals with hashtags related to citizenship, which were sent within the six months following the amendment, we extracted two main themes of citizenship in Turkey as "legal boundaries" and "sentimental citizenship". The study enabled us to show how visuals are used to communicate the social and political aspects of citizenship that are represented around objective and subjective meanings while also indicating how the lay meanings of citizenship are utilized to reproduce the inequalities.
... Qualitative studies also noted how Covid memes contained elements of political protest (de Saint Laurent et al., 2021); how it served as an index of local political culture (Murru & Vicari, 2021); and how the Covid crisis was connected with other political themes, such as climate change (Al-Rawi et al., 2022). On the basis of these earlier studies, we expect our corpus to also feature political themes and actors, but we can make no predictions about how prominent these political themes will be. ...
The Covid-19 pandemic brought about an unprecedented cycle of digitally spread humor. This article analyzes a corpus of 12,337 humor items from 80+ countries, mainly in visual format, and mostly memes, collected during the first half of 2020, to understand the features and intended audiences of this “pandemic humor”. Employing visual machine-learning techniques and additional qualitative analysis, we ask which actors and which templates were most prominent in the pandemic humor, and how these actors and templates vary on the following dimensions: local vs. global, Covid-specific vs. general, and specifically for the actors, political vs. not political. Our analysis shows that most pandemic memes from the first wave are not political. The vast majority of the memes are global: They are based on well-recognized meme templates, and almost all identified actors are part of a cast of set “meme faces”, mostly from the US and the UK but recognized around the world. Most popular templates were found in several countries and languages, including non-European languages. Most memes were based on non-Covid specific templates, but we found new Covid-specific memes, which sheds new light on the process by which memes emerge, spread, and potentially become new meme templates. Our analysis supplements existing studies of (Covid) memes that mostly focus on small national samples, using qualitative methods. This cross-national analysis is enabled by a global dataset with unique data on geographical origin of humor. We show the usefulness of visual machine learning for identifying the emergence, spread and prevalence of transnational (humorous) cultural forms. By combining large-scale computational analysis with in-depth analysis, we bridge a gap in in meme studies between (mostly quantitative) data sciences and (mostly qualitative) communication and media studies.
... As opposed to this, researchers usually adopt a clear-cut definition of the object "meme": in particular, when faced with the necessity to gather relevant data, some opted for inductive natively-emerging methods of identification. Such is the case of studies like those by de Saint Laurent et al. (2021), who sourced memes from the subreddit r/CoronavirusMemes; Moreno-Almeida (2021), who collected them from memetic pages; or MacDonald (2021), who assembled the corpus by querying for "COVID-19 memes" on a search engine. Works like these rely on user classification through "native digital objects" (Rogers, 2013) like hashtags and dedicated accounts, to collect and classify memes in their datasets. ...
This paper investigates how internet memes are complex and stratified objects, going beyond the standardized definition of ‘image macro’ habitually employed by scholars. To this end, we take the 2019 Italian government crisis as a case study and analyze a dataset of related 1.269 memes using a combination of computational and qualitative methodologies. Our analysis shows the emergence, proliferation, and fading of popular templates, which remix images and text from the political crisis and occasionally serve as frames for other events: the Contingent Macro. Together with less standardized memetic instances, we found that Contingent Macros concur to create metaphoric narratives, which develop as the event unfolds. Besides formalizing the concept of Contingent Macro, this work provides scholars with a methodological toolkit for the analysis of event-related meme production, which can capture the fluidity of memes. Overall, the article concurs to underline the need for a clear, context-specific definition of memes, tailored to specific social, cultural, and research contexts.
... These results are not alarming, given that nearly all major public events or discourse led to streams of internet memes (Miltner 2018). In doing so, users may repurpose information into biased messages that fit a particular narrative, either to lend support or oppose an ongoing discourse (de Saint Laurent, Glăveanu, and Literat 2021;Gupta, Jain, and Tiwari 2022). Accordingly, this research investigates the influence of memes on misinformation retransmission in the context of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. ...
... As such, the message can be concrete, objective, and contextualised or can be subjective, general, and decontextualised (Darley and Smith 1993;Trope and Liberman 2003). Recent literature suggests that memes, too, having a humorous undertone, can have an objective or subjective message tone (de Saint Laurent, Glăveanu, and Literat 2021;Wasike 2022). While objective memes contain seemingly objective and fact-based information, subjective memes, on the other hand, are speculatory and are based on personal feelings or opinions (Wasike 2022). ...
Vocal vaccine opposition and hesitancy due to social media-based misinformation is a global threat to public health. This research seeks to investigate the influence of internet memes on misinformation retransmission in the context of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Two experimental-based studies have been conducted. The first study investigates the influence of internet memes (subjective versus objective) on vaccine hesitancy and retransmission. In addition, mediation of vaccine hesitancy on the relationship between meme types and retransmission is investigated. The second study investigates the moderation of social media virality metrics (high versus low) on the influence of internet memes. The results confirm objective memes lead to higher retransmission, and subjective memes lead to higher vaccine hesitancy. Further, mediation of vaccine hesitancy is significant. Additionally, the influence of subjective and objective memes alters due to the interaction effect with virality metrics. The finds offer essential insights into the nature of misinformation and retransmission behaviour. At an aggregate level, this understanding can help stakeholders closely monitor and immediately identify social media posts that may spread misinformation. The study unites meme type and virality metrics in observing misinformation retransmission and vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
... The COVID-19 pandemic provided us with many opportunities for observing the importance of internet culture for raising public awareness regarding the pandemic. Elements and actors native to internet culture such as memes and digital influencers were important factors in the process of making sense of the pandemic and in the process of community bonding (Pulos, 2020;de Saint Laurent et al., 2021;Beck, 2022). In addition, the relevance of elements from internet culture as part of science communication has been debated for engaging new audiences (Gartley, 2022), with potential positive impacts on vaccination campaigns. ...
Purpose – This study investigates the communication behavior of public health organizations on Twitter during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Brazil. It contributes to the understanding of the organizational framing of health communication by showcasing several instances of framing devices that borrow from (Brazilian) internet culture. The investigation of this case extends our knowledge by providing a rich description of the organizational framing of health communication to combat misinformation in a politically charged environment.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors collected a Twitter dataset of 77,527 tweets and analyzed a purposeful subsample of 536 tweets that contained information provided by Brazilian public health organizations about COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. The data analysis was carried out quantitatively and qualitatively by combining social media analytics techniques and frame analysis.
Findings – The analysis showed that Brazilian health organizations used several framing devices that have been identified by previous literature such as hashtags, links, emojis, or images. However, the analysis also unearthed hitherto unknown visual framing devices for misinformation prevention and debunking that borrow from internet culture such as ‘infographics,’ ‘pop culture references,’ and ‘internet-native symbolism.’
Practical implications – The findings inform decision-makers and public health organizations about framing devices that are tailored to internet-native audiences and can guide strategies to carry out information campaigns in misinformation-laden social media environments.
Social implications – The findings of this case study expose the often-overlooked cultural peculiarities of framing information campaigns on social media. The report of this study from a country in the Global South helps to contrast several assumptions and strategies that are prevalent in (health) discourses in Western societies and scholarship.
Originality/value – This study uncovers unconventional and barely addressed framing devices of health organizations operating in Brazil, which provides a novel perspective to the body of research on misinformation. It contributes to existing knowledge about frame analysis and broadens the understanding of frame devices borrowing from internet culture. It is a call for a frontier in misinformation research that deals with internet culture as part of organizational strategies for successful misinformation combat.
... An important connection between memes and Gen-Z consumerism is that the cohort responds favorably to ads that incorporate narratives (Tabassum et al., 2020) and that these narratives commingle with logos and SNS content to impact brand perceptions and purchase decisions (Andini and Andanawarih, 2022). A compelling reason for memes' effectiveness in shaping digital culture, and consumer culture by extension, is that their heuristic properties enable them to function as succinct storytelling devices that individually contribute to a larger, overarching narrative (de Saint Laurent et al., 2021). Memes do not tell traditional stories with beginnings, middles, ends and clearly defined plot points. ...
... Memes do not tell traditional stories with beginnings, middles, ends and clearly defined plot points. Rather, owing to their compact nature, memes present fragments of a larger cultural narrative and allow audiences to interpret and contextualize the messages they contain (de Saint Laurent et al., 2021). ...
Purpose
As a result of increasingly pervasive public social media use over the past decade, brands and marketers have begun to use internet memes as digital advertising vehicles, with some using specialized professionals to create memetic ad content. Despite this, little scholarly research on the phenomenon has appeared. This study aims to provide exploratory evidence for how older members of Generation Z (Gen-Z), a digitally native cohort, perceive and regard brands’ use of internet memes as advertisements.
Design/methodology/approach
A series of six focus groups conducted with older Gen-Z undergraduates at a large Western US university yields consonant and dissonant beliefs and perspectives about this emergent and conceivably powerful advertising and marketing practice.
Findings
Participants express that memetic advertising has potential for nonserious, lighthearted brands with a consistent social media presence but less potential for serious brands or brands that try to appropriate meme culture for financial gain. The importance of humor, cultural narratives and social connections as they relate to internet meme culture is inherent in these discussions.
Originality/value
This study joins a small body of work examining the effectiveness, viability and limitations of memetic advertising as an online advertising venture. Implications and prescriptive advice are offered.
... Memes have been said to capture 'some of the most fundamental aspects of digital culture' (Shifman 2014: 4), since they mix popular culture and politics, make ample use of intertextuality and can be shared quickly and effectively, blurring the boundaries between online and offline worlds. In addition to their topicality (Literat and van den Berg 2019), the malleability of memes in terms of both form and content is regarded as a central criterium for their successfulness (De Saint Laurent et al. 2021;Wiggins and Bowers 2015). ...
... Glăveanu et al. 2018). Both the open-ended plot and intertextuality of memes allow for modifying and reconstructing the (partial) narratives of the memes (Wiggins and Bowers 2015), making them effective tools for political negotiation (Mortensen and Neumayer 2021) and for appealing to audiences by mobilizing their political imagination (De Saint Laurent et al. 2021). In these ways, memes also differ from other central modes of contemporary online (political) communication and mobilization, such as tweets and blogs. ...
... Hence, the white and the black text are set into dialogue, twisting the meaning of the expression 'gullible fool', suggesting that it may actually refer to the government. Again, Figure 9 is an example of how the multi-layered communication of political memes produces a distinct form of interaction with and persuasion of its audience: it can leave them 'the floor' to draw their own conclusions and allow for non-explicated interpretations invited by the discursive context in which it is produced (De Saint Laurent et al. 2021;Literat and van den Berg 2019). In this case, it serves to reverse the position of the 'fool', from the Finnish people to the (unpatriotic) elite. ...
The social media have become an increasingly important vehicle for populist mobilization and persuasion. In this study, we explore how populism as a flexible ideology becomes articulated and reconstructed in times of international political turmoil. More precisely, we focus on the multimodal construction of right-wing populist ideology in the political memes produced by the Finns Party during Russia’s war in Ukraine in the spring 2022. Our multimodal discourse analysis shows that the memes constructed national security and sovereignty, (gendered) anti-elitism, and anti-refugee arguments through drawing upon the ‘Russian threat’ as a central discursive resource. Further, it demonstrates how the specific features of internet memes – humour, entertainment, open-endedness and interactivity – can be creatively utilized in populist political communication. The results of this study have implications for the scholarly understanding of populism as a ‘thin’ and flexible ideology, and for internet memes as a channel for political persuasion and mobilization.
... The sarcastic and humorous tone prevails as a sociopolitical criticism about the actions, speeches and behaviors of the president that have been changed according to interests during the pandemic. Saint Laurent, Glȃveanu and Literat [2021] highlight memes as intrinsic and partial narratives of a more complex story. In this case, the broader story was the role of the president in dealing with the pandemic. ...
... Given that memes are created based on social events, prior knowledge of these events is essential for the production of meanings about their message. In general, there is an implicit narrative within a more complex story, as also evidenced by Saint Laurent et al. [2021], rendering the meanings produced interdependent between general knowledge about social events, more specific knowledge about science and multimodal analysis. ...
This study aimed at analyzing Brazilian memes posted on Instagram about Covid-19, in which scientific concepts were intertwined with the message. The research was based on virtual ethnography and the analysis considered the multimodal structure of memes following principles of the Grammar of Visual Design. Only twelve memes out of a universe of 83 identified (14.5%) presented knowledge about science interdependently with meanings that could be produced. One of the core aspects is the complexity of both representations and scientific concepts in memes about Covid-19. Scientific aspects, humor and irony were associated with social and political criticism through different multimodal interactions.
... and even to communicate humorously as coping mechanism in the new normal (Torres, Collantes, Astrero, Millan, & Gabriel, 2020). Moreover, according to various research, people turn to humorous memes as a collective coping mechanism to stressful-critical situations during the pandemic (Flecha-Ortiz, Corrada, Lopez, & Dones, 2021); an escape from the lifethreatening consequences of contracting the virus (Skórka, Grzywacz, Moroń, & Lenda, 2022); a source of a political narrative that exposes corruption, scandal, and protests (de Saint Laurent, Glăveanu, & Literat, 2021); as a positive frame of religion suggesting people's support of social distancing emerges from unforeseen situations. Finally, exaggeration is magnifying something of proportion. ...
This study described the types and functions of humor in memes during the Covid-19 pandemic to have a better understanding of the content and the role of humor during a crisis. This study identified the general ideas that emerged from the Bisaya memes including the types and functions of Bisaya humor. Using the qualitative and research methods, the results revealed the general ideas which included health practices, security, and health behavior. Comparison, pun, and exaggeration predominated which could be attributed to the Filipinos’ creativity and fondness of vivid images and by virtue of its repressive colonial history. For carnivalesque functionality, the exposition of social inequities, therapy, and subversion of social order prevailed. These imply the Filipinos’ dissatisfaction with the government’s programs, fight against information disorders, and parodying hierarchic authority in a comical manner. Consequently, memes cannot reflect Filipinos’ knowledge of the pandemic because this is a new experience for us. Memes can express the basic needs of the people/platform to express our experiences brought by the pandemic. Lastly, humorous memes serve a dualistic function in the study: they both delight and criticize.
... Humorous memes were found by some internet users to be the best therapy to distract attention from the constant stressing data of death cases or critically infected cases. Consequently, the ambient community has been showered with intense upload and dispersion of humorous memes, which can be regarded as narratives ridiculing and criticizing a multitude of universal social and political events, such as lockdown decisions, quarantine, self-isolation, social distancing, etc… (Aslan 2021;Dynel 2021;de Saint Laurent et al. 2021). ...
This study investigates the potential socio-political commentaries entailed by the multimodal metaphorical conceptualizations in Egyptian and American coronavirus memes. A contrastive qualitative and quantitative analysis is carried out on 80 multimodal memes, retrieved from Facebook, in which Coronavirus is the target domain. The sample is composed of 40 Egyptian and 40 American Coronavirus Memes. The data are analyzed within the framework of Cyberpragmatics (Yus, 2019), the methodological tools of analysis of multimodal metaphorical approach (Forceville, 2008), and the tools of the compositional meaning of the visual and verbal semiotics (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). Five multimodal conceptual metaphors are identified, introducing different thematic representations which carry socio-political commentaries. The commentaries reflect varied universal and cultural-specific ideologies.
