Keywords
Social networks
Electoral campaigns
Humor
Spain
How to Cite
Abstract
In the online politainment context, the use of political memes as a humorous and creative formula to configure the political image has become an increasingly common practice in electoral campaigns. Especially on the occasion of electoral debates, dissemination of political memes on social networks has captured the interest of scholars. This study takes into account the established political memes taxonomies and analyzes their persuasive capacity. Specifically, the research includes a quantitative analysis of the main memes spread on Twitter during the two electoral debates that took place in the 2019 electoral campaign in Spain: 4N and 7N. The study uses the perspective of integrated framing (textual-visual) and is based on the persuasive power of memes in relation to the importance of each of the elements of rhetoric (pathos, ethos and logos), with the aim of analyzing as well the consequences on its virality and repercussion on the social audience.
References
ADEGOJU, A.; OYEBODE, O. “Humour as discursive practice in Nigeria’s 2015 presidential election online campaign discourse”. Discourse Studies, USA, vol. 17, nº 6, p. 643-662, 2015.
ALPERIN, J. P.; GÓMEZ, C. J.; HAUSTEIN, S. “Identifying diffusion patterns of research articles on Twitter: a case study of online engagement with open access articles”. Public Understanding of Science, USA, vol. 28, nº 1, p. 2-18, 2019.
BALLESTEROS-HERENCIA, C. “Los marcos del compromiso: framing y engagement digital en la campaña electoral de España de 2015”. Observatorio (OBS*) Journal, vol. 14, nº 3, p. 98-119, 2020.
BARNARD, S. R. “‘Tweet or be sacked’: Twitter and the new elements of journalistic practice”. Journalism, USA, vol. 17, p. 190-207, 2016.
BEBIĆ, D.; VOLAREVIC, M. “Do not mess with a meme: the use of viral content in communicating politics”. Communication & Society, España, vol. 31, nº3, p. 43-56, 2018.
BERG, E.; LIPPMAN, L. “Does humor in radio advertising affect recognition of novel product brand names?”. Journal of General Psychology, USA, nº 128, p. 194-205, 2001.
BLACKMORE, S. The meme machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
BURROUGHS, B. “FCJ-165 Obama trolling: memes, salutes and an agonistic politics in the 2012 presidential election”. The Fibreculture Journal, Australia, nº 165, p. 258-277, 2013.
CHAGAS, V. “Entre criadores e criaturas: uma análise sobre a relacã̧ o entre memes de internet e propriedade intelectual”. In: Intercom – Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicacã̧ o, XXXVIII Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicacã̧ o, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 4-7 set. 2015.
CHAGAS, V., et al. “A política dos memes e os memes da política: proposta metodológica de análise de conteúdo de memes dos debates eleitorais de 2014”. Intexto, Porto Alegre, UFRGS, nº 38, p. 173-196, jan.-abr. 2017.
CHAPMAN, J. Comparative media history. Manchester, UK: Polity Press, 2005. CONBOY, M. Journalism – A critical history. London, UK: Sage Publications Ltd, 2004.
DALMONTE, E.; FERREIRA, P. C.; CARDOSO, C. “Espalhamento midiático e profanação: uma análise de memes sobre os debates eleitorais de 2014”. C&S, São Bernardo do Campo, vol. 38, nº 3, p. 217- 243, set.-dez. 2016.
DAVIS, J. L.; LOVE, T. P.; KILLEN, G. “Seriously funny: the political work of humor on social media”.
New Media & Society, vol. 20, nº 10 , p. 3.898-3.916, 2018.
DAVISON, P. The language of internet memes. In: MANDIBERG, M. (Ed.). The social media reader. New York: New York University Press, 2012.
DAWKINS, R. The selfish gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976.
DYNEL, M. “‘I has seen image macros!’. Advice animal memes as visual-verbal jokes”. International Journal of Communication, vol. 10, p. 660-688, 2016.
FAHMY, S.; IBRAHIM, O. “No, memes no! Digital persuasion in the #MeToo Era”. In: AEJMC Annual Conference, Toronto, Canadá, 2019.
FIRDAUS, S. N.; DING, C.; SADEGHIAN, A. “Topic specific emotion detection for retweet prediction”.
International Journal of Machine Learning and Cybernetics, vol. 10, p. 2.071-2.083, 2019.
FOSS, S. K. Framing the study of visual rhetoric: toward a transformation of rhetorical theory. In: HILL, C. A.; HELMERS, M. (Eds.). Defining visual rhetorics. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
GAL, N.; SHIFMAN, L.; KAMPF, Z. “‘It Gets Better’: Internet memes and the construction of collective identity”. New Media & Society, vol. 18, nº 8, p. 1.698-1.714, 2015.
GARCÍA-HUERTA, D. “Las imágenes macro y los memes de internet: posibilidades de estudio desde las teorías de la comunicación”. Paakat: Revista de Tecnología y Sociedad, nº 6, 2014.
GÓMEZ-GARCÍA, S., et al. “Constructing Donald Trump: mobile apps in the political discourse about the president of the United States”. Comunicar, vol. 59, p. 49-59, 2019.
HEISKANEN, B. “Meme-ing electoral participation”. European Journal of American Studies, vol. 12, nº 2, p. 1-26, 2017.
HIGHFIELD, T. “News via Voldemort: parody accounts in topical discussions on Twitter”. New Media & Society, vol. 18, nº 9, p. 2.028-2.045, 2016.
HUNTINGTON, H. “Subversive memes: Internet memes as a form of visual rhetoric”. Selected Papers of Internet Research, nº 14, p. 23-26, 2013.
HUNTINGTON, H. “Pepper spray cop and the American dream: using synecdoche and metaphor to unlock Internet memes’ visual political rhetoric”. Communication Studies, nº 67, vol. 1, p. 77-93, 2016.
JACKSON, D.; THORSEN, E. “UK election analysis 2015: media, voters and the campaign”. Project report. Bournemouth University, Poole, 2015.
JENKINS, H. Convergence culture: la cultura de la convergencia de los medios de comunicación. Barcelona: Paidós, 2008.
KADIR, S.; LOKMAN, A. “Memes: persuasive political warfare”. Centre of Media and Information Warfare Studies (CMIWS), nº 7, p. 31-35, 2013.
KNOBEL, M.; LANKSHEAR, C. Online memes, affinities, and cultural production. In: KNOBEL, M.; LANKSHEAR, C. (eds.). A new literacies sampler. New York: Peter Lang, 2007.
LU, S.; LUQIU, L. R. “Does political efficacy equally predict news engagement across countries? A multilevel analysis of the relationship among internal political efficacy, media environment and news engagement”. New Media & Society (online), 2019.
LYTTLE, J. “The effectiveness of humor in persuasion: the case of business ethics training”. The Journal of General Psychology, nº 128, vol. 2, p. 206-216, 2001.
MANCERA RUEDA, A. “Estudio exploratorio de las estrategias de encuadre discursivo en memes humorísticos publicados en Twitter durante las elecciones generales de noviembre de 2019 celebradas en España”. Dígitos, vol. 6, p. 197-207, 2020.
MANFREDI-SÁNCHEZ, J.; AMADO-SUÁREZ, A.; WAISBORD, S. “Presidential Twitter in the face of Covid-19: between populism and pop politics”. Comunicar, vol. 29, nº 66, p. 83-94, 2021.
MÁRQUEZ, L. “¿Son los debates electorales la nueva Eurovisión? Análisis del seguimiento de dos eventos masivos a través de Twitter”. Dígitos, nº 3, p. 137-162, 2017.
MARTÍNEZ-ROLÁN, X.; PIÑEIRO-OTERO, T. “The use of memes in the discourse of political parties on Twitter: analysing the 2015 state of the nation debate”. Communication & Society, nº 29, vol. 1, p. 145-159, 2016.
MAZZOLENI, G.; BRACCIALE, R. La politica pop online: i meme e le nuove sfide della comunicazione politica. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2019.
MESO-AYERDI, K.; MENDIGUREN-GALDOSPÍN, T.; PÉREZ-DASILVA, J. “Memes políticos difundidos por usuarios de Twitter. Análisis de la jornada electoral del 26J de 2016”. El Profesional de la Información, vol. 26, nº 4, p. 673-682, 2017.
MILNER, R. M. “The world made meme: discourse and identity in participatory media culture”. Phd. Dissertation of Communication Studies, University of Kansas, 2012.
MILNER, R. M. “Pop polyvocality: Internet memes, public participation, and the Occupy Wall Street Movement”. International Journal of Communication, vol. 7, p. 2.357-2.390, 2013.
MILNER, R. M. “Memes are dead; long live memetics” (online). Culture Digitally, 27 oct. 2015. Disponible en: https://culturedigitally.org/2015/10/01-memes-are-dead-long-live-memetics-by- ryan-m-milner. Accesado el: 26 ago. 2016.
NAVARRO-SIERRA, N.; QUEVEDO-REDONDO, R. “El liderazgo político de la Unión Europea a través del ecosistema de aplicaciones móviles”. Revista Prisma Social, vol. 30, p. 1-21, 2020.
NIVEN, D.; LICHTER, S. R.; AMUNDSON, D. “The political content of late night comedy”. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, nº 8, vol. 3, p. 118-133, 2003.
OCHOA, G. E. “De la caricatura al meme: las nuevas formas visuales de generar opinión a través del humor”. Tesis Comunicación Social, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador, Ecuador, 2018.
PATO, I. “Podíamos. O cómo conquistar el Estado con memes y lágrimas”. Playground, 19 ene. 2016. PÉREZ-SALAZAR, G. El meme en Internet: identidad y usos sociales. México: Fontamara, 2017.
PESTARINO, J.; WINCKLER, G. “Memes políticos: apropiabilidad digital en la web 2.0”. Artefacto Visual, vol. 3, nº 4, p. 2.530-4.119, 2018.
POND, P.; LEWIS, J. “Riots and Twitter: connective politics, social media and framing discourses in the digital public sphere”. Information, Communication & Society, vol. 22, nº 2, p. 213-231, 2019.
REICHART, L.; PEGORARO, A.; CRUIKSHANK, S. A. “Tweet, retweet, favorite: the impact of Twitter use on enjoyment and sports viewing”. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, vol. 63, nº 1, p. 94-110, 2019.
ROMERO-CÁRCAMO, L. “Memes y opinión pública ¿una relación posible?”. Diálogos de la Comunicación, nº 91, 2015.
RUIZ MARTÍNEZ, J. M. “Una aproximación retórica a los memes de internet”. Revista Signa, nº 27, p. 995-1.021, 2018.
SHIFMAN, L. “An anatomy of a YouTube meme”. New Media & Society, vol. 14, nº 2, p. 187-203, 2009.
SHIFMAN, L. Memes in digital culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2014.
SHIFMAN, L.; THELWALL, M. “Assesing global diffusion with web memetics: the spread and evolution of a popular joke”. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, nº 60, p. 2.567-2.576, 2009.
STEPHENS, M. A history of news: from the drum to the satellite. England: Viking Penguin, 1988.
TAY, G. “Embracing LOLtics: popular culture, on-line political humor, and play”. Phd Dissertation of Communication Studies, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Christchurch, 2012.
USHER, B. “Me, you, and us: constructing political persona on social networks during the 2015 UK general election”. Persona Studies, vol. 2, nº 2, p. 19-41, 2016.
VERA, E. “El meme como nexo entre el sistema educativo y el nativo digital: tres propuestas para la enseñanza de Lenguaje y Comunicación”. Revista Educación y Tecnología, año 5, nº 8, vol. 2, p. 1- 15, 2016.
WEBBER, J.; SARLOS, S.; ECKHARDT, M. The cultural set up of comedy: affective politics in the United States post 9/11. Bristol: Intellect Ltd, 2013.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2021 Rocio Zamora Medina, Salvador Gómez García, Helena Martínez Martínez
Downloads
