Persuasion Through Bitter Humor: Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Rhetoric in Internet Memes of Two Far-Right Groups in Finland (original) (raw)
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By means of two case studies, this paper examines how multimodals like the Internet meme can serve as a vehicle for ideological content, placing specific emphasis on its constitutive attribute: the re- and decontextualization. The first case study analyzes the appropriation of the Pepe the Frog meme by the Alt-Right in the US to provide linguistic categories to classify multimodal attributes of Internet memes as: • multimodals: via form, content and macro-proposition • semantic: as extension or constriction of meaning, or ultimately a conceptual shift (including a fundamental alteration of meaning) In the second case study, the previously developed categories are applied and evaluated to memes created by the New Right in Germany.
Do You Want Meme War?" Understanding the Visual Memes of the German Far Right
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Far-right groups use internet memes to mobilize supporters, to employ troll factory tactics and to disseminate hate messages to a wider public. Drawing on methodological tools from visual culture studies, we analyze memes by the German online network Reconquista Germanica (RG), asking: What visual language, narratives and strategies do far-right memes employ to appeal a broad spectrum of potential supporters? We observe that RG's memes use ironic ambiguity, »hipsterish« aesthetics or references to popular culture to contemporize their ideological roots and to appeal multiple audiences and not-yet politicized users, while circumventing censorship. Although, at first sight, memes appear to be harmless instances of everyday visual culture, they still manage to convey neo-Nazi symbolism and key ideological narratives of hate and bigotry. Therefore, we argue for taking the calculated ambivalence of visual memes seriously instead of reducing them to a merely illustrative role.
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This article is based on a case study of the online media practices of the militant neo-Nazi organization the Nordic Resistance Movement, currently the biggest and most active extreme-right actor in Scandinavia. I trace a recent turn to humor, irony, and ambiguity in their online communication and the increasing adaptation of stylistic strategies and visual aesthetics of the Alt-Right inspired by online communities such as 4chan, 8chan, Reddit, and Imgur. Drawing on a visual content analysis of memes ( N = 634) created and circulated by the organization, the analysis explores the place of humor, irony, and ambiguity across these cultural expressions of neo-Nazism and how ideas, symbols, and layers of meaning travel back and forth between neo-Nazi and Alt-right groups within Sweden today.
The rapid emergence of the participatory internet culture produced new, rarely seen before ways of commenting on political and social issues. While the role of the internet memes is, of course, not strictly limited to that of social commentary, and, in fact, is rarely thought to be so, modern political internet memes at times enter even the mainstream political discussion. User-generated internet memes also often appear in mainstream media. The United States presidential elections were even branded ‘the meme election’ by some political commentators, underlying the importance of the internet memes as a means of political commentary during these elections. At the same time the research on political internet memes remains limited. The internet memes are a product of a modern internet culture. Because of that it is important to discuss the concept of internet culture, its position as a part of culture in general, its key characteristics and its evolution from the supposedly less participatory culture of the early days of the World Wide Web to a more participatory period of Web 2.0. This latter era is characterized by the presence of certain technologies which are also discussed in chapter 1. These technologies allowed more participation and content creation by users, thus effectively being crucial to both creation and dissemination of internet memes. At the same time the visual structure of internet memes is not new. ‘Image macros’ - the most popular type of internet memes represents an image which usually repeats from meme to meme with superimposed text. As such, in order to grasp the meaning of political internet memes, it might be useful to turn to semiotics. I discuss Roland Barthes’ collection of essays Image-Music-Text due to it being particular useful to discussion of images with text. Later I have also analyzed the case study of Rushka Kvadratnyi Vatnik using semiotics to test my hypothesis of political internet memes serving as examples of political caricature and means of reaction to propaganda. Discussion of political internet memes is impossible without the general introduction to the concept of internet memes. In chapter 2 I discuss briefly the history of the concept, the reasons why people choose to produce internet memes, the role of affinity spaces in meme production, and what makes internet meme successful with a particular attention to the role of humor in political internet memes. In that chapter I also discuss the previous research on political internet memes which remains very limited. I also make a particular distinction between internet memes originally created as a form of social or political commentary and internet memes which were originally created for other purposes but may be used as a form of social or political commentary. As a case study I have chosen the case of the internet meme Rushka Kvadratnyi Vatnik which became very popular in the Russian-speaking segment of the internet as form of criticism of Russian jingoist patriotism. I also discuss how certain manifestations of this internet meme are used as a form of a political caricature and as a means of reaction to the official Russian propaganda using semiotic analysis. The source materials I have used throughout the paper are mainly academic research papers on the subject of the Internet, internet culture, and internet memes. I have also used Roland Barthes’ and Umberto Eco’s writings in the sphere of semiotics. Writings on the interrelation of humor, propaganda and politics were also important. Finally, I have used news from reliable mass media to illustrate my points – such sources were mostly used as a means of illustrating the coverage of certain events in the mainstream media.
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Internet memes are phenomena that rapidly gain popularity on the Internet which construct intercultural discourse. Using visual rhetoric, the Internet memes convey a set of symbols and ideals that express socio-political structure represented on the Internet. The story of memes is crucial in understanding the digital culture along with revealing the identity of an Internet subculture, as well as in analyzing the impacts of this cultural artifact. This study analyzes the nature and functions of internet memes and its contribution to formulate a new cultural discourse. The findings have been instrumented to illustrate how memes operate as rhetoric to explore the intercultural communication and identity construction prevalent in representative cyber-culture. It has specially been targeted to inquire the inter-textual nature of memes which are created and disseminated by the Bangladeshi Facebook prosumers. In addition, the study makes a comparison of theoretical approaches to the study of memes, including visual rhetoric approach which combines elements of the semiotic and discursive approaches to study the persuasive constituents of visual texts. These methods help deconstruct a sign or a text and decode possible hidden meanings through discourse analysis in terms of written texts and through semiotic analysis in terms of images. The presence of both an image (sign) and a caption (text) in an internet meme requires such a combined approach for reflective output.
The discourse of the extreme right in digital media
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The fight against extremist narratives on the Internet and on social networks has become a priority the fight against terrorism and radical recruitment. Our elected representatives and authorities seem to believe in the effectiveness if a simple, sharp approach. However, from a scientific point of view, the situation is not so simple and therefore, measures must not be hurried. While it may be rather easy to characterize a coherent, repetitive and identifiable narratives, radical terrorist narratives are nonetheless a very complex linguistic and sociolinguistic issue. Moreover, they are based on complex dissemination modes and communicational structures. For the purpose of a French research project (ANR: Défense) we analysed the public declarations of extreme right-wing activist groups in order to gather and characterize their narratives from an interdisciplinary perspective (in the light of various disciplines such as sociology, political science, linguistics, sociolinguistics, and communication science). Then, we elaborated a mathematical and algorithmic model in order to automatise searches for warning purposes. This model also responds to the sociological purpose of identification and validation, which can be used by digital content creators and internet providers.