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听How do we participate in the evolving world of memes, especially when taking up a position as an elected official?

By: Maya Stephens
Course: Language and Digital Media (Ling 3800)
Advisor: Prof. Kira Hall
LURA 2020

With the internet being as vast and far reaching as it is now, we as a society have only just begun to realize the effect that it may have on important processes such as gaining support for political campaigning and related initiatives. With a simple hashtag, it is possible to gain followers for a cause worldwide in a span of minutes. In fact, we have witnessed this phenomenon frequently via digital media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook. As I was reflecting on this in Dr. Kira Hall鈥檚 Fall 2019 seminar Language and Digital Media, I focused in on memes for my final project.

When I was still developing this final project, I received a lot of feedback that caused me to evaluate just what kind of research I would be looking at. Mini topics such as cringe culture, meme literacy, and positions of power popped up everywhere. At the end of these consultations, I knew that what I was researching is not something to take lightly, especially when the internet is now an integral part of education, transferring information, and participating in the modern world.听

My broader essay addresses the power of internet culture when put into the context of United States politics: specifically, the power of political memes and memes used by political figures today. Within my essay, I address themes such as 鈥減roper鈥� memetic participation and creation, allowances for elected officials, and the potential effects that come with using memes to connect with an audience while in a position of power. For the purpose of this research, I consulted texts such as author Gretchen McCulloch鈥檚 (2019) book Because Internet and similar readings. Once I decided which US politicians I would be selecting, I went to work to understand how memes and modern US politics collide.听

Of the three major political figures I selected for my study, Barack Obama showed a strong understanding of appropriate practices associated with meme creation and circulation. When he produced memes and participated in meme content, Obama was able to successfully connect with youth and the common people of the United States. One example is the Obama meme I examined, seen in Figure 1, in which he copies the traditional text meme format to congratulate and poke fun at his ex-Vice President Joe Biden. Obama鈥檚 reputation as a youthful, cool politician persists even today, in part, I suggest, because of his fluency in memetic culture. His meme literacy indexes that he is young and part of the common people, therefore enabling him to find common ground with both groups of people. Memes are typically associated with youth, but they can also be associated with the common man. That is, when we think of who might be meme-ing, the first thing that comes to mind is not a person of high status or a person in a position of power. This is what digital media theorists mean when they discuss the internet as facilitating 鈥減articipatory democracy.鈥�

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Figure 1: A picture of a tweet in which Obama is wishing fellow politician Joe Biden a happy birthday.听

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Retired politician Hillary Clinton is not a new face to the meme scene. What I discovered with Clinton is that the perceived amount of what digital users call 鈥渃ringe鈥� factors into whether a meme is considered successful or not. That said, there are many factors that contribute to the success of a meme like I mentioned earlier with Obama. Clinton was unable to follow the rules of meme-ing and suffered for it briefly in her 2016 campaign for the U.S. presidency (see Figure 2); however, she was able to redeem herself once she parted from her practice of using memes to gain voters for her personal gain, as seen in the more successful meme reproduced in Figure 3.

Figure 2: One of the many memes that circulated in the aftermath of Clinton鈥檚 鈥淧ok茅mon GO to the polls鈥� statement. The picture depicts Clinton wearing the iconic cap of the Pok茅mon anime鈥檚 main character.

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Figure 3: Politician Hillary Clinton responds to comments on her decision to not participate in the next election. The gif features a character from the cult classic 鈥淢ean Girls鈥� movie saying, 鈥淲hy are you so obsessed with me?鈥�

What I learned from President Trump is that there is a limit to how easy-going a politician can be, even when following proper meme protocol. In his case, the contents of the meme he created (see Figure 4) stepped over an invisible boundary that should not be crossed when participating in meme culture. There was a less-than-joking intent associated with the meme he employed for personal use on his Twitter account, which resulted in said tweet being deleted, a rare case for something like a meme.

Figure 4: A picture from Donald Trump鈥檚 twitter account. The image depicts the text: 鈥淟OOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH!鈥� Underneath the text, there is a gif from the music video for the song 鈥淧hotograph鈥� by the American band Nickelback. An image of fellow politician Joe Biden standing next to his son Hunter Biden, and two unnamed men with one having the label Ukraine gas executive in place of a name.

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听Going into this project, I did not expect to be walking out with the conclusion that memes could in fact be used as a political tool, let alone that memes could backfire when put to use in a way that does not resonate with their audience. Someone with the ability to carefully produce memes while also subtly influencing the opinions of the public would hold an advantage over their peers. Although my research was only on a small scale, I would like to see what else I could uncover if given the opportunity to pursue this subject further. Nevertheless, I genuinely enjoyed writing my paper, and I hope to see more scholars get involved in the analysis of digital media discourse in the near future.