Гуманитарный вектор (Oct 2023)
Political Internet Meme as a Communicative and Cultural Phenomenon of Modern Media Space
Abstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of modern political Internet memes as communicative and cultural phenomena demonstrating the growing functionality in the modern media space, manifested in the ability not only to build relevant topics and narratives of the news agenda but also to broadcast meaningful meanings for society, both every day and sacred. The purpose of this study was to consider the political Internet meme as a communicative and cultural phenomenon, to identify its key properties, as well as to present the results of typologization of Internet memes on communicative and cultural-value grounds. The content analysis of selected 385 Internet memes devoted to the topic of politics was used as a research method. At the same time, the analysis of Internet memes is carried out from the point of view of the peculiarities of their communicative and cultural potential. In the study, the authors focus on the ability of the mass media to reproduce culturally significant meanings for society containing value attitudes. The communicative potential of Internet memes is manifested in such properties as the representation of the information agenda and the use of various types of message presentation formats. Cultural potential is manifested in the translation of cultural and value bases. The results of a comparative analysis of political Internet memes published in popular Russian Telegram channels, as well as key topics of the information agenda and broadcast values are presented. Typologization of Internet memes gave an idea of the structure and methods of creating online memes, the most popular formats were identified – they are a screenshot meme and a macro picture, also typologization allowed us to determine the information political agenda formed by Internet memes (political relations between Russia and Ukraine, Russia in world politics, the energy crisis in Europe, etc.) and the values they broadcast (justice, Homeland, family, unity, etc.). The political Internet meme is considered in the work as a communicative and cultural phenomenon, which represents a special symbolic form of representation of the information agenda and actualization of meanings, having the properties of syncretism and ensuring the integrity of perception through a combination of modern formats and technologies of production, dissemination of information.
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