Playful Politics of Memes

This book studies how memes disrupt and reimagine politics in humorous ways. Memes create a playful activity that follows a shared set of rules and gives a (shared) voice, which may generate togetherness and political identities but also increase polarization.

List of contents

1. The playful politics of memes 2. Messy on the inside: internet memes as mapping tools of everyday life 3. Memes, brands and the politics of post-terror togetherness: following the Manchester bee after the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing 4. Memetising the pandemic: memes, COVID-19 mundanity and political cultures 5. ‘Don’t panic people! Trump will tweet the virus away’: memes contesting and confirming populist political leaders during the COVID-19 crisis 6. ‘#OkBoomer, time to meet the Zoomers’: studying the memefication of intergenerational politics on TikTok 7. Memetic commemorations: remixing far-right values in digital spheres 8. Sharing the hate? Memes and transnationality in the far right’s digital visual culture 9. Murder fantasies in memes: fascist aesthetics of death threats and the banalization of white supremacist violence

About the author

Mette Mortensen is Professor and Deputy Head of Department for Research at the Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Christina Neumayer is Associate Professor of Media Studies at the Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Summary

This book studies how memes disrupt and reimagine politics in humorous ways. Memes create a playful activity that follows a shared set of rules and gives a (shared) voice, which may generate togetherness and political identities but also increase polarization.

Product details

• Authors: Mette (University of Copenhagen Mortensen, Mette Neumayer Mortensen
• Assisted by: Mette Mortensen (Editor), Mortensen Mette (Editor), Christina Neumayer (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 22.05.2023
• EAN: 9781032449500
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3244950-0
• No. of pages: 188
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Society; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; Media Studies, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Process / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Media Studies, Digital lifestyle, Political structure & processes, Media studies: internet, digital media and society, Ethical & social aspects of IT, Political structure and processes, COMPUTERS / Social Aspects