Memetic Warfare
Tue, Oct 24
Today's class will consider the meme. Once the sole domain of geeky forums like 4chan and Reddit, memes are now commonplace on social media and messaging platforms. Along with mainstream acceptance came social problems as memes were deployed to spread disinformation to a global audience. They are effective for this purpose because they're quick to make, send, and interpret — far quicker than faking an entire news story. Yet the hysteria around disinformation has overshadowed the real creativity that is more often than not expressed by memes. Context matters.
We have three main in-class learning goals. By the end of lecture today you will:
- Learn the history of visual communication, from antiquity to the present day.
- Understand that memes are the primary vector of disinformation online, far outpacing other forms of "fake news."
- Make a connection between memes and the idea of the myth cycle, recognizing that memes can serve an important social role.
The slides for today's lecture.
Read This:
Robert Evans investigates for Bellingcat How 75 Fascist Activists Were “Red-Pilled” with memes and other disinformation
From the Wall Street Journal's 'Facebook Files': How Facebook Hobbled Mark Zuckerberg’s Bid to Get America Vaccinated
Your very own instructor on how manipulated images aren't exactly the danger we've been led to believe
Ross Douthat writing in a Substack post about Memes Against Decadence
These supplemental readings continue to examine the dual nature of the meme:
How Russian Trolls Used Meme Warfare to Divide America
Violent memes and messages surging on far-left social media, a new report finds
Protesters are weaponising memes to fight police surveillance
“It Gets Better”: Internet memes and the construction of collective identity
Memes in a Digital World: Reconciling with a Conceptual Troublemaker
Incels Categorize Women by Personal Style and Attractiveness
Young Chinese Bemoan Rat Race With Tongue-in-Cheek Memes
Fueling the Hong Kong Protests: A World of Pop-Culture Memes
New algorithms have been proposed for studying memes and disinformation at a macro-level:
Automatic Discovery of Political Meme Genres with Diverse Appearances
Understanding Visual Memes: An Empirical Analysis of Text Superimposed on Memes Shared on Twitter
Do This:
Writing Reflection 06
See the instructions posted on the assignment's page.
This writing reflection is due on 10/31 at 5pm.
This Week's Dialogue Group Meeting
Find at least one hour to meet with your group to discuss the prompt of the week: Is there a role for content moderation on social media today?
Reading Quiz 08
The form for Reading Quiz 08 follows below. If you can't see the form below, try this direct link.