Meme Warfare is a term that shows just how drastically memes have evolved in recent years. Memes were once solely known as source of entertainment, and while they remain a source of entertainment, there are memes that are much more complex than that. Meme Warfare focuses on Memes and their involvement in political propaganda as well as political, military, and social conflict. While many of these memes appear to be all in good fun, they often have strong opinions behind them and they can be pretty persuasive.
An example of Meme Warfare would be the 2016 US Presidential election (or any election or political matter really) but 2016 was a big one so we’ll focus on that. Facebook played a major role in the 2016 election. There were countless Meme pages that depicted both Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump in both a negative and positive light. Memes criticized Hilary for the email scandal, her relations, and they claimed that she was “crooked”. Trump, on the other hand was criticized for his hairstyle, orange skin tone, his facial expressions, and his lack of political knowledge.
Memes allowed people from all different social and economic backgrounds to interact and share their political views, allowing for criticism and praise of the two candidates. Memes were so popular throughout this election that they surely influenced voters. especially considering the fact that 44% of US adults reportedly learned most of their information about the 2016 election through social media platforms (this must have influenced their opinions on both candidates). Political institutions and leaders even use memes to their advantage for political strategy.
Are you convinced how powerful Memes are yet? Well, English ethologist, Richard Dawkins discussed the power of Memes in comparison to genes. He said that like genes, Memes are exceedingly copied- which leads to them going viral. Except, unlike genes, Memes are not always exceedingly copied accurately. Dawkins described Memes like a game of telephone. He said that if the phrase (meme) in the game of telephone is simple, then there will be little misunderstanding. However, if the phrase (meme) is complex, then false information and meaning might spread.
A perfect example of fake news spreading through the power of Memes is the Justin Bieber burrito scandal. If you’re not familiar will this one- a group of Youtubers called “Yes Theory” staged a photo of a Justin Bieber look-alike eating a burrito sideways and it went viral overnight. The group posted the image on reddit and their post was number 38 in the world after only 5 hours. The day after posting the image, the “burrito scandal” was being talked about in articles by USA Today and Cosmopolitan along with countless gossip sites. The story was even covered by E News and ABC news. The fake image spread like wildfire and there were Memes of “JB” eating a burrito sideways all over the internet.
So, we should all be cautious of the information that is out there on the big wide web, because the news we read about isn’t always accurate. And memes have more power to persuade our opinions (even our political opinions) than we give them credit for. Memes go viral faster than we think, and their strong opinions are often masked by humor, so we’re unaware of their persuasive ability.
Sources:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2056305118808799
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/8290/7202
RICHARD DAWKINS STANCE ON MEMES
YES THEORY & THE BURRITO SCANDAL
Victoria Jordan Travels 
Hey, really enjoyed your blog post about meme warfare and fake news! I liked how you brought in the example of the fake Justin Bieber photo scandal, it made the post entertaining and interesting. It’s really interesting how people can create an image and basically manipulate their audience. Also interesting how easily manipulated an audience can be, as they believe things so easily, even when its literally just someone pretending to eat a burrito. Overall, great sources and examples! 🙂
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