Meme culture and politics

The role of image-based memes—visual content combining images with text—as vehicles for political messaging, satire, and coordination within online communities. Memes encode meaning through visual variation and cultural references, enabling rapid remixing and adaptation. Internet meme culture intersects with political mobilization, radicalization, and mainstream political discourse, particularly during electoral campaigns and polarized moments.

Key papers

• Zannettou et al. (2018) — On the Origins of Memes by Means of Fringe Web Communities: Large-scale study of meme propagation across Twitter, Reddit, /pol/, and Gab; documents disproportionate prevalence of hateful memes on fringe platforms and influence of /pol/ on mainstream meme ecosystems

Related topics

• Extremism and radicalization — how memes encode and spread extremist messaging
• Political extremism and radicalization — memes as tools for political organizing and harassment
• Internet Culture Fringe Communities — meme creation and circulation in anonymous imageboards