When I say ‘meme warfare’ it’s easy to picture legions of Pepe’s sprinting fearlessly towards a herd of Doge’s. But, unfortunately in the real world, meme warfare more resembles politically motivated memes which aim to control a narrative. In saying that, let’s take a look at the CNN Meme War of 2017. Here, we see a prevailing narrative created through countless memes (seriously here’s a playlist of them): CNN is bad, and Donald has slayed them. Here’s a few of my favourites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYnYl-D-2JU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRMxJvXBtkU&index=1&list=PLMI82jvXx5uBHCvbwAKWtdPE9BpVKvTUB
The CNN Meme War is a great example of the tangible effects of internet memes. The public’s opinion in the manner was heavily informed by the portrayals of either side within the frame of the memes. So, although CNN over-reacted, they kind of had a point. This made me wonder if there were any Australian scandals which I could spin into a CNN-meme-warfare-style video, and then it came to me: Kevin ’07. So, please enjoy a dramatic recreation of Julia Gillard backstabbing Kevin Rudd for the position Prime Minister.
Can you think of any Meme Wars you’d like to share? Comment below
4 Responses
It’s true meme warfare tactics play a significant role as for the political positioning to those in parliament for the perspective of younger generations to engage with, unfortunately. It has become a language in itself to communicate topics of discussion into satirical mediums with the power to inform yet be cleverly constructed into artefacts with little attention span. Those examples of memetic warfare were great, it made me realise how the topic of remix intertwined with meme warfare and how easy it is to create videos and recreations of existing clips and brands as seen in Michael Beirut’s branding system for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential debate. The remediation was probably my favourite part of the blog, as I find Gillard to be unintentionally hilarious to begin with and the backstabbing to support made it even funnier. To further your post maybe you could mention remix culture a bit more, as I felt it was absent. Here is an article I found about remix culture which could help in implementing this topic somewhere into your post, https://techcrunch.com/2015/03/22/from-artistic-to-technological-mash-up/. An engaging blog overall, looking forward to what’s next.
Thank you! I didn’t even consider how remix culture came into my topic this week, so thanks for pointing that out. It’s very concerning how we shape our opinions of prominent figures in society based off memes about them or by them. It’s almost reminiscent of how the tabloids try to create narratives about celebrities isn’t it…
I don’t even know how you came up with the idea to make that video but I love it! But what you said about how memes can be used for political reasons is 100% true! I watched this short 15 min video on my memes a dangerous, here it is if you’d like to check it out! https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_on_dangerous_memes/transcript?language=en
You really connect with the topic this week! It was very thought-provoking and showcased a broad understanding of what memetic warfare truly is. The inclusion of all the supporting Youtube videos furthers my understanding of the topic as well as your remediation.