The Memes of Politics and/or The Politics of Memes: Meme Culture as the Mode of Dissent in Political Participation

Abstract

The advent of internet age brought about an unforeseen revolution in not just technology and communication, but to the very idea of governance, political participation and to the conventional relations between the govern and the governed. The traditional modes of political participation through mobilisation methods of rallies and peaceful protests, transcended to the realms of ‘social media’, where on ground socio-political movements are now complemented with ‘twitter thread wars’, ‘Instagram boycotts’ and ‘Facebook debates;. It is in this confluence of contemporary socio-political discourses, that ‘memes’ or ‘medium of memetics’ have emerged as the new mode of expressing both discontentment and support to the everyday events for a socio-politically aware citizen. This paper, using a content analysis methodology relying on secondary sources aims to understand, the analogy of “memes” with popular culture references as a new mode of political participation while using examples of recent trends, within Indian socio-political scene and beyond. The paper, therefore, argues that ‘memes’ have become a strong tool for political activism where serious matters like collective identity, social criticism, war, genocide, and other important issues linked to gender, race, and religion are presented with a touch of humour and the challenging effects it has on the veracity of such topics that were once only discussed in newsrooms or academic circles.