Political memes and Information warfare
1.1 Internet-memes and memetic warfare
As social media industries expand, there are a lot of forms of content aiming to entertain users and use it as means to get monetized on social media platforms. Internet-meme is one of the innovative productions that was generated with the development of the internet. Most Internet-memes are shared recognizing their primarily comedic nature and they are often among the most viral posts on social media. The term “meme” was coined by the popular biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene published 1976. According to Dawkins (1976: P169), memes are defined as units of culture which are replicated and transmitted by others while altering their forms. Concerning the difference between the original biological term and internet-memes, Solon (2013) mentions that internet-memes have the unique mutation process whereby they can be altered deliberately by humans through the internet. In fact, a strong decentralized nature works well on online platforms to spread ideas at once. Meme lovers from all around the world dedicate themselves to posting funny memes and creating buzz on the internet.
Meme itself transmits information well and influences people a lot so that memes are used as a tool of advertising by some brands as well. In other cases, a meme-worthy moment is found in a political speech and used for the purpose of mocking politicians and branding them mostly in a negative way. The participation of memes in political processes was observed to shape political outcomes and memes started to be used as tools of political propaganda. It soon gained the label of memetic warfare. Memetic warfare observed on social media is seen as a form of “information operations “ by NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence journal (Giesea,2015:P74). This type of warfare is concerned with gathering enemy information and disseminating misinformation in such a way as to control the overall narrative of conflict or sow confusion. This war has begun on social media, which non-combatants also use on a daily basis. This ideological war happening on border-less social media seems to target individuals, not nations as in wars before.
Memes are modified by different users while spreading, said another way, they are someone’s idea floating online. Memes accompanied with political ideas can be also considered as an incarnation of ideology transmitted by anonymous users. There is a chance that the memes are created strategically with biased thoughts and turn into pernicious memes designed to manipulate information hidden behind simple funny memes. It is also true that all memes are not actually tools of malicious governments and secretive political groups, however that doesn’t mean none of them are. There is a wide variety of online platforms created that are suitable for making memes flourish as memes take on social media by storm. Since those platforms are motivated to spread all types of memes regardless of contents, they are an ideal environment to spread politically motivated memes and in turn affect political thoughts of their users.
1.2 Weaponized memes
Internet-memes are a vehicle to transmit ideas from mind to mind, and those ideas influence and form the beliefs of internet users. That is one of the reasons why memes can be considered as an effective weapon in information warfare. Apart from weaponized memes for psychological warfare, it is observed that internet-memes are used for online advertising purposes too. Some enterprises have found value in internet-meme format as an advertising tool because of the common internet-meme qualities, such as creativity and high transmissibility (Nikon’s LOLcats, Nike’s advertising using the rage comic meme). In fact, it is effective to spread information by using internet-memes for the purpose of advertising on social media and as “a tool “ to influence online consumers with the help of internet culture.
Levinson (2001:P3) enumerates three important advantages of using memes in marketing campaigns.
- Memes are the minimal common denominator of ideas, a basic unit of communication;
- It can be motivation for people to buy a product;
- It is simplified and easily understood within a matter of seconds.
Marketers consider that the internet content can be useful in advertising and recognize the benefits in marketing business. Levinson (2001) assesses the highly infectious nature of memes as a means of marketing. That type of marketing capitalizes on an influential trait to lead people to buy products. The memes affect people’s mindsets and likely interfere with the decision making process and it is not limited to a way of effective product promotion.
When it comes to memes containing political ideas, memes can be used strategically as a great advertisement by candidates and supporters, on the other hand, memes can be used to downgrade opponents as well. Judging from reviewed political memes, meme-markers tend to make explicit memes that mock politicians with humor and those memes go viral often. Most mocking memes are successful at branding politicians in a negative way. In fact, some memes have been banned in certain countries. The most famous one is a meme depicting Putin as a so-called “gay clown”. In China, images of “Winnie The Pooh” are being blocked on the internet because of the fact that there are meme-makers who have been comparing him to China’s president Xi Jinping. Of course, this seems like a silly ego exercise, but it can also be taken as a proof that there is a belief that political memes are potentially capable of manipulating public opinion on social media.
Attacking upon ideologies with political memes can influence political positions. Beliefs generated by the ideas brought by memes can also directly affect political decision making. Therefore, if memes could be weaponized correctly by intention, memes mocking politicians could manipulate public perception of the politicians. I personally think that it takes a lot of time to weaponize memes and control public opinion, however, it is not completely impossible and memes themselves could become one of the most influential types of weapons in information warfare on social media.
1.3 Online platforms as battlefields for information warfare
Meming can be monetized on social media. There are various social media platforms to post memes and there are tons of accounts made for the only purpose of churning out memes. These meme-makers post memes to earn likes and repost to get more followers. Despite their popularity, meme-makers are not usually considered to be influencers because of how differently they construct their images. However, having millions of followers must lead to some business, such as marketing partnerships. It can be seen that some meme-markers openly solicit marketing partnerships in their bio on Instagram. So, some of them aim to make money by generating catchy memes on social media. Not only do meme-makers benefit from creating memes on social media, but the online platforms also enjoy profits by encouraging them to post more memes. Social media itself seems to offer an ideal environment for memes. An environment that allows memes to be modified by users and shared easily.
The meanings of memes can be altered by users and can become more malicious over time. Once a meme goes viral, it is posted while being modified on social media and lives almost forever online. Furthermore, social media platforms motivate users to spread all kinds of memes regardless of the content in order not to become a dying platform. These platforms also recommend similar posts or accounts, once users leave likes on the post or follow them.This algorithmic promotion helps to spread memes to users and incentivize meme-makers to produce more memes.This system can be one of the reasons why memes are flourishing on social media.
To sum it up, these features of social media make it a perfect environment for sharing memes. Memes were created on social media as an internet joke and grew up together with online platforms. However, ironically, these platforms have become a battlefield of information warfare which can change simple funny memes into an attractive weapon for the conflict. Although this type of warfare does not force us to take up arms online, we might want to know how to deal with those kinds of memes correctly, because this conflict targets the ideologies of individuals, not the physical nations.
1.4 Memes as news headlines vs Information literacy
Some memes convey political information with humour on social media even though they are generated to ‘troll’ a certain politician. Memes are usually catchy and make it easier to understand political information than when reading the newspaper. One of the obvious positive aspects memes have is giving political awareness, regardless of them containing accurate or biased information, disinformation. In that respect, memes play an important role in drawing the internet user’s attention to political issues. On the other hand, political memes make us forget that they are being secondary processed by anonymous users, there is no guarantee that these are reliable sources of information. Political memes can be a good medium to know the headlines of political news, however, memes do not provide us with the details of political issues. Just because of knowing the front pages of news through memes on social media does not mean that we are informed about the whole story. Although it is a fact that memes work well as critique against politicians and politics, political memes can not cultivate political literacy. Political memes could also be an extension of satires, and give us the opportunities to participate in politics. In contrast, in the light of that nature that political memes have, those simple political memes can be at risk of being used as a vehicle for disinformation and propaganda in information warfare as well.
This type of warfare has already happened online such as nonlinear space and every internet user got dragged in the information warfare without even noticing. Some memes are used as a tool to influence our beliefs and to try to enter into our decision making cycle. It should be acknowledged that the platforms we use on a daily basis have become a battlefield. Manipulating information can be an effective tactic in this kind of psychological warfare on social media. Information itself must be considered as one of the massive resources to alter our mindsets.This new type of warfare aims to attack individual ideologies by mediating ideas using memes. The greatest feature of this warfare is being intangible but influencing steadily by transmitting ideas from mind to mind online. In addition, this warfare does not allow every user to be an onlooker even though they are not interested in memes. As long as there are social media platforms we should acknowledge that we are surrounded with weaponized memes in the battlefields of information warfare.The form of warfare has been gradually altered as technology progressed, so we should also be updated on our media literacy in order to sort out the information overflowing online. The ability to select information by ourselves through thinking critically is a requirement needed to make independent decisions in the age where we are daily embraced by masses of information.
2.1 Survey1 :Questions about penetration of meme
This article has discussed the potential danger of memes on social media, assuming that social media users recognize memes themselves as a kind of entertainment on social media. To know the meme penetration in Japan, the survey was conducted on an online platform for Japanese social media users and for the users from other countries . The aim of this survey is to compare the meme penetration in Japan to other countries. Apart from that, some other questions were asked to find out whether social media users think that political memes have influence on politics, or not.
The questions I asked them as follows:
(1)Have you ever shared memes on social media?
(2)Do you think political memes have an influence on political campaigns?
(3)Do you think political memes can be a weapon of psychological warfare?
*(4) Have you ever seen memes on social media
* I asked the Japanese question (4), instead of (3) . That’s because many Japanese asked me about the concept of memes when I asked them to fill out this questionnaire about the meme.
Results(1) Have you ever shared memes on social media?
(4)* Have you ever seen memes on social media (a question asked only for Japanese)
(2) Do you think political memes have an influence on political campaigns?
Japanese internet users International internet users
(3) Do you think political memes can be a weapon of psychological warfare? a question asked only for international internet users)
The survey clarified that more than half of Japanese (60.5%) have never seen memes on social media. Moreover, it was revealed that most of Japanese (97.7%) have never shared memes on social media. (see also pie graphs №1 and 3) On the other hand, it was shown that most people from other countries (6.5%) haven’t shared them before.(see a pie graph №2)
The results of questions about the impact of memes on politics (2),(3) revealed that there is a big difference in the thoughts on the relationship between politics and memes. International internet users tend to think memes have an influence on political campaigns more than Japanese internet users. (69.6%vs 7 %) (see pie graphs №4 and 5) 48.8% of Japanese respondents answered “Political memes do not have an influence on political campaigns” and 44.2%of them answered “ maybe”. (see pie graph №4) In contrast, more than half of the international respondents (69.6%) thought that memes have an influence on political campaigns while it was disclosed that 1% of them did not think that memes have an influence on political campaigns and approximately one third of them (28.3%) answered “maybe”.(see pie graph №5) In addition, the graph 6 above shows that about half of international respondents (48.8%) answered that political memes can be a weapon of psychological warfare. The percentage of those who answer “maybe” is the second highest at 36.6%, and the percentage of respondents who answered “no” was the lowest at 14.6%. (see pie graph №6)
Conclusion
Although this survey is confined to a small size, it has shed light on the low meme penetration in Japan compared to other countries.The results to the question about the relationship between political memes and political campaigns of the Japanese internet users raises doubt whether they are aware of political memes, as memes themselves are little known in Japan. However, I am not denying that memes play a role as a tool to operate information in memetic warfare because the outcomes of the survey for international users pointed to the fact that most of them are aware of the influence of political memes. Nevertheless, the psychological impact of political memes on Internet users is debatable as the answers were split when it comes to the meme’s weapon grade in psychological warfare. The differences in answers between JJapanese users and international users revealed that there is an in-depth gap when it comes to internet cultures on social media. Also, in the light of the high meme penetration, international internet users are more exposed to memes, therefore, they must be able to recognize the intended meaning of the weaponized memes.
2.2 Survey 2: Question about impressions of an iconic character
This survey was conducted on the same Internet users who responded to the first survey. The researcher asked them about a character’s meme (Pepethefrog) which is appropriated as a symbol of a political movement in order to analyze how that meme’s image is repeated and modified on social media. Although the character image was used often as a symbol of the alt-right movement in 2010, the character is originally from a cartoon and has nothing to do with politics. Moreover, the character has appeared recently in memes as a symbol of 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. Basically, the Pepethefrog meme is one example of a memes adding new meanings, repeating, and changing through different users.
Questions asked in the questionnaire were as follow:
(4) Have you ever seen Pepethefrog’s memes?
(5)What comes to your mind when you see Pepethefrog’s images?
(a) alt-right movement (or a specific ideology relates to the movement )
(b) 2019–2020 Hong-Kong protests
(c）Other political ideologies
(d) Other things
Results
(4) Have you ever seen Pepethefrog’s memes?
internet users
5) What comes to your mind when you see Pepethefrog’s images?
(6) For those who chose (c）or (d) in the previous question, please tell me what comes to mind when you see Pepethefrog’s images?
The results show that while most international Internet users (89.1%) have seen frog Pepethefrog memes on social media, the majority of respondents (69.8%) Japanese respondents have never seen Pepethefrog memes on social media. Regarding question (5), 27.9% of Japanese respondents answered that Pepethefrog character made them think of (a) Alt-right movement. On the other hand, most of Japanese (51.2%) chose (b) the 2019–2020 Hongkong protests, and nobody chose © Other political ideologies.(see the graph №9) The survey for international users showed that 55.5% of them chose (d)Other things. Those who chose (a)alt-right movement had the second highest percentage at 33.3%. Moreover, the result showed that 24.4 %of them chose ©Other political ideologies and 1% of them answered (b)Hong Kong protests. Different answers were observed to question №6. There were a lot of comments mentioning feelings. Some respondents commented that this meme character is not related to politics. Some international internet users mentioned the interpretations of Pepethefrog in their countries. On the contrary, Japanese internet users commented about similar characters and the names of celebrities who resemble Pepetheflog.
Conclusion
It was found that the awareness of Pepethefrog among Japanese users is lower (20.9%) compared to the other countries’ users. However, considering the low meme awareness among Japanese internet users(39.5%), it is not very low. On the other hand, most international internet users recognized this character which is used in memes. Yet, there are different answers observed about the interpretation of Pepe. More than half of both Japanese and international respondents did not choose a specific political movement. However, they commented on the interpretation of Pepe’s image differently. International internet users tended to explain their interpretation of Pepethefrag in memes, while the most japanese internet users were trying to give a first impression of what pepe would look like.(see table 1 and 2) Based on the fact that there is variability in international internet user’s answers, memeing pepe is infused with different meanings. There are polarized interpretations about Pepe in memes among Japanese internet users. Those who have seen Pepethefrog in political memes, or those who have never seen Pepe as memes.
The findings from the survey showed that iconic characters as a political memes can be associated with certain political activities, although the character itself can not be a perfect symbol of a certain movement as this character has also appeared in memes with several texts unrelated to politics. However, the various interpretations of respondents revealed that the iconic character has spread through different users and transformed during iterations. The outcomes of questions proved that an innocuous character which has been used in memes based on a certain ideology became capable of conveying the same thought to some internet users beyond national borders despite lacking texts.
Some final words
As the surveys showed, meme itself hasn’t been well known among Japanese internet users yet. Furthermore, the results about Pepe’s memes add to the body of knowledge on the impact of memed characters in the process of spreading the information. Memed characters or meme-worthy images are transmitted online and they usually become memes by gaining meanings through modification by different users which aren’t related to the intended meanings of their original authors . The iconicity of memed characters can overcome the language barrier when it comes to information transmission on social media. Moreover, the various interpretations about the Pepe’s meme represent that internet phenomena, such as memes, are strongly connected to the real world. Many of the opinions expressed through Pepe’s meme are related to real events. The relationship between online and real world has become intimately bound up . Information flooding around social media has an impact on the decision-making process for real-world events even though sources of this information is hardly ever traced. Regardless of information being presented in the form of memes or not, in this digital warfare any type of information can be seen as a resource and used as a tool of information manipulation.The armored information aims to win over undecideds by attacking ideologies and affecting decision making.
In this day and age, the low-turn-outs in some elections is one of the big issues which remains to be solved. Especially, some activists persuade young electorates to vote and encourage them to use their democratic rights. However, do the reasons why the young electorates are reluctant to vote come from their idleness? Do high-turn-outs mean that our society is built on democracy? Although it might be true that the low-turnout of the younger generation represents their low interests in politics, we should ask ourselves why they are keeping away from politics. Relying solely on the encouragement of the younger generation to go to the elections won’t solve the social issue at its root at all. Moreover, if the entrance of a meme into mainstreams starts in Japan, the environment of gaining information will be drastically changed and stir the situation more.
All in all, those who use social media on daily-basis should acknowledge that those platforms can be used as battlefields of information warfare. It is not common to educate students on behaviours online in Japan despite predominating focus on progress in internet technologies. However, information warfare happens everywhere online regardless of a form of memetic warfare. Just because memes are not a thing in Japan, does not mean that there are no information manipulations in Japan. Conversely, Japanese internet users might be targeted more since they are exposed to less information manipulations than international users. Maybe it is time to stop turning a blind eye to this low information literacy. We should cultivate media literacy to select adequate information by ourselves to survive in this information warfare.
Survey on meme penetration/English
Survey on meme penetration/Japanese
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Special Thanks: Those who cooperated filling out the questionnaire
