LADY LOU PIDO Faculty, Department of Teacher Education
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POLITICAL MEMES IN SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES: A SEMANTIC ANALYSIS LADY LOU PIDO Faculty, Department of Teacher Education UM Tagum College Mabini St. Tagum City, Davao del Norte ABSTRACT The study is a qualitative analysis of forty randomly selected political internet memes in social networking sites. Utilizing Barthes’ (1957) order of signification, the study examined the denotative and connotative meanings and the social issues found in the political internet memes. Findings revealed that the meme’s captions are not only humorous, witty catch phrases but are textual signs containing diverse connotations which the meme creators intended to deliver. Some memes reveal and mock a politician’s lack of understanding about public problems or failure to fulfill promises, and work incompetence. Moreover, most meme samples focus on the criticism of the political realities and expose political scandals like corruption. Indeed, these memes are basically internet jokes that satirize or mock a country’s social or political reality. The creators of these political memes usually refer to current public news and try to mock either the situation or the politician responsible for it. Finally, out of the political memes gathered and analyzed, ten (10) instructional materials were designed to improve pedagogy and classroom management. These memes were designed for: a) presenting class rules, b) introducing new vocabulary, c) recalling the past lesson in literature, d) emphasizing a historical event, and e) facilitating ice breakers. Key Words: political internet memes, social issues, connotations, instructional materials Introduction Communication in today’s modern society transpires through the internet. Online media’s arrival empowered people to create and publish their online creations for the entire world to see (Sulhan, 2016). Consequently, new communication phenomenon emerged: the Internet memes, which Axelrod (2016) defined as “humorous concepts that spread rapidly through the Internet and essentially function as an inside joke that a large number of internet users are fond of sharing.” She emphasized that memes are images, videos, or pieces of text slightly altered to react to various circumstances; they were traditionally created and shared mainly for entertainment but in 2016 a genre of memes with a political purpose emerged. Moreover, political memes have become one of the most compelling and vital forms of communication in the 2016 US election as they passed around social networking sites. Sulhan (2016) emphasized that these memes are powerful, clever tools for creating and instantaneously circulating a shorthand commentary on political malfeasance that comment on or satirize political communication. These memes provide more accessible avenues for citizens to participate in the political process. However, these political memes receive little attention compared to other forms of election humor like editorial cartoons (Tryon, 2016). Additionally, emergence of memes is just viewed as a form of entertainment by many people, not realizing their deeper meanings as a means of communication (Sulhan, 2016). Axelrod (2016) supported this by emphasizing that it is time to re-conceptualize them as the powerful communication tool because of their rapid and viral nature of swiftly shaping the public’s image of different candidates through their humor. In addition, these political internet memes portray the society’s economic, critical and cultural issues such as political ideologies, ethnic stereotypes, and gender representations. As per observed, most netizens may view these political memes as merely expressions of a political stand, but many are unaware of their denotative and connotative meanings, overlooking the hidden, intended meanings of these image macros. It is in this context that this study is anchored in order to find out the meanings as well as the social issues present on these political memes. The findings of this study would serve as important information to the netizens, educators, and researchers. Netizens would be aware that the internet memes contain deeper meanings and hidden social issues. Also, educators would be aware that these memes can also be used as engaging activities in the classroom instruction as demonstrated by Serano (2016). Lastly, this study may be used as basis for future studies regarding the use of internet memes. Research Questions 1. What are the meanings of the political memes used in social networking sites? 2. What are the social issues of political memes in social networking sites? 3. What instructional materials can be designed from the results of the study? Methodology Research Design This study employed a qualitative method employing Barthes’ order of signification to determine the denotative and connotative meanings of the textual signs found the political internet memes in social networking sites. It also identified the social issues embedded on the political memes by analyzing the ideologies found in them. The instructional materials that can be designed from the results of the study were also explored. Roles of the Researcher The following were the roles of the researcher. First, the researcher was a data collector. She downloaded political memes from social networking sites. Second, the researcher was an analyst; she applied Barthes’ order of signification on the different downloaded political memes to find out the denotative and connotative meanings of these memes. Out of the meanings, the social issues embedded on the political memes were also analyzed. Third, the researcher was a designer of instructional materials since she crafted educational tools from the results of this study. Data Collection The data were gathered through the following procedures. First, library research was done in obtaining information about Barthes’ order of signification. It is relevantly used in analyzing the meanings of the political memes. Second, online research was done to gather political memes in social networking sites. Lastly, the results of the study was used to create instructional materials out of the analyzed political memes. Data Analysis The data were analyzed through Barthes’ order of signification in determining the meanings of the textual signs of political memes which include the denotative or literal meaning, and their connotative or deeper meaning. The ideology or myth, which is the third level of signification was also used in finding out the social issues of the political memes. Trustworthiness and Ethical Consideration Trustworthiness of a research study is important to evaluate its worth. Trustworthiness involved establishing: Credibility, Transferability, Dependability, and Conformability. Credibility shows confidence in the truth of the findings. With this, the researcher assured that data were factual and authentic. 39 More so, this study ensures dependability by adapting the procedures of previously conducted related studies. To address transferability, as one of the features of trustworthiness, that shows the findings have applicability in other contexts, the complete set of data analysis documents was stored on a file and was made available when the need arises. Dependability, an attribute of trustworthiness, shows the findings are consistent and could be repeated. Other researches could use the gathered data of the researcher and do the step by step procedures in analyzing the data using other analytical tools such as critical discourse analysis or speech acts. Lastly, trustworthiness includes conformability that shows a degree of neutrality or the extent to which the findings of a study are shaped by the respondents and not researcher bias, motivation, or interest. The researcher acknowledged the study of T.T. Sreekumar and Shobha Vadrevu in analyzing the Online Political Memes and Youth Political Engagement in Singapore and Calimbo (2016) in her study Deconstructing Myths Via Humor of Philippine Political Internet Memes: A Semiotic Analysis. Results and Discussion In this chapter, the meanings and social issues of the political memes in social networking sites are identified and presented. The instructional materials design from these memes are also shown in this chapter. Meanings of Political Memes The analyses utilized Barthes’ (1957) order of signification. The first order of signification is the denotative or exact and literal meaning. The second order, connotative meaning, makes use of denotation as its signifier and attaches it to an additional signified. Connotation is subjective, personal and even poetic interpretation of words. The table below shows the different political memes in social networking sites which contain social issues. It presents the signs and the different signifieds found in each of the political memes specifically their denotative and connotative meanings. The political memes in this study are mostly composed of images of politicians and their promises, alleged cases, and issues linked to them. These are accompanied by captions which are witty and funny and catch phrases that give the memes a deeper meaning. Table 1. Meanings of political memes in social networking sites. SIGN SIGNIFIED Denotative Connotative PM 1 running Moving with your legs at a speed an effort, desire, or drive to win; to that is faster than walking compete; competing for the 2016 presidential election an elected official serving as president both chief of state and chief highest ranking official; power or political executive rule; power over others Binay is already acting as