Meme-ing Malawi’s 2019 presidential election

Humour, hope and disillusionment

Bibliographic Data

ID15554100
AuthorsEmmanuel Ngwira (0000-0003-1557-8916, University of Malawi, corresponding author), Lester Chisale Brighton (0009-0006-7161-7720)
Year2024
Volume16
Issue1
Pages3-23
Publication date2024-01-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of African Media Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-7974 • E-ISSN: 2040-199X
PublisherIntellect (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1386/jams_00113_1
OpenAlexW4391347269
LanguageEN
References cited15

On 21 May 2019, Malawi went to the polls to elect leaders in what turned out to be highly contested presidential, parliamentary and local government elections. Compared to previous elections, the 2019 tripartite elections also featured highly on social media. Focusing on the presidential election, this article analyses how these elections were depicted in popular imagination particularly in internet memes. Our contention is that the internet memes, and by extension, other popular art forms of that period, constitute a humorous, but highly significant documentation, of the key events of that election. The memes reflect hopes, aspirations and disillusionment that characterized the 2019 polls. In terms of conceptual framework, we draw on the theory of visual rhetoric alongside scholarship on internet memes as both humour and political discourse

Development economics · Economics · Media studies · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Presidential election · Presidential system · Sociology · Digital Games and Media · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Humor Studies and Applications · Law

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