Memetization of the president’s speeches to the nation in South Africa as popular rhetoric elements
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21756313 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alicia Gil-Torres (0000-0002-8042-2208, Universidad de Valladolid), Bibi Ayesha Mall (0000-0002-7718-2290, Durban University of Technology), Tigere Paidamoyo Muringa (0000-0003-3773-4959, University of the Free State) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 115-135 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Northern Lights Film and Media Studies Yearbook (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1601-829X • E-ISSN: 2040-0586 |
| Publisher | Intellect (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1386/nl_00051_1 |
| OpenAlex | W4400413996 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 22 |
The proliferation of political memes in recent years allows us to assume that they are a new tool of political communication and that social networks increase the possibilities for civil society to express opinions and intervene in the debate on matters of public interest. This article aims to examine the memes that have been disseminated on Twitter since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa in the wake of the president’s speeches to the nation to discover whether one can speak of a political rhetoric in memes and their argumentation. To this end, the research uses a qualitative-quantitative approach to classify the taxonomy of memes according to their content, combining the thematic classification of memes and the typology of images in digital discourse to discover the existence of the use of popular political rhetoric. The final sample comprises 351 memes, and the analysis shows that they used humour as a means of escape rather than as an effective way of sending political messages. Thus, the results reflect the existence of a resignification of popular culture that transcends memes as persuasive elements based on the inertia of popular rhetoric in contemporary political communication
Linguistics · Media studies · Political science · Rhetoric · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Gender Studies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies
Pepper Spray Cop and the American Dream
Games as Political Actors in Digital Journalism
Memetising the pandemic
Do not mess with a meme
Does political efficacy equally predict news engagement across countries? A multilevel analysis of the relationship among internal political efficacy, media environment and news engagement
Seriously funny
Constructing Donald Trump
The life of Covid-19 mask memes
The Political Content of Late Night Comedy
Memes as speech acts
Funny but aversive
Political Leaders in the APP Ecosystem
Persuasion Through Bitter Humor
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |