Memetic Warfare Uses Memes to Influence Opinions Online
“This week I learned that Memetic Warfare is when memes are used to influence how people think about politics or social issues. Because memes are funny and easy to share, they can spread ideas quickly across social media. Groups and governments sometimes use them to promote messages or shape opinions online. Researchers in Information Warfare consider memes a modern form of propaganda because they mix entertainment with persuasion.”
Summary
Memetic warfare is defined as the strategic use of memes to shape political or social opinions, exploiting their humor and viral nature to spread ideas quickly online. Governments, activist groups, and researchers treat memes as a contemporary form of propaganda that blends entertainment with persuasive messaging.
Sources 60 searched
- The Function of Memes in Political Discourse - PMC
We identify two levels of context collapse on memes: one operating on the meme itself, and a second one affecting its reception. In communication studies, it has already been described how many memes will often engage in this kind of re-contextualizing of content (Kirner-Ludwig 2022).
- The surprising power of internet memes
He points to the way memes have ... the stances of people on either side of the debate. And political memes are an effective way to ignite political participation....
- Memetic warfare explained: how memes shape propaganda, persuasion and information disorder | Nottingham Trent University
In today’s political environments, memes function as tools of information warfare, shaping how power is projected, contested, and perceived. Depending on tone and target, memes can mobilise supporters, ridicule opponents, persuade audiences, ...
- Running head: POLITICAL MEMES AMONG GENERATION Z 1
emotion, giving political memes the potential to influence citizens’ feelings and attitudes around ... Church, 2019). This can especially be seen through social movements, such as the Occupy Wall
- Memetic warfare - Wikipedia
While different, memetic warfare shares similarities with propaganda and misinformation tactics, becoming a more common tool used by government institutions and other groups like the CIA to influence public opinion.
- Memetic Warfare on Twitter – DDMAC
In this case humor becomes rumor or worse, memes become a type of disinformation called ‘memetic warfare’. The term ‘memetic warfare’ refers to a form of information warfare, wherein people try to take control of a dialogue or disrupt their enemies. This warfare involves the spread ...
- A Deadly Trifecta: Disinformation Networks, AI Memetic Warfare, and Deepfakes – GNET
These memetic warfare threads include antisemitic, anti-Black, and anti-Indian AI-generated images (Figs. 2-5). 4chan users are encouraged to modify other images if they find them inspirational. When offensive content is removed from the site, ‘new’ versions of the offensive imagery are generated and reposted – a developing phenomenon in generative AI propaganda creation.
- IT'S TIME TO EMBRACE MEMETIC WARFARE - Jeff Giesea
might be said, is the social media equivalent of guerrilla warfare, and memes are · its currency of propaganda. Daesh is conducting memetic warfare.
- Narratives of War: Ukrainian Memetic Warfare on Twitter
A typical example is the leftmost in Figure 4. This meme was posted by @uamemesforces on 28 March 2023; in the same days, Ukrainian officials were claiming victories against the Russian military forces, such as recapturing the city of Irpin. This meme by @uamemesforces supports the same narrative, but uses typical memetic language: the famous moment at the 2022 Oscars when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock is edited to show Zelensky fiercely slapping Putin.
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