{"id":19398,"date":"2019-07-02T12:52:06","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T16:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.macmillan.com\/community\/the-english-community\/bedford-bits\/blog\/2019\/07\/02\/political-memes-from-the-internet-to-protest-posters"},"modified":"2019-07-02T12:52:06","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T16:52:06","slug":"political-memes-from-the-internet-to-protest-posters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/2019\/07\/02\/political-memes-from-the-internet-to-protest-posters\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Memes from the Internet to Protest Posters"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I have written in my last two posts, I presented on the ways that image macro memes (the memes that usually consist of an image and a text caption) at the Computers and Writing Conference in June. Specifically, I focused on political memes and how these memes are a form of activism as the people who make and share them spread their message.<\/p>\n

As Limor Shifman explains in her book Memes in Digital Culture<\/a> <\/em>(2014), memes are a way of expressing opinions in political conversations, undertaking advocacy and grassroots action, and participating in political movements. Given these functions, political memes are perfect for the classroom: They ask students to use critical analysis, persuasion, and argument in authentic conversations.<\/p>\n

Encourage students to think about the use of memes beyond Internet sharing by examining this version of the Distracted Boyfriend meme, updated to focus on gun control:<\/p>\n

\"Distracted<\/a><\/p>\n

The meme was shared in a Tweet from @rachel_handler. It shows the distracted boyfriend with the object label \u201cTrump,\u201d looking back at the woman in red who is labeled \u201cNRA,\u201d while his girlfriend who is labeled \u201cOur Lives\u201d looks at him in disgust. Under the meme, the political protest poster states, \u201cWe call BS!\u201d The text of the Tweet provides the context where the meme was shared: \u201cgreat sign my little sister sent me from today\u2019s #nationalschoolwalkout<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/i0WqRMdaDF<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

What interests me about this image is that the Internet meme is no longer bound by the Internet. Instead, as was also the case with the Grumpy Cat protest poster<\/a> I shared previously, the meme has been recreated in an analog world, printed out in this case and glued to a piece of poster paper with an additional line (\u201cWe call BS!\u201d) to emphasize the message.<\/p>\n

The shift from Internet meme to protest poster seems a natural one. What works for political advocacy online can make a similarly strong message in an analog situation. While some Internet memes would not translate to nondigital messages (think of animated gifs and memetic videos), image macros make the transition smoothly. For more examples of memes on protest posters, check out the Medium post \u201cTeens March With Memes<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

After students examine a meme that has crossed from the Internet to an analog existence, ask students to consider these questions:<\/p>\n