The phenomenon of political Internet memes in the modern media space
Abstract
The article analyzes the phenomenon of political Internet memes, their role and significance in political discourse as a political act, an instrument of influence and argument. The Internet meme is seen as a phenomenon of the era of Internet communication and postmodern culture. The importance of Internet memes is determined by the virtualization of social practices and the shift in social activity to the field of Internet communication. The popularity and prevalence of political Internet memes is explained, on the one hand, by the diffusion of politics, and on the other, by the simplicity and accessibility of the Internet meme as a form of communication that users consider to be an anonymous but important political act. The main problems when using Internet memes are the unconsciousness of both their consumption and distribution, as well as the shift of political discourse towards irrational argumentation.
References
- Khmelnov A. UN: The right to the Internet is a basic right for all [Internet]. Euronews. 2016 [cited 2020 April 10]. Available from: https://ru.euronews.com/2016/07/05/un-denounces-disruption-of-internet-access-as-human-rights-violation. Russian.
- Skrynnikova A. Internet providers talked about the growing load on the network [Internet]. RBC. 2020 [cited 2020 April 10]. Available from: https://www.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/31/03/2020/5e81fa5e9a7947c6b6442bac. Russian.
- Gordeev V. WhatsApp has tightened the rules for sending messages to combat fakes [Internet]. RBC. 2020 [cited 2020 April 10]. Available from: https://www.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/07/04/2020/5e8c65969a79477f80bcfd0b?utm_ source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fyandex.ru%2Fnews. Russian.
- Ivanov DV. Virtualizatsiya obshchestva [Society virtualization]. Saint Petersburg: Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie; 2000. 96 p. Russian.
- Floridi L. Information. A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2010. 130 p.
- Floridi L. The Informational Nature of Personal Identity. Minds Machines. 2011;21(4):549–566. DOI: 10.1007/s11023011-9259-6.
- Shomova SA. The political Internet meme: essence, characteristics, types. Biznes. Obshhestvo. Vlast’. 2015;22:28–41. Russian.
- Dokinz R. Egoistichnyi gen [Selfish gene]. Moscow: АSТ; 2013. 512 p. Co-pubished by the «Corpus». Russian.
- Levchenko G. Twitter fights politicians’ lies [Internet]. Meduza. 2020 [cited 2020 April 10]. Available from: https://meduza.io/feature/2020/02/21/twitter-boretsya-s-lozhyu-politikov-teper-eto-rabotaet-tak-sovral-poluchil-oranzhevyy-diskleymer. Russian.
- Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal. What do we know [Internet]. BBC. 2020 [cited 2020 April 10]. Available from: https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-43475612. Russian.
- Dobrynin S. We won’t notice how the world captures artificial intelligence [Internet]. Radio Free. 2020 [cited 2020 April 10]. Available from: https://www.svoboda.org/a/28166040.html. Russian.
- Lisanjuk EN. [Logical ad hominem argument]. Logiko-filosofskie shtudii. 2008;6:51–68. Russian.
- Migunov AI, Lisanjuk EN. Argumentation theory: competition between modern research Approaches. Russian Foundation for Basic Research Journal. 2018;1:77–87. Russian. DOI: 10.22204/2587-8956-2018-090-01-77-87.
Copyright (c) 2020 Journal of the Belarusian State University. Philosophy and Psychology

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
The authors who are published in this journal agree to the following:
- The authors retain copyright on the work and provide the journal with the right of first publication of the work on condition of license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial. 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
- The authors retain the right to enter into certain contractual agreements relating to the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the work (e.g. post it on the institutional repository, publication in the book), with the reference to its original publication in this journal.
- The authors have the right to post their work on the Internet (e.g. on the institutional store or personal website) prior to and during the review process, conducted by the journal, as this may lead to a productive discussion and a large number of references to this work. (See The Effect of Open Access.)