The Mainstreaming of Political Memes Online
The political meme — text over an image, sometimes short videos or digital clip art meant to spread
and be imitated — is often a guttural, simple message couched in humor, like the doctored video from September of Hillary Clinton being hit with his golf ball.
By Nellie Bowles FEB. 9, 2018
Political memes have gone mainstream as the distance between the White House and subcultures like 4Chan has closed.
President Trump has frequently retweeted his fans’ meme work, #MeToo jumped from social media to every workplace,
and political campaigns started to invest in the form more seriously.
By Mike Isaac FEB. 9, 2018
It’s easy to tell when you’ve nailed a good tweet — just watch the likes and retweets pile up as the post goes viral.
A message, an Instagram post, a tweet — some bit of digital effluvia has come in,
and it’s right there, promising a brief but necessary hit of connection.
The defining narrative of our online moment concerns the decline of text, and the exploding reach and power of audio and video.
The distance between the White House and subcultures like 4Chan has closed.
The distance between the White House and subcultures like 4Chan have closed.
If you probe those currents and look ahead to the coming year online, one truth becomes clear.