Internet Memes as “Tactical” Social Action: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Approach

Authors

  • Mohamed Ben Moussa University of Sharjah
  • Sanaa Benmessaoud University of Sharjah
  • Aziz Douai Ontario Tech University

Keywords:

Internet memes, multimodal critical discourse analysis, humor, everyday life, Morocco

Abstract

This article investigates the deployment of Internet memes in a 2018 boycott campaign that targeted three major corporate brands tightly associated with the dominant sphere of power in Morocco. Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, the study analyzes discursive choices made in the production of memes circulated during the boycott, and the intersections between satirical humor and online participatory culture. We argue that these memes are “tactics” resorted to by the subaltern in their struggle for social justice. Although these tactics lack a “proper” locus where they can keep their “wins,” they allow the weak to carve out a space from where to effectively challenge the dominant power structures. The article contributes to the still limited body of research exploring Internet memes as multimodal political discourse and to the study of humor as a fundamental discursive aspect of Internet memes.

Author Biographies

Mohamed Ben Moussa, University of Sharjah

Mohamed Ben Moussa is an Associate Professor at the College of Communication, University of Sharjah. Before joining UOS, he was an Associate Professor at the Canadian University Dubai a Post-Doctoral fellow at McGill University, Canada. His research interests revolve around new media and social movements, digital media and discourse, gender and communication, and ICTs for development, among others. His work appeared in New Media & Society, Applied Journalism and Media Studies, and Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, among others. He is co editor of Mediated identities and new journalism in the Arab World: Mapping the “Arab Spring” (London: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2016).

Sanaa Benmessaoud, University of Sharjah

Sanaa Benmessaoud has a PhD in Translation Studies from the University of Montreal, in Canada. She is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Sharjah, in the UAE. Her areas of interest include critical discourse analysis, the sociology of translation, issues of (gendered) identity construction and cultural representation in translation. Her work appeared in such journals as the Translator, and in several Routledge handbooks, including The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Culture and the Routledge Handbook of Arabic Translation.

Aziz Douai, Ontario Tech University

Aziz Douai is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Ontario Tech University.  His research examines social and political implications of information and communication technologies, specifically the disruption of the information order and global communication flows. Dr. Douai has published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters in international periodicals and book volumes.  He is the author of Arab media and the politics of terrorism:  Unbecoming news (New York: Peter Lang, in press), co-editor of New media influence on social and political change in Africa (Hershey, PA: IGI-Global, 2013), Mediated identities and new journalism in the Arab World: Mapping the “Arab Spring” (London: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2016)

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Published

2020-11-11

Issue

Vol. 14 (2020)

Section

Articles

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