Crimea River: Directionality in Memes from the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Authors

  • Bradley E. Wiggins Associate Professor and Department Head, Media Webster University, Vienna

Keywords:

Russian Internet, Internet memes, Russia–Ukraine conflict, cult of Putin, participatory digital culture

Abstract

The Russia–Ukraine conflict of 2014 sparked political upheaval, military action, and the emergence of Internet memes as a forum for discursive critique among netizens of the affected countries. A qualitative content analysis was conducted of Internet memes posted to the RuNet Memes Twitter account in 2014 and revealed a preponderance of memes that fell into one of two categories: directionally Russian or directionally Ukrainian. Directionality as a thematic category is a novel methodological approach in memes research. While the memes reference a given news story or event, they continued to be consumed and reproduced along similar thematic categories. This tendency to follow a narrative is at once endemic to viral media in general and unique to memes given their remix, parody, iteration, and rapid diffusion.

Author Biography

Bradley E. Wiggins, Associate Professor and Department Head, Media Webster University, Vienna

Bradley E Wiggins is an Associate Professor of Media Communication and Department Head for Media at Webster University in Vienna, Austria. His research interests include new media and digital culture, games and simulations, and intercultural communication.

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Published

2016-01-06

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Articles

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