Political Memes and Ethical Boundaries: Framing Analysis in the Context of “No-Confidence Motion 2022” in Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71016/oms/tamqzg30Keywords:
Ethical Boundaries, Framing, Political Discourse, Political Memes, SNS MemesAbstract
Memes are considered a popular source of information dissemination and influence the mindset of their audience in a lighter mode. In its most common form, a meme is a humorous visual piece of content that has been remixed, repeated, and altered to address diverse contexts and meanings but still adheres to the core concept adopted by the cross-cultural audience. However, it also serves underlying purposes. It is known that internet memes serve as a way for people who live in the digital realm to form opinions and become primary sources of information when they begin to analyze the news that comes from the memes made on the internet. This study aimed to investigate the agendas of political memes, their consideration of ethical boundaries, and their role in building public opinion, especially in the context of the contemporary political scenario in Pakistan. For this purpose, ten humorous political memes on the scenario of “No-Confidence motion 2022” have been selected through purposive sampling and analyzed to determine whether they come within ethical boundaries or violate them. Moreover, it also analyzed how these political memes play a role in building public opinion; the framing technique of Agenda setting explains this phenomenon, and content discourse analysis of the memes guides the course of this discussion. The results have shown that political meme creators set certain agendas while creating them and violate ethical boundaries. Most of the memes created during the “No-confidence motion” seemed to criticize the PDM and were framed to prove that PDM is wrong. Hence, most meme creators supported the PTI agenda, and the framing done by PTI’s social media and memes were relatable. Most of the memes were based on frames that mimicked and criticized the actions of PDM leaders. Further research can be done to check whether memes can change perceptions regarding political issues and the impact of the memes on the audience.
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Copyright (c) 2022 Fizza Saleem, Madiha Maqsood, Shehryar Abbasi (Author)

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