MEMES AS TOOL FOR DECONSTRUCTING MEDIA MANIPULATION

Abstract

The aim of the article is to examine meme-macros on the issues of manipulation in digital media, to carry out cognitive modeling of the Internet users’ ideas how the new media implement the manipulation of their consciousness, which techniques of influence attract the public attention and what conclusions they draw for themselves. Internet meme macros (151 items) - polycode text-combinations of a static picture and an inscription - were selected by the main query in the Google and Yandex search engines using the phrases “media manipulation memes”, “memes on media manipulation” and “manipulation in media memes”. Additionally, the paper takes into account the material from 165 Internet meme texts on the query “Facebook down memes” after the large-scale disruption of the social network Facebook and affiliated resources in October 2021, as well as 60 meme texts dedicated to the renaming of Facebook to Meta. Methodologically, the study is the identification of coordination patterns as manifestations of the results of collective comprehension and evaluation of significant events and phenomena. A functional-semantic analysis of the elements that make up the meme (iconic and verbal) is carried out, and their interaction is looked into, so that after meaningful interpretation the selected material could be divided into thematic groups according to what repeated patterns of argumentation are in the selected material and how they are marked by the specific use of linguistic and visual means. Thus, the set of the memes in question is analyzed to see how it concentrates and articulates the most important ideas of the audience as their collective creator about a particular problem. Thus, we think it possible to speak of at least four coordination patterns, however, being aware that this division is rather arbitrary, as they intersect. Nevertheless, it is theoretically possible to talk about 1) the basic understanding of the media as a source of manipulation that needs to be resisted and the three clarifying patterns of reasoning that manipulation is realized through 2) selectivity in the presentation of information; 3) verbal twisting; 4) playing on the emotions of the audience, causing users to lose money and personal data or to become involved in some activity against their will.