By any memes necessary? Small political acts, incidental exposure and memes during the 2017 UK general election
| Author | Liam McLoughlin,Rosalynd Southern |
| DOI | 10.1177/1369148120930594 |
| Date | 01 February 2021 |
| Published date | 01 February 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148120930594
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2021, Vol. 23(1) 60 –84
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148120930594
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By any memes necessary?
Small political acts, incidental
exposure and memes during
the 2017 UK general election
Liam McLoughlin1 and Rosalynd Southern2
Abstract
Following the 2017 UK general election, there was much debate about the so-called ‘youthquake’,
or increase in youth turnout (YouGov). Some journalists claimed it was the ‘. . . memes wot won
it’. This article seeks to understand the role of memes during political campaigns. Combining meta-
data and content analysis, this article aims to answer three questions. First, who creates political
memes? Second, what is the level of engagement with political memes and who engages with
them? Finally, can any meaningful political information be derived from memes? The findings here
suggest that by far the most common producers of memes were citizens suggesting that memes
may be a form of citizen-initiated political participation. There was a high level of engagement with
memes with almost half a million shares in our sample. However, the level of policy information in
memes was low suggesting they are unlikely to increase political knowledge.
Keywords
election campaigns, Facebook, memes, political communication, political participation, social
media
Introduction
The word ‘meme’ was first introduced by evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, in
1989 in his book The Selfish Gene (Dawkins, 1989). Dawkins was attempting to make
sense of seemingly nonsensical behaviours that are nonetheless common across various
separate societies. Dawkins described memes as a form of cultural propagation, whereby
people might wish to transmit shared social memories or cultural ideas among one
another.
Memes became a standard form of expression on early Internet messaging boards,
although they were often nonsensical to outsiders, which was often the point. However,
as social media has become mainstream, so too have memes, with most social media
1School of Arts and Media, University of Salford, Salford, UK
2Department of Communication and Media, School of the Arts, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Corresponding author:
Rosalynd Southern, Department of Communication and Media, School of the Arts, University of Liverpool,
19 Abercromby Square, Liverpool L69 7ZG, UK.
Email: R.Southern@Liverpool.ac.uk
930594BPI0010.1177/1369148120930594The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsMcLoughlin and Southern
research-article2020
Original Article
McLoughlin and Southern 61
users now being able to comprehend the most common meme formats at least. While
Dawkins definition is useful for explaining how cultural ideas spread (not a media form),
these newer forms of Internet memes have distinct properties. The speed of their transi-
tion, ever adapting visual forms, alongside the accessibility to adapt them to a user’s own
perspective are some of the many features which makes memes unique. However, their
adaptability has made creating a single definition troublesome. As such, here we employ
the definition by Shifman (2013), that an Internet meme can be generally understood as a
collection of user-generated content (typically images or video) which share some form
or common characteristics within its content.
As Internet memes have become more and more common as a means of online
expression, it was only a matter of time before those wishing to express political
opinions would start to employ memes to convey potentially complex points into
simple images. This has proved to be the case, with political memes proliferating
online in recent years.
With this in mind, this article seeks to understand how memes are being used for
political purposes, specifically during election campaigns. It does so by using the 2017
UK general election as a case study. The analysis here is based on 378 memes, which
directly referenced the 2017 UK general election. The dataset here selected memes
posted during the campaign period on popular meme-curation pages on Facebook.
Meta-data about the memes, in terms of views, likes and shares, were synthesised to
ascertain reach and engagement levels. Furthermore, the content of the memes, in terms
of political leaning, central figure and policy information was coded and analysed. This
enables us to answer important questions about the role of memes during election cam-
paigns, in terms of their likely audience, who is being reached by them and what infor-
mation may be disseminated via them.
Youth disengagement and online political expression
There is much research focussed on ways in which online communication could poten-
tially increase youth participation and engagement in politics (Bakker and de Vreese,
2011; Boulianne, 2009; Buckingham and Willet, 2006). While memes may leave many
adults bemused, Cortesi and Gasser (2015) have argued that for many young people, this
type of content may be an important part of a digital system of political content, present-
ing as they do serious matters in a way that may be more interesting and engaging than
the usual channels of political information.
The decline in political efficacy among young people is of great concern to scholars of
political engagement and participation (Dalton, 2006; DeBardeleben and Pammett, 2009).
A lack of informational resources have been at the heart of many explanations. Verba
et al.’s model of participation (time, skill and money) has been used to show that this
decline may be attributed to a lack of resources available to young people which would
allow them to feel informed enough to vote (LeDuc et al., 2008; Verba et al., 1978).
Similarly, Dalgreen (2000) identified that political knowledge was one of the prerequi-
sites to civic engagement and suggested that younger citizens do not feel politically
informed enough to be interested and/or able to participate in politics. Putnam (2000)
theorised a link between the decrease in current affairs consumption and the decline of
political participation. Indeed, Saunders (2009: 226) suggest that political content is
where many citizens learn the ‘maps and scripts of citizenship’, the routines of democ-
racy and lessons in participation.
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