The Politics of Memes and the Memes of Politics: Play and Informal Conversation on the Internet as New Experiences of Political Literacy and Cyberactivism
Research

The Politics of Memes and the Memes of Politics: Play and Informal Conversation on the Internet as New Experiences of Political Literacy and Cyberactivism

DDoS Lab is a research initiative on the circulation of hate speech and disinformation and the monitoring of online extremism.

  • Status: Concluded
  • Period: 2014–2024
  • Funding: FOPESQ 2014 Call (UFF Research Support Program); FOPESQ 2017 Call (UFF Research Support Program); CNPq Junior Postdoctoral Scholarship 2018; PAEP/Capes Call 2018; Universal Call No. 28/2018 Range A (MCTIC/CNPq); FOPESQ 2020 Call (UFF Research Support Program); Young Scientist of Our State Scholarship 2020 (Faperj); Research Productivity Scholarship PQ-2 2021 (CNPq)
  • Principal Investigator: Viktor Chagas
  • Team: Viktor Chagas (coordination) and coLAB team

This investigation seeks to undertake wide-ranging research operating at the intersection of Internet studies and political cultures, with an emphasis on the field of Political Communication. Giving particular attention to modes of engagement that privilege casual involvement and political play (Bennett, 1979), the research analyzes the role of political memes and informal conversation about politics among internet users, and is mainly interested in assessing the transformations in political debate from a conjuncture that simultaneously presents (a) the entry of new publics into the market of public discourses, and (b) major changes in the everyday appropriation of new social media by layers of the public that have only recently become familiar with the formal dimension of politics.