Despite their innocuous origin, memes have quickly become an influential force in society and in politics. While other sources of media are subject to scrutiny and fact-checking, memes seem to have escaped this critical lens. This lack of scrutiny has enabled the spread of misinformation and skewed statistics through the guise of humor.
The usage of memes has vastly differed throughout the 2020 election campaign season. The majority of the challenging candidates have done their best to avoid memes, with some like Andrew Yang only speaking on them to express his lack of support for the far-right memes made about him. This is a stark contrast from 2016, where candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump embraced memes.
Despite the lack of enthusiasm from candidates, marketing agencies and other industries have began to recognize their worth. Agencies have popped up with the primary focus of creating and sharing memes to change public perception and endear the public to whoever happens to hire them.
To learn more, refer to this article on Digiday: https://digiday.com/marketing/meme-election-memes-became-mainstream-tool-politics/
LIS 4022 Spring 2020 