Routledge Internet Memes and Society: Social, Cultural, and Political Contexts (Routledge Advances in Internationalizing Media Studies)

This book provides a solid, encompassing definition of Internet memes, exploring both the common features of memes around the globe and their particular regional traits. It identifies and explains the roles that these viral texts play in Internet communication: cultural, social and political implications; significance for self-representation and identity formation; promotion of alternative opinion or trending interpretation; and subversive and resistant power in relation to professional media, propaganda, and traditional and digital political campaigning. It also offers unique comparative case studies of Internet memes in Russia and the United States. Review 'Anastasia Denisova offers outstanding scholarship on meme creation and digital activism in the form of memes as tools of dissent. In this work we get an innovatibe approach on understanding memes as discursive weapons, solidarity-building and as carnivalesque. For those interested in political resistance and the use of digital means in authoritarian and increasingly censored digital networks, the author breaks new ground establising excellent scholarship in this new area of study.' --Athina Karatzogianni, University of Leicester, UK About the Author Anastasia Denisova is Lecturer in Journalism at the Communication and Media Research Institute at the University of Westminster, UK.