The Meme Information War for Ukraine: Humor in a Dark Time - Virtual Platform
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The Simpsons, Fellas and Vatniks: The Meme Information War for Ukraine [Humor in a Dark Time]
Terilee Edwards-Hewitt
Adjunct professor in Anthropology at Montgomery College, and a Ph.D. candidate in Cultural Studies at George Mason University
Description:
Memes often a unique way to communicate on social media as they are rapidly dispersed, containing compressed information, and easily understood. While memes are a newer form of war related visual media, there are in the tradition of posters and artwork done to generate public feeling. However, different than information and propaganda prior to social media, pro-Ukrainian memes often use parody and employ popular culture references and are created by people in Ukraine and elsewhere. Frequent US popular culture references are included in pro-Ukrainian memes include The Simpsons, Game of Thrones, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as remixing other well-known memes. The use of these popular culture references helps demonstrate the cultural connections to people’s lives off-line and online. Like propaganda posters by US government in during World War II, even the official Ukrainian Defense Ministry has used Twitter memes to share their perspective on the possible large-scale invasion of Ukraine (before February 24, 2022) and the war itself. People are using memes to discuss a military conflict and the ramifications of it in new ways. While the use of memes should not detract from the horrors of warfare, these memes are ways to show support and solidarity, in addition to being a form of resistance by those inside or from Ukraine and at the same time showing the power of popular culture.
Personal Biography:
Terilee Edwards-Hewitt is an adjunct professor in Anthropology at Montgomery College and a Ph.D. candidate in Cultural Studies at George Mason University, where she also teaches anthropology. Her research interests include digital humanities; social media platforms; and gender studies. She is interested examining how people create and sustain communities online that may stand alone or supplement in person groups. In addition to teaching anthropology she has worked in a both large and small museums in education, collections, and public outreach.
Lists of her publications can be found at https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2930-5425