Parties vs. partisans: the real contest about what memes mean in election campaigns

McSwiney, Jordan and Vaughan, Michael ORCID: 0000-0003-3582-3296 (2024) Parties vs. partisans: the real contest about what memes mean in election campaigns. Australian Journal of Political Science, 59 (2). 216 - 235. ISSN 1036-1146

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Abstract

This article examines the different use of internet memes between political party organisations and partisan spaces. We analyse the relationship between organisational logics and memes as a genre characterised by participation. We conduct a mixed-methods analysis of the internet memes posted by five Australian political parties, their youth branches, and partisan meme spaces during the 2022 Australian federal election. We identify three styles of memetic content created by political parties and partisans: professional, generic, and participatory. We argue that these different kinds of meme each relate to particular organisational logics, with the hierarchical structures of professional election campaigns largely hollowing out the participatory potential of internet memes in both production and form.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/cajp20
Additional Information:	© 2024 The Author(s)
Divisions:	International Inequalities Institute
Subjects:	J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology J Political Science > JQ Political institutions Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific
Date Deposited:	11 Jul 2024 16:21
Last Modified:	15 Nov 2024 17:03
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/124213

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