Unicamp research points to the democratization of politics with the use of memes

That Brazil is the king of memes, no one doubts that! For any subject, there is always someone who makes a joke or comments. With politics, this would be no different. Faced with so many scandals involving corruption and crisis, nothing better than a little humor to try to face the situation.

The fact is that, in addition to the humorous effects, the use of memes can promote the democratization of politics. This is what a survey carried out by the Institute of Social and Applied Human Sciences (ICHSA) at Unicamp points out. According to the study, the effect would be based on the ease of understanding issues related to the topic.

In his master's thesis, publicist Renato Frigo analyzed the political memes selected between 2014 and 2017. The work was guided by Professor Rafael de Brito Dias and aimed to understand the role of memes and their participation in building a kind of “cyberdemocracy”.

The concept was created by the philosopher and sociologist Pierre Levy. The internet elaborates its own questions and, in this scenario, memes appear as reflectors of the autonomy of the virtual environment. That is, the Internet user understands the content in which he believes, shares and sees himself as an influencer.

How does democratization work through memes?

Brazilians are among those who most produce memes with political issues in the world. And the growth is constant, each year and the figure of speech promotes the reinforcement of positioning. According to Frigo's research, of the 2,500 analyzed, the most propagated are those who tend towards right-wing ideology.

But how are political issues democratized by memes? Frigo points out, in his study, that the internet space provides the progress of democracy, as users are able to elaborate their problems and submit them to the responsible authorities. And the more information is disseminated, the greater its power of influence.

In addition to facilitating the understanding of the topics covered, memes do not need money to be produced. Today, tools and applications allow for their creation, which makes them more attractive and effective compared to traditional advertising. In addition, they are much faster in spreading and propagating.

How did the meme come about?

In Brazil, the term “meme” gained strength with the story of “Luíza, who is in Canada”. Remember that? Well, in fact, the expression describes a concept that spreads over the Internet. Its oldest usage goes back to the book “The Selfish Gene”, published in 1976 by Richard Dawkins.

In the work, the author refers to the meme as a “unit of cultural evolution” that propagates among people. In other words, it would be the transmission of knowledge related to culture from one individual to another. This content can come in the form of music, language, sounds or drawings.

Want an example of a historic meme? Popular songs, such as “throw the stick at the cat”, “circanda cirandinha” and the classic “happy birthday to you”. In short, for an expression to become a meme, it needs to be repeated and self-propagating. Bringing it to the present day, it would be a joke that is popularized on the Internet, with a focus on social networks.

In this case, it can be represented by texts, videos, gifs, images or shared memories. And it is precisely this diversified bias that allows the meme to relate to all possible subjects. The main characteristic of memes is the anonymity of their creator and, even so, to make the reader captivated by them.

The memes in Brazil

Brazil is undoubtedly one of the countries that produce the most memes. The subjects addressed are varied, but political issues are the champions. But, until now, there is no consensus that explains how this culture got here. Especially because, if we consider the historical origins of the term, Brazilians have been using memes since before the internet.

The point is that the meme only became so popular in Brazil due to our own cultural characteristics. Even in the midst of drastic situations, such as an economic crisis, Brazilians face it with good humor and end up making jokes. the classic "I'm laughing, but it's nervous". There, another meme!

The fact is that the language went viral and became a kind of national heritage. Memes were heavily used in the last presidential election in a variety of ways, including jokes, rants and, unfortunately, personal attacks. Because it is so close to its audience, the tendency is for parties to use this language to get closer to voters.