VANCOUVER—They pop up on your Facebook and Twitter. They can go viral in a matter of moments. They’ve become more powerful than traditional political advertising. And they’re basically outside of the realm of Elections Canada. Memes have taken over the federal election. Take, for instance, how they saturated the discourse late last month: Within moments of the news breaking that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wore blackface in 2001, thousands of visual jokes surfaced online. That speaks to how often partisan memes are created, said Fenwick McKelvey, a Concordia University communications professor who studies algorithmic media and political campaign management software. He’s launched a new project called “The Great Canadian Encyclopedia of Political Memes.” It will analyze the most popular memes, map how far and how fast they circulate and discuss how people differ in what kinds of memes they produce, modify and share this election.“If we can use memes as a different way of looking at public opinion, we might have a better sense of what issues matter to Canadians,” McKelvey said. “It may be an unpleasant reality to encounter, but an important one.”Even more crucial, McKelvey said, is determining how party supporters and citizens use the internet to identify with parties, leaders and movements. Political memes are a purposeful visual framing of a position and are generally inside jokes that can trigger an emotional response. They work best if shared widely. They’re cheap, free to make and easy to create or alter. They spread rapidly. And it just takes a click to share.Now that it’s election time, politicians and citizens are seeking ways into viral social media conversations on subjects such as the environment or immigration. And more than the news, memes are a dominant way people are engaging with politics, McKelvey explained. But in Canada, there is very little data about how memes are being ...
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