The Meme’s-Eye View of Strategic Communication : A Case Study of Social Movements from a Memetic Perspective
(2023) In International Journal of Strategic Communication 17(3). p.245-265- Abstract
The article argues that a memetic approach, or meme’s-eye view, could help bring together the strategic management view and the CCO-school. ‘Memes’ are understood as a second-order concept, i.e., as a reference to ‘memory traces’ in people’s minds and anchor-point of joint or collective intentionality. This view, it is argued, permits the conceptualization of communication as a resource. To illustrate, two cases are analyzed: 1) the Montagsdemos in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) with its core meme Wir sind das Volk (We are the people); 2) the so-called ‘Satanic Panic’ and the QAnon movement with its ‘Save the Children'-meme’. The analysis illustrates how memes endure and resurface in new and different environments. In... (More)
The article argues that a memetic approach, or meme’s-eye view, could help bring together the strategic management view and the CCO-school. ‘Memes’ are understood as a second-order concept, i.e., as a reference to ‘memory traces’ in people’s minds and anchor-point of joint or collective intentionality. This view, it is argued, permits the conceptualization of communication as a resource. To illustrate, two cases are analyzed: 1) the Montagsdemos in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) with its core meme Wir sind das Volk (We are the people); 2) the so-called ‘Satanic Panic’ and the QAnon movement with its ‘Save the Children'-meme’. The analysis illustrates how memes endure and resurface in new and different environments. In conclusion, the article proposes that the shift to memetic population dynamics allows strategic communication-researchers to reformulate often unanswerable questions (“What does the strategic actor want?”) into more operationalizable ones (“What memes are launched? How are they constructed?”).
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- author
- Seiffert-Brockmann, Jens ; Wiggins, Bradley and Nothhaft, Howard LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- International Journal of Strategic Communication
- volume
- 17
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 21 pages
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85174524121
- ISSN
- 1553-118X
- DOI
- 10.1080/1553118X.2023.2234348
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 5a87b1ea-9741-4d21-9a05-423fd7cfe0f8
- date added to LUP
- 2024-01-12 13:19:42
- date last changed
- 2024-01-12 13:19:42
@article{5a87b1ea-9741-4d21-9a05-423fd7cfe0f8, abstract = {{<p>The article argues that a memetic approach, or meme’s-eye view, could help bring together the strategic management view and the CCO-school. ‘Memes’ are understood as a second-order concept, i.e., as a reference to ‘memory traces’ in people’s minds and anchor-point of joint or collective intentionality. This view, it is argued, permits the conceptualization of communication as a resource. To illustrate, two cases are analyzed: 1) the Montagsdemos in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) with its core meme Wir sind das Volk (We are the people); 2) the so-called ‘Satanic Panic’ and the QAnon movement with its ‘Save the Children'-meme’. The analysis illustrates how memes endure and resurface in new and different environments. In conclusion, the article proposes that the shift to memetic population dynamics allows strategic communication-researchers to reformulate often unanswerable questions (“What does the strategic actor want?”) into more operationalizable ones (“What memes are launched? How are they constructed?”).</p>}}, author = {{Seiffert-Brockmann, Jens and Wiggins, Bradley and Nothhaft, Howard}}, issn = {{1553-118X}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{3}}, pages = {{245--265}}, publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}}, series = {{International Journal of Strategic Communication}}, title = {{The Meme’s-Eye View of Strategic Communication : A Case Study of Social Movements from a Memetic Perspective}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1553118X.2023.2234348}}, doi = {{10.1080/1553118X.2023.2234348}}, volume = {{17}}, year = {{2023}}, }