The Transatlantic Relations have always been a topic for news and media. After the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States and his support for Brexit and rather unconventional approaches in Foreign Policy a new debate about the state of transatlantic relations started. In essence the main problem in transatlantic relations is that Europeans wish to share leadership with the American, but are reluctant to take the costs this sharing would cause us, whereas the Americans are delighted to share the costs, but not the lead. Hence, a bolstering of the foundations of transatlantic relations requires fresh perspectives, which in turn require that the debate more accurately reflect the diversity of today’s society. The term “transatlantic relations” refers to a general notion that a special relationship exists between the United States and Europe. What unites us are common values based on democracy, freedom and respect for human rights as well as our common interests in the fields of economy, security and international relations. Nevertheless, there are many things that divide us including an increasing technological rivalry and the split between the Europeans ourselves. The questions that arise here are, how can we increase public support for a common transatlantic agenda? How can we involve the younger generation in particular and include their aspirations and which innovative communication hooks and tools should decision-makers use? The transition from traditional communication to online tools and social media in politics has given rise to new spaces, forms and languages for political communication. Visual aspects are gaining an important role in this process and political parties and figures have made it their goal to include them into their communication strategies. Those images and videos are carefully selected in order to impact and foster engagement on Social Media such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. One trending way of these visuals are the so called Memes. Memetics is called the study of meme theory and the word “meme” is Greek origin and means “that which is imitated” describing self- replicating units of culture. This included anything that could be learned, remembered and spread from one brain to another. This recent election proved that memes, some of which have been funded by politically motivated millionaires and foreign governments, can be potent tools to use in political communication. The USA even proposed a Meme Warfare Center and DARPA, the Pentagon agency that develops new military technology, commissioned a four-year study of memetics, what proves the relevance and increasing role of unconventional communication tools in politics. So why not use this approach in improving the perception and narrative of transatlantic relations? Hillary Clinton’s top tweet is a meme. Donald Trump’s taco bowl became one. Barack Obama has been labelled the memecrat par excellence due to his use of such content for institutional and political communication. His team takes outmost care in the launching of all kinds of messages, including graphic ones, to be converted into memes. Memes, these sharable units of culture have emerged as the lingua franca of the 2016 election, and have given the American people an entirely new way of articulating their beliefs. In the recent years such content became a form of expression and participation of online communities through Social Media platforms. In this sense a successful meme needs to be infectious – meaning appealing, satirical, humorous or universal. On the internet we can spot two kinds of memes a) Photoshop creations, that cause the public to act and b) Macro images, characterized by an oversized text on the image. This capacity of synthesising an idea or situation has resulted in their increased use in the political context. Memes can comprise a complex political fact in a brief, powerful and effective way that engages people. Social Movements such as the Arab Spring built their narrative through thousands of images shared on Social Media. Also all the memes used after terrorist attacks, such as the drawing to the slogan of “Je suis Charlie” etc. became symbols of global rejection to those kind of attacks and a support for freedom of expression. This allows political actors to use such content depending on the communicational needs of each moment and situation. There is an inseparable link between the political field and popular culture. The time investment, creativity and critical evaluation by sharing and creating memes, are also valuable in terms of citizenship. The value of pop- culture for politics lies not on rationality, but on the affect that it appeals, which is crucial to developing and maintaining strong political engagement. Due to their nature, memes are easy to create, consume and spread. As a result, they provide entry points to the complex realm of politics, making it more inclusive, more accessible, and more democratic. Which gives us a starting point on modernizing the communication on transatlantic relations. With the creation of such content we can make transatlantic relations more accessible to people, who didn’t seem to care or were afraid of the complexity of the topic. It is unconventional and new, but the increased use of memes by presidents and political parties makes it worth further analysing the professional use of such content. I strongly believe, that the AtlanticExpedition provides the right forum to exactly elaborate the possible success of such an approach and the creation of appropriate and suitable visuals in achieving the goals of this project.
Interesting idea Feodora! It certainly is a very timely and eye-catching proposal. While I think that in theory its very appealing, especially as a way to reach younger audiences, it would be very difficult to control the message and can also lead to further oversimplification of nuanced concepts. The general lean of most memes seem to be anti-establishment, sarcastic, and pessimistic (at least at the moment and based on my observations). I have a hard time imagining a meme that has viral potential while being positive, especially on a topic like transatlantic relations. Are there any successful examples that you can provide?
Dear Angela,
thank you for your comment. You definitly make some valid points. Those thoughts came as well to my mind while writing the article. However, I see memes as a tool in a bigger communication strategy to improve/modernize transatlantic relations. We also should try to be open to the idea that memes can also have a positive effect, just as they can have a disruptive one. As pointed out in the essay, some political parties and politicians made effective use of this kind of visual content and were very successful. I personally see memes as a way to (re)engange people in the topic of transatlantic relations. In an era of information overflow people want something catchy and easy to remember. On the other hand, other communication tools, such as the virtual museum proposed by Sarah Sporys, would add more thorough information on the topic and complement these kind of instruments.
Dear Feodora,
Thanks for expanding on the idea. I do understand that the use of memes as you propose would be just be one facet of a multidimensional strategy – not a silver bullet. I also have seen more positive memes (on the “wholesome memes” subreddit on reddit.com) that are intentionally good spirited and are well-received. So there is hope that memes become less nihilistic and negative, it just might take a while.
Hi Feodora,
I like your suggestion of using memes to promote transatlantic cooperation. It is an inexpensive method to quickly connect with people. Another advantage (or disadvantage), is that a short, simple message often has a better chance of sticking with people and spreading. However, Angela makes a good point about how memes often strike a negative tone. Many of the memes I have seen are politically biased, and are only shared by people with the same political affiliations. In fact, this very partisanship is likely one of the reasons for the memes popularity. What are your thoughts about producing memes that appeal to people across the political spectrum?
Dear James,
thank you for your comments. I totally agree, that memes can be used and are used in disruptive ways. Research is being conducted on how to use memes as tool in information warfare. However, just like many technological innovations were created to be used for peaceful purposes, many people were able to misuse these innovations for disruptive purposes. So why not take the meme approach, institutionalize it and use it for our purposes? The idea is to create new and unconventional ways to bring transatlantic relations to younger audiences. Memes are definitly a tool to achieve this and with the right creative minds and appropriate channels I think there are definitly ways to make transnational relations to go viral again just like the Obama and Biden memes did for the two politicians.
Hi Feodora,
your proposal of creating memes in order to “make transatlantic relations more accessible to people,
who didn’t seem to care or were afraid of the complexity of the topic” sounds like a very good
idea to me. Reading and dealing with a subject like the transatlantic relations could become
more enjoyable. I myself consume memes on a daily basis and when doing so I am confronted with
a lot of perspectives and opinions I certainly wouldn’t have without. Memes also provide
the opportunity for people to get the basics of complex topics in an enjoyable manner explained.
Mathias
Hi Feodora,
I concur with Mathias that memes are a refreshing way of engaging, especially, younger generation into complex topics, but it leads one to wonder about the verifiability of the source, the message being unbiased, and further containment of spread of fake news/perceptions. This could potentially breed into hostility, wouldn’t you think, if a message is portrayed incorrectly? Considering that general public seeks to be more entertained than seeking the validity and source of the info. How would you propose that this field is mediated to prevent ‘biased’ memes to go viral?
Hi Mathias, Hi Petra,
thank you for your comments. I consume memes on a daily basis as well and some of them even made research or think about topic havent done before. As you mentioned Petra, memes are mainly used for entertainment purposes and thats excatly the point. I want to give people a starting point to think about political topics such as transatlantic relations. Further and more thorough information would be then provided through other channels. The point of providing memes is that people take them and maybe think them further and create their own memes. We of course cannot control who shares what kind of meme, and I dont necessarily want that, I just want to attract people to deal with a topic their never did before. Nevertheless, we have to make sure that next to the enterainment part, other channels should be used to educate people on transatlantic relations.
Hi Feadora,
there is an interesting article about “[…] figuring out how to defend against weaponized memes” https://arstechnica.com/staff/2017/06/its-time-to-teach-people-online-self-defense/
Memes really are a useful communication strategy, but they (over-)simplify topics and risk being taken for real pieces of information. How would you deal with propaganda memes?
Hi Hendrik,
thank you for your comment and the article. Just as with normal media and news there is always a risk of fake news and propaganda. But this risk exists even without us taking the meme approach. In case of a meme with obvious wrong information, we would share that one and clearify the information. As the article you sent me mentions, Russia is creating memes for their communication purposes and the USA didnt do much against it. I think if we provide counter memes we help to identify propaganda memes more easily.
Hi Feodora,
It’s a really neat idea but my apprehension would be that the majority of meme users are on a different wavelength than academics and pundits. It could be a good additional tool to enhance a biggest strategy, but my apprehension would be that it could potentially undermine it by being a mere entertainment tool used primarily for satire. How would you propose to mediate this?
Hi Feodora,
Thank you for your unconventional idea. While I share the concerns of the other commentators, especially in regard to the dangers of oversimplification and losing control over the intended message, I support your idea to use memes as one tool among many to engage younger audiences in the transatlantic partnership. Particularly in social media, transatlantic actors could use some new ways of dealing with the partnership that go beyond the usual documenting of what they do and memes can provide a method that is both funny and intelligent.
Thank you very much for the nice feedback. I hope we will have the chance to expand this idea further.
Feodora,
Thank you for your interesting articles and suggestions!
You wrote: “The USA even created a Meme Warfare Center”, but the link you provided only mentions a proposal to create such a center. What am I missing here?
Googling led me to a satirical article: “Pentagon creates new Meme Warfare Center to counter online propaganda” http://www.duffelblog.com/2017/05/pentagon-meme-warfare/
Anyway, I like your suggestion!
What transatlantic issues or messages can be supported with a Memo. Do you (or anyone else) have some ideas for Memes? Slogans, graphics etc. Thanks.
Dear Joerg,
thank you very much for your feedback. And you are totally right, at the moment there is only the one year old proposal made by the US military in creating a meme warfare centre. I just realised the word “proposal” is missing after “Meme Warfare Center” in my essay and I wrote the editors to add it. I apologize for the misleading information, it was an honest mistake.
Regarding your other question: I was thinking of creating a FB, Instagram, Twitter page called something like “Very transatlantic problems” (Inspired by Very British Problems or Very Trump Problems) and start from there. However, I think a good brainstorming session with other people would definitly lead to some good results. We could take the Atlantic Expedition as a starting point and create memes for that event and monitor the outreach and reactions.
Dear Feodora,
thank you for this original and creative idea. I noticed you posted your title as a question and I feel this captures the spirit of your essay quite well: (Serious) political endeavors and memes have not been combined all too often in the past, so we have an opportunity here to use memes as a sort of tabula rasa in the transatlantic sphere. I do not regard memes as the single tool we need to modernize transatlantic relations, but together with other communicating aspects that have been discussed in these essays and comments here, memes are a refreshing addition that can be used by NGOs, individuals and state leaders alike. I think creating a competition of ‘meme-making’ would be a wonderful way to introduce students to transatlantic relations and allows them to not only understand these relations but bring forth their unique viewpoint in a funny and educational manner.
Dear Christin,
thank you for the feedback and the great idea of a meme-competition. That truly sounds like a feasible idea.
Hi Feodora,
thanks for your idea of using memes to modernize the communication on transatlantic relations. To be honest: The concept of memes was absolutely new for me. So because of your article I learned a lot and was able to broaden my horizons. Is it right that a Meme is an idea that is passed on from one generation to the next – the cultural equivalent to the gene as a basic element of biological heritage? Do you have an idea for advertisement and communication campaign to generate a maximum of use for this “new kind” of interactive communication or do you know any examples?
Greetings
Tim
Dear Tim,
thank you for your feedback. In my essay I used the definition “meme” is Greek origin and means “that which is imitated” describing self- replicating units of culture. Based on my Google search your definition is used as well an is an expansion of the one I used. The creators of memes are not always known, but it could be anyone. However, my favourite political memes are the Obama and Joe Biden memes, that made the bond between the two politicans look like true friendship and even gave more attention to Biden as a person, while people showed increased interest in the achievemnts and life of a Vice- president.
“The creators of memes are not always known, but it could be anyone.”
There’s something very fitting about that quote.
I’m going to give a shout out to Richard Dawkins because he literally invented the word “meme” in the 1970s in his book, the Selfish Gene.
Feodora , great article! I really enjoyed your perspective. As a student of political communication who has worked in consulting and PR I can only support your approach. It is essential to be on different platforms, with different audiences and when doing so adapting the language and communication style of the target audiences. Otherwise we will not get in contact with them and we also won’t get any feedback. Snapchat and Instagram are the channels to reach out to young people. Memes have the power to provide contact on point, sometimes with a wink. Being good in marketing, means to use different organizations to organize, using different languages and styles for different target audiences . It is about time that the transatlantic community realizes how influential the right approach in the right media can be.
Thank you very much for the nice feedback. I can only agree with you!
Thanks Feodora on your insight about Memes! I wonder if you can help me paint a picture. Which kinds of organizations would be involved in creating these memes and what kind of messages would they be conveying about transatlantic relations or would they be focused on any particular issue? My favorite memes are also the Obama and Biden ones 🙂
Dear Phebe,
thank you for your feedback. You are definitly right. We need a strategy for the dissemination of Memes.
There are a few ways, how we could approach this idea.
1)We as the Atlantic Expedition could run an own page on Social Media, that informs on Transatlantic Relations or “Very transatlantic problems”. We could start with Events like the second expedition and try to convert our experiences into memes. Some of the pictures, quotes and dicussions there could be definitly used for a catchy meme.
2) We all agree that Transatlantic Relations has many facettes and cannot be defined by only one policy aspect or area. However, we could take one of the big official meetings that represent Transatlantic Relations e.g. G20 and try to bring that conference closer to the people. There is a lot criticism about these events and if we manage to create memes (not necessarily funny) but with very specific facts or “unbelievable” or historic facts many people forgot from those events. I lately saw one memes about Steve Jobs where it says “Steve Jobs never wrote a line of programming code” and on the picture he is holding a Mac. Imaging this guy was the head of Apple and this memes was funny but informative in the same way and gave an information I wont forget that easily.
3) To stick with the G20 we could also cover the event with something like “Humans of G20” or “Humans Transatlantic Relations” (inspired by Humans of New York), where we try to present politicians in a way there arent usually presented in the media. The same approach was applied by celebrities at the MET Gala, where the Humans of New York photographer interviewed celebrities and posted them on his FB page. That really made an impression on me and made me see those people in a total different light and I even felt some sympathy for somebody like Selena Gomez.
I know this reply got a little longer than expected and still those points are mentioned are only starting points, but it gives us food for thought and something to work on.
Dear Feodora,
Great article! I myself use memes as a way of communicating on a daily basis. However I think that to understand most humoristic or cynical memes, one needs to have a rather broad common knowledge in order to understand the message comprised. What would your thoughts be?
Cheers
Amélie
Dear Amelie,
thank you for your comment. You are right some memes really require a broad common knowledge in order to understand them, but many of them dont. However, I personally experienced memes that intruiged me to find our more about the topic they were referring to. You can think about Donal Trump what you want, but the memes created after he inveted the word “confefe” were hilarious. Nevertheless, I think we should be able to achieve a good outreach with Memes with a smart twist and with obvious facts or humor. My reply to Phebe may give more insight of how I imaged to approach this idea.
Hey,
I really enjoyed your piece. And I could not agree more about the close connection between politics and pop culture. I wrote my MA Thesis on a pretty similar premise. I think the more personal, emotional and direct effect of a meme could be used as a kickstarter for engagement – but how do you envision to turn this into a sustainable dialogue among our countries?
Best,
Jasmin
Dear Jasmin,
thank you very much for your comment and the nice feedback. As you mention I also intent memes to be a kickstarter for a new audience and even the old one to re-engage with the topic of TR and to provide information in a contemporary way. I also see Memes only as one of many new communication tools, that should be used to modernize TR. I could have written a whole essay about how we need to change communication in regard to TR, but I wanted to focus on one specific tool that can be created and used by anyone and doesnt require lots of logistics and money, but is still innovative and undiscovered in terms of political communication. My reply to Phebe a few comments above should give a more detailed insight of how I would approach this idea.
Feodora, such a great idea! Can we start brainstorming what these “very transatlantic problems” would be? I wonder if such a complex topic as transatlantic relations (or even just US-Germany relations) could be captured in memes…
Dear Thomas,
thank you for your comment. Our colleague Phebe had a similar question and I replied to her with the following:
There are a few ways, how we could approach this idea.
1)We as the Atlantic Expedition could run an own page on Social Media, that informs on Transatlantic Relations or “Very transatlantic problems”. We could start with Events like the second expedition and try to convert our experiences into memes. Some of the pictures, quotes and dicussions there could be definitly used for a catchy meme.
2) We all agree that Transatlantic Relations has many facettes and cannot be defined by only one policy aspect or area. However, we could take one of the big official meetings that represent Transatlantic Relations e.g. G20 and try to bring that conference closer to the people. There is a lot criticism about these events and if we manage to create memes (not necessarily funny) but with very specific facts or “unbelievable” or historic facts many people forgot from those events. I lately saw one memes about Steve Jobs where it says “Steve Jobs never wrote a line of programming code” and on the picture he is holding a Mac. Imaging this guy was the head of Apple and this memes was funny but informative in the same way and gave an information I wont forget that easily.
3) To stick with the G20 we could also cover the event with something like “Humans of G20” or “Humans Transatlantic Relations” (inspired by Humans of New York), where we try to present politicians in a way there arent usually presented in the media. The same approach was applied by celebrities at the MET Gala, where the Humans of New York photographer interviewed celebrities and posted them on his FB page. That really made an impression on me and made me see those people in a total different light and I even felt some sympathy for somebody like Selena Gomez.
I know this reply got a little longer than expected and still those points are mentioned are only starting points, but it gives us food for thought and something to work on.
I hope this helps you a little more to understand my approach and maybe to think it further and come up with suggestions.
Hi Feodora,
Some great points you laid out, I really enjoyed reading your article. You made an interesting point about the current state of the transatlantic relationship – “Europeans wish to share leadership with the Americans, but are reluctant to take the costs this sharing would cause us, whereas Americans are delighted to share the cost, but not the lead.” I’m curious if this was referring to a specific sector of the relationship, such as economics, environmental, or immigration policy, or is this more across the board?
More importantly, I really liked your insight into not only using social media, but taking it more specific and a step further to use memes. Memes can also be great helpers in visualizations. Although I do wonder if you think memes are temporary or a more permanent form of communication?
Dear Sarah,
thank you very much for your feedback and comment. Referring to your first question, I see this phenomenon more across the board, but in particular to international security and international relations. But there also aspects, where the EU wanted more responsability, but the USA didnt necessarily want to grant the Union that. E.g. during the Middle East Process.
However, regarding the memes. You are right I wanted to point out one specific tool and not just to suggest the increased use of Social Media, which is obvious. If we look at Social Media at the moment we can see the tremendous amounts of memes being used there, what makes me think, this kind of visual content will be part of our way to communicate for a long time to come. And as I previously mentioned, I mainly want to target new audiences and give them an incentive to deal with a topic they didnt think about before, as well as to re-engage “old” audiences with a new approach to a topic that is considered not to be the most exciting one.
Long story short, I definitly think, that this kind of visual content in one way or another will contiune to exist and influence audiences for a long time.