Book
Memes to movements : how the world's most viral media is changing social protest and power / An Xiao Mina.
"This is a book about how global movements build power with Internet memes"-- Provided by publisher.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780807056585 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: 235 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Publisher: Boston : Beacon Press, [2019]
- Copyright: ©2019
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Formatted Contents Note: | The revolution of the cat -- All about the feels -- Ahem, attention please -- Narrating our way to power -- Chaos magic -- A contest of memes -- Fields. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Social media > Political aspects. Internet > Political aspects. Social movements. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakeshore Branch | 302.231 Min | 31681010134989 | NONFIC | Available | - |
- Baker & Taylor
"This is a book about how global movements build power with Internet memes"-- - Baker & Taylor
SUPERANNO âMina, an American technologist and writer for Wired, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Atlantic, explores the global phenomenon of meme culture and the ways in which memes have served as digital tools for activism. This is a thoughtful and engaging look at the complex role and power of memes in global politics and social movements and a worthy addition to media and internet studies collections.â âBooklist. - Random House, Inc.
A global exploration of internet memes as agents of pop culture, politics, protest, and propaganda on- and offline, and how they will save or destroy us all.
Memes are the street art of the social web. Using social mediaâdriven movements as her guide, technologist and digital media scholar An Xiao Mina unpacks the mechanics of memes and how they operate to reinforce, amplify, and shape todayâs politics. She finds that the âsillyâ stuff of meme cultureâthe photo remixes, the selfies, the YouTube songs, and the pun-tastic hashtagsâare fundamentally intertwined with how we find and affirm one another, direct attention to human rights and social justice issues, build narratives, and make culture. Mina finds parallels, for example, between a photo of Black Lives Matter protestors in Ferguson, Missouri, raising their hands in a gesture of resistance and one from eight thousand miles away, in Hong Kong, of Umbrella Movement activists raising yellow umbrellas as they fight for voting rights. She shows how a viral video of then presidential nominee Donald Trump laid the groundwork for pink pussyhats, a meme come to life as the widely recognized symbol for the international Womenâs March.
Crucially, Mina reveals how, in parts of the world where public dissent is downright dangerous, memes can belie contentious political opinions that would incur drastic consequences if expressed outright. Activists in China evade censorship by critiquing their government with grass mud horse pictures online. Meanwhile, governments and hate groups are also beginning to utilize memes to spread propaganda, xenophobia, and misinformation. Botnets and state-sponsored agents spread them to confuse and distract internet communities. On the long, winding road from innocuous cat photos, internet memes have become a central practice for political contention and civic engagement.
Memes to Movements unveils the transformative power of memes, for better and for worse. At a time when our movements are growing more complex and open-endedâwhen governments are learning to wield the internet as effectively as protestorsâMina brings a fresh and sharply innovative take to the media discourse.
