Conflict Indicators in Russian Media Discourse: Internet-Meme Analysis

Abstract

The study is an exploratory research aimed at testing methods to examine conflict indicators of Russian media discourse. At this stage of the research, the Internet-memes analysis was conducted. The article explores theories at the interface of conflict and media studies and provides a critical review of contemporary meme research. The authors argue that memes have huge manipulating capacity and can influence their viewers provoking social unrest. We suggest that the study of conflict-memes can contribute to the research of social contradiction discourse. The study also developed the method to analyze conflict indicators in Internet-memes including identification of the explicit and implicit conflict signs. The study found the visual and text connection in creolized memes that creates conflict context. We analyzed a sample of conflict memes based on the subject, topic, and conflict-type. A pilot-research showed that memes with conflict signs take a permanent place in meme-discourse. The authors believe that the conflict is one of the most important socio-cultural design techniques. We suggest further research of its presence in different media discourse formats.