“Who Are You Kidding?”: Visual Political Irony in Contemporary Russia

Abstract

The study analyzes the visual dimensions of computer-mediated political irony in Russia. Based on material published between 2011 and 2014 concerning significant events in Russian history, such as the re-election of Vladimir Putin, the rise of the Russian protest movement, the Crimean crises, and so on, the article discusses ironical pictures published on weblogs and social networks, together with 56 interviews of creators and distributors of the content. The results of the study show that in contemporary Russia, novel forms of political dialogue have become widespread in new media, initiated by people who use irony and visual images to express their feelings about political events, everyday routines, and politicians’ activities. Reflection, context, and visual representation offer original vocabularies for organizing public dialogue on the Internet. The findings show a fundamental subject of visual political irony as a routine, rather than eventfulness. The creation and consumption of the content includes elements of slacktivism and to a lesser extent activism.