Political Disinformation, Propaganda, and Persuasion in Memes: A Content Analysis of 2020 U.S. Election Political Memes

Abstract

During the 2016 election, memes were used heavily by individuals and organized groups who wanted to have an impact on the outcome. In the proceeding years, groups provided organized opportunities for individuals to further learn how to utilize memes more effectively, turning this once benign digital artifact into modern propaganda. This study examined memes that were focused on the lead up to the 2020 U.S. election, specifically memes that contained some element of misleading information. During the study, which collected memes from July 1 – 31, 2020, 60 left-leaning and 60 right-leaning memes were collected from six Facebooks groups, for a total of 120 memes. Using mixed method content and thematic analyses, the memes were examined for propaganda, persuasion, misleading information, and multimodality. They were looked at individually and as a left vs. right comparison.

When examining propaganda, almost 75% of the memes collected met all of the criteria for propaganda, and those that did not tended to be more humorous. The memes that contained propaganda were likely to be relevant in the short term and feature moral appeals, pre-giving messages, or esteem (negative) appeals. These memes are likely to come from unofficial sources as a mode of expression and public discussion, and feature a number of techniques of misleading information, the majority being fabricated or manipulated content.

When the memes were examined for the type of misleading information used, humor was used the most frequently, however the cumulative of the other, non-humorous categories showed that memes are a vehicle for subtle and nuanced techniques. Many memes had at least one element that was truthful, lending legitimacy to an overall misleading message. Many memes featured multiple techniques, making fact-checking a difficult process.

When examining the multimodal aspects of the memes, this research shows that any unwritten “rules” that memes had when they first came on the scene no longer exist. Misleading political memes were heavily manipulated, with almost 70% of them appearing to have some alteration, and more than 64% using shading and highlight modulation techniques. This study found that the visual elements of the meme are meant to be the main focus, and that the heavy, error-ridden textual elements were included for maximum information without concern for design principles.

This study also compared the 60 memes collected from left-leaning Facebook groups and the 60 collected from right-leaning Facebook groups. The messages primarily focused on the two candidates, Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump, followed the mainstream news and popular conspiracy theories, and featured very similar techniques. Significant differences were found in the level of accuracy within the message, the number of memes that could be considered propaganda, and the number of memes that appeared to be digitally altered. This study also supports the idea that right-leaning misleading political memes are more frequently disseminated than their left-leaning counterparts.