Mina sees memes as the street art of the social web. She shows readers how they operate to reinforce, amplify, and shape today's politics, and are becoming fundamentally intertwined with how we find and affirm one another, direct attention to human rights and social justice issues, build narratives, and make culture. 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. -- adapted from Amazon.com info.
"Memes are the street art of the internet and the newest tool shaping political contention today. Between authoritarians and activists, between propagandists and journalists, memes are now essential to modern media. Using social media-driven movements as her guide, technologist and digital media scholar An Xiao Mina goes on a global exploration of internet memes as agents of pop culture, politics, protest, and propaganda on- and offline. She finds that even the silly stuff of meme culture--the photo remixes, the selfies, the YouTube songs, and the pun-tastic hashtags--are fundamentally intertwined with how movements build power: by affirming emotions and identities, driving attention and narrative, and shaping culture. The same power is also a key vector for misinformation, hate, surveillance, and censorship, embraced by the powerful to influence our digital public spaces. Fresh and sharply innovative, Memes to Movements unveils the transformative power of memes--and how they will save or destroy us all."--Back cover.
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