The memes to be analysed are
1. The Declaration of Independence Meme
2. The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima Meme
3. Rosa Parks (Montgomery Bus Boycott) Meme. The memes revolve around the UC Davis pepper spray incident with respect to ‘Casually pepper spray everything cop’. The memes are readily available on the internet. Examine both the content of the image/s and the social nature of their production, circulation, and consumption.
Employ the following conceptual or theoretical ideas:
* Representation (including semiotic analysis of cultural texts and the social process of representation).
* Encoding/Decoding.
* Hegemony.
* Industrialised meaning-making.
* The work of professional communicators (including attention to ideologies, routines and rituals, relationships, institutional settings). Throughout the essay, you MUST mention these terms and say how these terms relate to the memes.
The essay DOES NOT require a simple recount of the event, although this will have to be employed in the introduction/background. You MUST ‘critically analyse’ the memes in conjunction with the UC Davis protest, using the key terms mentioned above. Please include the original photograph by Louise Macabitas in the essay context as well. This essay MUST be a critically analysed essay. I do not want an undergraduate recount of the UC Davis Protests
The references to be used are
1. Peck, A. M. (2014). A laugh riot: Photoshopping as vernacular discursive practice. International Journal of Communication, 8, 25. Available online: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/2692
2. Huntington, H. E. (2016). Pepper Spray Cop and the American Dream: Using Synecdoche and Metaphor to Unlock Internet Memes’ Visual Political Rhetoric. Communication Studies, 67(1), 77-93.
3. Bayerl, P. S., & Stoynov, L. (2016). Revenge by photoshop: Memefying police acts in the public dialogue about injustice. new media & society, 18(6), 1006-1026.
