Pietro Saccomanno (UniMi & CCA)

Seminar series “CLOSER, but not quite” – “Political Internet Memes: Fast-Food Media or Informative Appetizers?”

Venue: Campus Luigi Einaudi, room 3 D1 01

Abstract: In recent years, ‘memeification of Politics’ has become a widespread phenomenon, with memes serving as an important source of political news and commentary, especially for younger generations. This study, an online factorial experiment involving approximately 2000 followers of a popular Italian satirical meme page, aims to explore how political memes impact consumers in comparison to traditional journalism, asking whether they stimulate curiosity towards news and improve political knowledge and recollection of information or whether they are only superficially consumed. It investigates the role of memes in opinion formation and whether traditional media effects, such as priming and framing, are applicable to them. Finally, by introducing and testing the novel hypothesis of memes as ‘information appetizers’ against the ‘fast-food media’ theory, the study seeks to determine which best explains the impact of political memes. This research provides initial experimental evidence on the role of political memes in contemporary media consumption and their influence on younger generations of citizens.