MEMES AS A COMMUNICATIVE TECHNIQUE OF OVERCOMING FEAR IN WARTIME: UKRAINIAN CONTEXT
* В основі статті – виголошена авторкою доповідь на Міжнародній науковій конференції «Fear in culture and culture of fear», що відбулася 15–17 червня 2023 р. в Талліннському університеті.
Abstract
The article analyses the peculiarities of memes as a communicative technique for mitigating fears during the war. Our focus is on memes about the Russian-Ukrainian war that were spread on the Ukrainian segment of the Facebook social network between March 2022 and September 2022.
It is revealed that in the Internet space, these communicative units have been used to form a popular online discourse on the emotional resilience of Ukrainians. Reflecting the current events taking place in Ukraine during Russia’s large-scale invasion, memes have contributed significantly to overcoming fears of war. In particular, this was demonstrated through their ability:
- to develop effective communication with ‘our own’ (after all, memes “speak” in an understandable language about the individuals and are created by the individuals themselves);
- to cultivate a humorous attitude to challenging life situations, which contributes to the emotional release of negative emotions and the establishment of emotional balance;
- to spread discrediting information about enemies, which destroys their reputation and leads to the consolidation of messages about enemy pseudo-power in the mass consciousness;
- by revealing the image of Ukrainians through the philosophy of cordocentrism to actualise the sense of their belonging to a civilised European country;
- to promote narratives aimed at building cohesion, the resilience of the Ukrainian people, a sense of group identity, “us against them”, and strength and faith in victory.
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