«Und denn hemmer eifach e Burka bracht» : Sprachwissenschaftliche Studien zu Memes im politischen Diskurs in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz

Sammanfattning: In this compilation thesis I examine Internet memes within the political discourse of the three major German-speaking countries Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The analysis incorporates several theoretical and methodological approaches, including politolinguistics and discourse studies, text linguistics, multimodality theory and media linguistics. The central driving questions of this research are as follows:How does political language manifest visually and textually in memes? What role do the Internet, social network platforms, and their affordances play in the creation and dissemination of memes? How do memes contribute to diverse political discourses? Three distinct studies examine memes within different contexts to address these questions:Study 1 investigates memes as satirical texts, analyzing a collection of memes published by two German TV news parodies on their Facebook platform. These memes focus on the 2017 G-20 summit held in Hamburg. The dataset comprises 27 memes, along with public Facebook comments accompanying these memes. Applying medialinguistic approaches and concepts from discourse analysis, this study explores how memes employ satire and interact with the Internet as a medium, particularly on the Facebook platform.Study 2 concentrates on memes within political campaigns. For this purpose, a collection of 64 memes published on the Swiss political group Operation Libero's Facebook page during referendum campaigns was gathered. A close reading, drawing from both multimodality theory and the discourse historical approach, addresses questions about how arguments are constructed within internet memes in terms of both image and text, as well as how memes interact with the broader political discourse.Study 3 examines memes from Austria, Germany and Switzerland as populist texts, applying Moffitt's conceptualization of populist style (2016). A data-based investigation rooted in the discourse historical approach and multimodality theory analyzes memes with varying political alignments. The study assesses how these memes express features of populist style, such as the appeal to the people vs. the elite, the use of bad manners, and the performance of crisis. Special focus is given to the political context and the semiotic resources used to convey populist themes.The introductory chapter provides insights into various definitions of memes and their historical development, culminating in the identification of eight prototypical characteristics. These characteristics serve as the foundation for subsequent analyses.In summary, this research underscores the significance of memes as a mode of political expression in the digital age. Analyzing political memes provides valuable insights into the evolving landscape of political language and discourse in an increasingly online political environment.