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Political Campaigning and Communication: From Piggate to Partygate and Beyond
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Political Campaigning and Communication: From Piggate to Partygate and Beyond
Southern, Rosalynd
“This landmark book is the first to fully explain how memes have become a critical part of UK politics. Through rich and convincing empirical analysis, Southern reveals how digital humour is transforming citizen participation, elite communication, and the very nature of political discourse. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the evolution of digital political culture and its profound impact on democracy.”
– James Dennis, Researcher at Lusófona University, Portugal
“From ‘shitposts’ to ‘Karen memes’, political communication is changing and Rosalynd Southern is a lively guide to the pithy world of memes. A cutting-edge study that deserves to be read.
— Stephen Coleman, Emeritus Professor of Political Communication, University of Leeds, UK
In 2015, a story emerged alleging that then-Prime Minister David Cameron had placed ‘a private part of his anatomy’ into the mouth of a dead pig’s head during an initiation ceremony at the University of Oxford. Upon this allegation breaking, social media erupted with a plethora of memes and jokes about the incident, which became known as ‘Piggate’. Although there had been a move towards jovial talk of politics on social media prior to this, the episode seemed to distil the practice and precipitate a new era of near-constant humorous online reaction to political events. Considering this context, this book assesses how memetic practices have shaped political communication and culture in the past decade-plus, and the consequences thereof. It does so from four perspectives, encompassing a focus on ordinary citizens, a group of online activists, a key social media satirist and, finally, focusing on how elites have deployed these practices.
Details
Published by: Palgrave Macmillan
Publication Date: 2026-02-25
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9783032120946
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-12095-3
Dimensions: 210cm x148cm
Pages: 219