Abstract
ABSTRACTIn 2017, the New South Wales Police Force in Australia embarked on a bold new social media strategy, harnessing humorous Internet memes and cute images of police animals to increase ‘user engagement’ with their posts. Provoked by changes to Facebook's News Feed Algorithm, this self-described ‘meme-strategy’ generated a surge of new followers for the organisation’s social media accounts, with NSW Police's Facebook page reaching one million followers in August 2017 – a record for an official police Facebook page. This article examines the social media logics underpinning NSW Police's ‘meme strategy’ and similar police PR strategies that have employed humour and cute content to increase social media engagement. Through analysing the content and ‘active’ engagement metrics of NSW Police's ‘meme strategy’, in this article I critically examine this approach to police public relations, focusing in particular on its weaponisation of cute content to generate engagement. NSW Police's meme strategy, I argue, exemplifies what we might term social media ‘engagement work’: strategies intended to increase the reach of police messaging on social media and promote horizontal engagement spillover and vertical legitimacy spillover.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
