Memory Media Research Articles

Postsocialism as a Crime

Abstract The decade of the 1990s has become a significant topic of cultural memory in postsocialist countries, including the Czech Republic. One of the most pervasive interpretive frames of this period of recent history, present across various media, is that of “crime.” This article argues that such a framing is supported by the police, an institution with considerable power to shape shared notions about the recent past. The interpretation of the first postsocialist decade as criminal in nature is demonstrated through the example of the Czech true-crime tv series Devadesátky (The Nineties, 2022). The Nineties is analyzed using three key concepts. “Plurimedial networks” help explain how the series became a powerful medium of memory. “Police memorialization” is used to show how the memory of postsocialism is constructed through the motif of crime from the perspective of the police and what its political implications are. “Police culture” provides a source for a critical reflection on police memory, revealing vested interests behind particular narrative representations of reality-based past events such as those depicted in The Nineties.

Psilocybin-assisted neurofeedback for the improvement of executive functions: a randomized semi-naturalistic-lab feasibility study.

Executive function deficits, common in psychiatric disorders, hinder daily activities and may be linked to diminished neural plasticity, affecting treatment and training responsiveness. In this pioneering study, we evaluated the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of psilocybin-assisted frontal-midline theta neurofeedback (NF), a neuromodulation technique leveraging neuroplasticity, to improve executive functions (EFs). Thirty-seven eligible participants were randomized into an experimental group (n = 18) and a passive control group (n = 19). The experimental group underwent three microdose sessions and then three psilocybin-assisted NF sessions, without requiring psychological support, demonstrating the approach's feasibility. NF learning showed a statistical trend for increases in frontal-midline theta from session to session with a large effect size and non-significant but medium effect size dynamical changes within sessions. Placebo effects were consistent across groups, with no tasks-based EF improvements, but significant self-reported gains in daily EFs-working memory, shifting, monitoring and inhibition-showing medium and high effect sizes. The experimental group's significant gains in their key training goals underscored the approach's external relevance. A thorough study with regular sessions and an active control group is crucial to evaluate EFs improvement and their specificity in future. Psilocybin-enhanced NF could offer significant, lasting benefits across diagnoses, improving daily functioning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Neurofeedback: new territories and neurocognitive mechanisms of endogenous neuromodulation'.

Research on Emotion about Media Memory of Wenxi Fire in Central Daily News

The author conducted a comprehensive study on the emotions reflected in The Central Daily News coverage of the Wenxi Fire, utilizing the digital analysis tool ROST CM6 in combination with historical research. The media memory of the Wenxi Fire in The Central Daily News reflects the emotional response and guidance of the National Government towards this disastrous event. The newspaper's spirited stance on the War of Resistance against Japan invigorated the public’s morale. Through selective reporting and, at times, the outright omission of facts, the newspaper initially mitigated the public’s criticism towards the central and Hunan provincial governments during the first phase, when the cause of the fire was still under investigation. In the second phase, after the cause was determined, the newspaper successfully shifted the blame for this governmental failure to the Japanese invaders, the Hunan provincial government, and the “righteously indignant” public. Through a series of carefully orchestrated actions, the newspaper managed to quell public anger, boost morale, and foster a stronger sense of national unity under the National Government, ultimately enhancing its image.

Social Media Memory of January 6: Content Analysis of Twitter One Year Later

ABSTRACTWe report on the results of a content analysis of a random sample of tweets (n = 16, 480) about the January 6th insurrection published one year after the attacks. Drawing from research on social media memory, far‐right activism, and social memories in times of crises, we performed a deductive manual coding of the tweets. We found that roughly four of every ten Twitter users remembered the U.S. Capitol attack as an insurrection. Importantly, though, the insurrection frame was adopted by users who were in favor and against the attack. The other most frequent frames were censorship, used by people who aimed to discredit the idea that there had been an insurrection; treason, used by people across the political spectrum to claim that “the other side” had betrayed the United States; fear of other, employed by users who blamed “the others” for the insurrection and its aftermath; and accountability, used by people against the insurrection to call for the attackers to face justice and its leaders to be barred from holding public office. We also noticed that the different frames were not exclusive. Those who used the term “insurrection” frequently used others such as accountability, censorship, treason, terrorism, and conspiracy.

Constructive and destructive effects of mediatization of family memory

The paper analyzes the peculiarities of family memory transformation under the influence of digitalization. In the modern world, new media begin to exert a determining influence on the formation of the image of reality, leading to the emergence of a special media culture that transforms familiar social phenomena. To reveal the specifics of the phenomenon of family memory we use the concept of midi-memory, which describes the mechanisms of emergence, storage and translation of collective representations of the past in the conditions of mediatization and digitalization. In such conditions, the boundary between cultural and communicative memory is gradually erased, and the number of subjects involved in the construction of representations of the past increases significantly. As a result, the mechanism of constructing images of the past is changing. These processes lead to the need to analyze the destructive and constructive effects of the mediatization of collective and, in particular, family memory.The main methodological principle of the study is the analysis of various forms of collective memory that appear in modern reality under the influence of digitalization. In modern realities, which are gradually blurring the line between cultural and communicative memory, collective representations of the past are being transferred into the format of media memory. Mediatization of family memory can contribute to the formation of national identity through the inclusion of significant national events in the images of the past present in family memory. A significant role in these processes is played by significant symbols of the Soviet period, broadcast by modern media practice. This increases the risk of purposeful distortion of images of the past. In the end, the media blur the boundaries of family memory, replacing images of the past with images constructed by media space.

Media memory activism in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina

Taking Bosnia-Herzegovina as a case study, this article examines how memory activists, acting at the meso-level, use digital media to implement various counter-memory strategies in relation to the war of 1992–1995. A variety of practices at the margins of official historical discourses, which are still dominated by victimization and hatred, are examined and examples from both the literature and original empirical data are used to show how, in an extremely tense political climate, memory activists can use diverse strategies and tools to allow new representations of the past to circulate, bringing about mnemonic change. I suggest that memory activists in BiH, although operating in a public sphere governed by ethnonationalist divisions and political parallelism, use digital media as an arena, space, or repository for counter-memory narratives. Supported by thematic analysis, this interdisciplinary research paper responds to a need for contemporary empirical research on media memory activism and opens new perspectives for future interdisciplinary studies of these issues in other divided societies.

NARRATIVE BUILDING THROUGH MEMES ON RAPE AND HARASSMENT VICTIMS: A MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

The social media memes on rape and harassment victim in Pakistan create verbal and semiotic sexual violence for the victims along with their online supporters. Online misogyny is online abuse against women and girls that is rooted in a hatred and mistrust of women which seeks to silence the victims of rape and harassment, further reinforce gender inequalities. This research explored the role of linguistic and semiotic choices made by social media users to create social media memes serving victim blaming, victim silencing and revealing the diseased cognitive structures of such netizens (internet users) in the virtual world. The research is based on five social media memes on the most talked about cases of rape and harassment in the online world. The researcher selected those rape and harassment cases on which there were at least 25-50 memes. The present study data was taken from Facebook and Twitter in the form of screen shots of the memes. The data was analyzed at two level Micro-Discourse Analysis and Macro-Discourse Analysis. The research findings explored the triangular relationship between linguistic, social and cognitive structures. Thus, the social media memes revealed the cognitive structures of the meme creators through their linguistic as well as semiotic choices.

From Humour to Impact: Internet Memes in Political Discourse through (de)legitimization

Internet memes, as artifacts of digital culture, quickly spread political ideas and critiques, transcending traditional media. Despite their prevalence, understanding how memes use semiotic elements and (de)legitimization strategies to shape political narratives on social media is limited. This research investigates how semiotic representations and (de)legitimization processes materialize in political discourse through social media memes. Using Van Leeuwen's (2005, 2007) framework of social semiotics and (de)legitimization strategies, we analyzed the visual and textual elements of 47 memes collected from January to July 2024; we selected 11 memes that represent Van Leeuwen's (de)legitimization strategies. The study revealed that memes convey complex political messages using semiotic resources, including color, gesture, and text. Intertextuality, humor, irony, rationalization, and moral evaluation are commonly used to criticize or support political figures and ideologies. This highlights the dynamic role of social media in political communication, where memes rapidly influence public perception. The findings emphasize the importance of understanding semiotic and rhetorical strategies in political communication analysis. The study contributes to the discourse of digital political communication by showing how memes, as cultural artifacts, shape political narratives and legitimacy. The research has significant implications for political strategists, communicators, and academics interested in the intersection of media, politics, and culture.

Multimodal Religiously Hateful Social Media Memes Classification Based on Textual and Image Data

Multimodal hateful social media meme detection is an important and challenging problem in the vision-language domain. Recent studies show high accuracy for such multimodal tasks due to datasets that provide better joint multimodal embedding to narrow the semantic gap. Religiously hateful meme detection is not extensively explored among published datasets. While there is a need for higher accuracy on religiously hateful memes, deep learning–based models often suffer from inductive bias. This issue is addressed in this work with the following contributions. First, a religiously hateful memes dataset is created and published publicly to advance hateful religious memes detection research. Over 2000 meme images are collected with their corresponding text. The proposed approach compares and fine-tunes VisualBERT pre-trained on the Conceptual Caption (CC) dataset for the downstream classification task. We also extend the dataset with the Facebook hateful memes dataset. We extract visual features using ResNeXT-152 Aggregated Residual Transformations–based Masked Regions with Convolutional Neural Networks (R-CNN) and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) uncased for textual encoding for the early fusion model. We use the primary evaluation metric of an Area Under the Operator Characters Curve (AUROC) to measure model separability. Results show that the proposed approach has a higher AUROC score of 78%, proving the model’s higher separability performance and an accuracy of 70%. It shows comparatively superior performance considering dataset size and against ensemble-based machine learning approaches.

"KOSOVIZATION" OF SERBIAN MONUMENTAL CULTURE AND CREATION OF NEW IDENTITIES

Starting from the sociological understanding of culture as a set of determinants that channel social movements, the authors analyze the complex Kosovo-Metohija reality with a focus on material monumental heritage and its destruction with the aim of political revision of the past and falsification of Albanian identity. The vandalism of ethnic-religious instrumentalized Albanian groups is concealed by the construction of a media memory of collective memories, which aims at a manipulative strategy of gradually gaining the political support of world opinion. The analysis of characteristic case studies proved the destructiveness of the devastation of the monumental heritage for the Serbian identity, because without the symbolic bearers of the past, the national community that created also disappears. Demolished cemeteries, burned monasteries and churches, with expelled Serbs as bearers of symbolic meaning, opened up space for Albanian nationalists who, by "Kosovizing" Serbian cultural heritage, create their own identity, with the intention of showing that they have always lived in these areas. The theoretical framework is based on British cultural studies that use numerous forms of memorial culture to replace identity and change the culture of memory.

REFLECTIONS IN THE FIELD OF INFORMATION SCIENCE ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL MEMORY IN DIGITAL NETWORKS

Researchers in the field of Information Science have made efforts to understand the processes of construction of social memory in the context of social networks, resulting in research with multiple perspectives and differentiated areas, which have great scientific and social relevance. Having said that, the objective was to analyze the frequency of the approach to the concept of social memory in digital networks and the issues related to this theme that are of interest to researchers in this science. This is an exploratory research of a qualitative and quantitative nature, using the content analysis technique as inspiration for the composition of the methodology, and, thus, for the creation of analysis categories so that it was possible to identify variations in terms used for the concepts “patrimony” and “memory”, and also making it possible to understand how these concepts have been debated by Information Science researchers. Studies were found that address different variations of the concepts of memory and patrimony in contemporary times and reflect on the informational phenomena that permeate the construction of social memory in digital media. The availability of information through the sharing of digital collections from libraries, museums, personal, public and institutional archives are constituents of digital heritage and emerge as channels for maintaining social memory and building knowledge. Faced with this, it explains the need to preserve digital heritage and improve content description mechanisms, implement metadata standards in the processes of describing and retrieving information in digital media. It also addresses the survey of ethical issues such as the social responsibility of citizens in the production and sharing of information on the web, much of which still needs to be discussed. Keywords: memory; social memory; patrimony; social networks.

A Comparative Analysis of Pakistani and Indian Social Media Memes: Cultural Narratives and Social Understandings

This study investigates the sociological impact and linguistic characteristics of Pakistani and Indian memes, focusing on their occurrence on social media sites, and explores how these digital expressions influence cultural stories and public opinions. Employing content analysis, a diverse collection of memes were analyzed to identify themes, linguistic elements, and cultural references attached to the memes under study. Besides, the study seeks to uncover the distinctions between memes in Pakistan and India, their appeal to viewers, and their impact on and representation of social norms, political opinions, and cultural heritage. The study focuses on comprehending the language, humor, and visual elements used to effectively convey messages from memes in different countries. The research embraces cultural essence and offers a thorough examination of how memes influence public opinion and cultural narratives in Pakistan and India. The finding reveals that memes have evolved as powerful tools for social interaction, self-expression, and cultural commentary in digital networks. Study highlights the importance of memes in modern discourse and emphasizes to understand the symbolic meaning of memes for deeper knowledge in their sociological and dialectal aspects.

INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT DETECTION IN IMAGE

The proliferation of social media platforms has led to a significant increase in the sharing of memes and other image-based content. However, some of these images may contain inappropriate or offensive text, which can be challenging to detect using traditional methods. Because the open-source existing solutions does not classify the text content in images. This project aims to develop a robust solution for detecting Not Safe for Work (NSFW) text content in images, with a particular focus on social media memes. The objectives of this project are to accurately extract text from images using optical character recognition (OCR) techniques, and to classify the extracted text as either NSFW or Safe for Work (SFW) using a fine-tuned natural language processing (NLP) model. The methodology employed in this project involves several key steps. First, the Keras OCR library is utilized to extract text from input images, as it has demonstrated superior performance compared to other OCR tools for social media images. Next, a preprocessing step is performed to align the extracted text in the correct sequence using coordinates, distance from the image origin, and the Pythagorean theorem. The pre-processed text is then passed to a fine-tuned BERT-BASE-UNCASED language model, which has been trained on a dataset of Reddit posts (NSFW and SFW) to classify the text as either NSFW or SFW. Key Words: OCR, Inappropriate, BERT, NSFW, SFW, Image, Text

Tapping on Collective National Trauma

Tapping on Collective National Trauma

Research on the Impact of Digital Media on the Communication of Cultural Heritage and Development Strategies -- Taking “Escape from the British Museum” as an Example

The network micro-skit “Escape from the British Museum” narrates the story of a Tangzhi fine tire jade pot from China’s Tang dynasty, personified as it escapes from the British Museum. With the help of journalists, it embarks on a journey to return to its homeland, symbolically bringing back books for cultural relics that cannot be physically returned. This film creatively reconstructs media memory through vivid storytelling and digital communication, enhancing the accuracy and timeliness of conveying the significance of cultural relics. It innovatively reshapes how cultural heritage is communicated to modern audiences. The article explores the impact and opportunities presented by digital communication in the dissemination of Chinese cultural relics. It highlights how digital platforms can revitalize interest and engagement with cultural heritage by making it more accessible and relatable. Furthermore, the paper suggests new strategies for the future application of digitalization in cultural heritage communication, emphasizing the potential for increased interaction and understanding across diverse audiences. By analyzing “Escape from the British Museum,” the article provides a compelling example of how digital media can be harnessed to promote the communication and preservation of cultural relics. This approach not only fosters a deeper appreciation for cultural heritage but also paves the way for innovative practices in the development and dissemination of cultural relics in a globalized world.

“Tears have never won anyone freedom:” a multimodal discourse analysis of Ukraine’s use of memes in a propaganda war of global scale

Abstract Purpose This paper analyzes memes posted by @Ukraine to X, formerly known as Twitter, from the account’s inception in 2016 through September 2023 to examine the function and utility of memes as tools of propaganda in global conflict. Methods A multimodal discourse analysis of more than 100 memes was conducted by a small research group to separate the memes into thematic categories in an exploratory fashion. Then, a small subset of the research group conducted a recursive analysis on the images and text in a handful of memes selected purposively to determine what types of ideological appeals were present. Results Our findings align with observations made in previous studies that internet memes might be used to bolster national unity and might be employed to bolster pleas for sympathy from wealthy, more powerful allies, in this case in the West. The essential propaganda ideals were those of democracy, friendship, and independence on the side of Ukraine while Russia is framed as a dictatorship. Practical Implications A small number of the memes referenced in our paper garnered global media attention. Though we do not make any claims about broad media effects relating to the memes studied here, garnering the attention of major U.S. publication seems clearly to have been a goal of some of these memes. For those who wish to find a key to the playbook for a nation’s propaganda strategy, its social media memes are a great place to begin. Social Implications It is apparent in this study that governments might use memes to cover all their propaganda bases, so to speak. Ukraine’s memes appear to serve mainly to reinforce messages of national unity and messages of connection with the West. Originality Though others have studied @Ukraine’s tweets, this is believed to be the first to focus exclusively on memes posted to the feed. This study makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how wildly varied memes can communicate core concepts of a propaganda strategy, perhaps with the hope that a few will “hit” with desired media outlets, if only to bolster propaganda efforts.

Ukraine at War: Reflections on Popular Culture as a Geopolitical Battlespace

Drawing on my previous work on how Western cultural producers have constructed the post-Soviet realm, as well as the feedback loop of popular culture wherein the region’s (non-)state actors mould their images for consumption abroad, this article reflects on popular culture as mechanism of the Ukraine-Russia War (2022-present). The specific focus is on how the Russia’s full-scale invasion and Ukrainian defence of its territory exemplifies the current state of popular culture as a geopolitical battlespace. Following a brief overview of popular culture-world politics continuum, I delineate the pivotal role that social media memes play in the current military conflict via a case study of the Twitter/X feed of Ukrainian Memes Forces (UMF), which employs various forms of youth-oriented visual intertextuality and comedic pastiche to establish Ukraine as a ‘cool’ adaptable, non-ideological agent against an ‘uncool’ hidebound, ideological foe (Russia-Putin-USSR).

ВЕЛИКИЕ СТРОЙКИ КОММУНИЗМА В ЗЕРКАЛЕ СОВЕТСКОЙ НОСТАЛЬГИИ

The article examines the evolution of the mythology of the great construction projects of communism in the context of nostalgia for the Soviet. The author shows the specifics of the formation of the mythology of great construction projects in the Soviet media sphere through connection with the basic constructs of the official communist ideology. This mythologem was never able to move into the discourses of historical memory, since the exposure of the cult of personality and mass repressions launched the process of undermining trust in the Soviet mythological pathos of the great construction projects of communism until its complete ideological corrosion during the period of perestroika. However, the specifics of the accumulation of primary scientific data on the history of the economy of forced labor in the USSR pushed into the shadows the real participation in great construction projects not only of the civilian population, but also of Komsomol activists who went en masse to these sites at the call of the Communist Party. The initial conditions of many construction projects were very harsh, and the objects themselves were distinguished not only by their scale, but also by their knowledge intensity, which implied their high technological efficiency. Currently, great Soviet construction projects penetrate into the space of media memory through the digital content of tourists, whomthey attract as a source of unprecedented impressions of exotic sights. The author concludes that in the case of great construction projects, Soviet nostalgia as a cultural movement works with the material, rather than symbolic, dimension of great construction projects, drawing positive connotations to elevate their image within the experience industry.

傳記的 관점에서의 지석묘 상석

Dolmen capstones in the Bronze Age remained on the ground even in later times and existed in people's consciousness, forming their own biography as part of the landscape. During the Bronze Age, the so-called Altar dolmens were a symbolic megalith as a place of ritual. Even in ancient times, megaliths such as dolmen capstones were used as objects of faith. In the case of the Goryeo Dynasty, it can be seen from the literature records that dolmens were considered sacred objects. On the other hand, in the case of the Joseon Dynasty, cases used for folk beliefs in various ruins have been confirmed, and it is still used as a place of faith in various parts of the country and is designated as a monument by local governments. Therefore, dolmen capstones are archaeological materials with ritual continuity from prehistoric times to modern society. And many stories have been told in dolmen capstones since ancient times. Among them, ‘Mago Grandmother’ often appears as the main character of the story of giants related to shrines, fortresses, and rocks as well as dolmens. Mago, who appears in ancient literature, was a young fairy admired by the intellectuals, and since the late Joseon Dynasty, she has changed her appearance to a female giant who is friendly to the common people. The appearance of a female god deeply penetrating the folk beliefs of the common people has continued from the late Joseon Dynasty to the present through dolmen capstones. In addition, dolmen capstones next to the ancestors' tombs were not just rocks, but were considered a sacred symbol protecting the family, so they should not be damaged or moved recklessly. As such, megaliths installed in the prehistoric times had a very deep relationship with the lives of later people. Dolmen capstones, the object and place of rituals, have continued to serve as social and personal medium of memory throughout various periods to the present. While rituals for megalithic monuments in the Bronze Age were collective events led by the ruling class, since the Middle Ages, they have often been held at the level of personal wishes along with village rituals. The tendency of weakening collectivity and strengthening individuality in the megalithic faith will continue beyond modern society to future society.

Media Memory Construction and Cultural Sustainability

The sustainable development of culture is often regarded as the core of cultural security and uniqueness. The homogenization of culture brought about by globalization poses a threat to cultural diversity and sustainability as well as to the uniqueness of national cultures to varying degrees. In this context, pan-Asian countries have taken various measures to protect their cultural identity and avoid the breaking in cultural intergenerational inheritance. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea in 1992 and the establishment of South Korea’s “Building up the Nation with Culture” strategy in 1998, Korean culture has developed Hallyu, or the “Korean wave”, in China and other countries via K-dramas, K-pop, and K-movies, establishing a significant recognition of K-culture worldwide. Although memory can be both personal and social, shared cultural memory is a core element for integrating individuals. Compared with individual memory, media memory has more advantages in continuity and stability, and is almost naturally endowed with social and cultural significance. Therefore, constructing media memory to achieve sustainable cultural development is a feasible and reasonable method. This paper reviews the influence and evolution of K-culture in China, and takes K-content media and its acceptance in China as an example to explore the logic and significance of media memory construction of culture and enhancement of cultural influence, especially on foreign audiences. In addition, from the perspective of media memory construction, the paper examines the reasons for the gradual decline of K-culture’s influence in China, and argues that media memory construction is a practical way to sustain cultural influence, so as to form common experiences that relevant parties can learn from.