Memetic xenophobia: a brief analysis of internet memes with discriminatory messagges around venezuelan and nicaraguan migration in Costa Rica

Abstract

The following article questions the proposals that identify humor as an in­trinsic characteristic of internet memes, using investigative references that take various emotivities into account when thinking about the interactions with them. Based on this, it is argued that memes can be used to articulate discriminatory messages or to the detriment of a specific population. To de­monstrate the above, a revision of the definition of “internet memes” is pro­posed, in order to problematize them as digital communication tools that goes in line with late modernity and allows the registration of various social representations (Moscovici, 1986). In addition, the Facebook page “Reali­dades Nacionales C.R Recargado” was monitored, from which six memes were selected to whose discourse a critical analysis exercise was applied.

It is concluded that in the case of people who emit xenophobic or discrimi­natory discourses, elements such as hate, disgust, anger and uncertainty, can become supports for the construction of messages embodied in this type of graphic material disseminated online. In addition, it is identified that the social representations of migrants in these internet memes are ba­sed on various stereotypes about them, fed by conservative ideologies and apologists of racist, xenophobic and nationalist-paternalistic discourses.