The Life Cycle of an Alt-Right Meme: A Radio documentary exploring the experiences of Irish teenagers using social networking sites (SNS) and the impact it has on their social and emotional development.

Cusack, Martin (2017) The Life Cycle of an Alt-Right Meme: A Radio documentary exploring the experiences of Irish teenagers using social networking sites (SNS) and the impact it has on their social and emotional development. Masters thesis, Griffith College.

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Abstract

The subject of this documentary is the emergence of the alt-right political philosophy over the years 2016 and 2017, and how it has achieved global infamy through its use of memes, irreverent shock tactics and provocative stunts. The so-called “movement” is a phenomenon which has manifested itself amid a rising tide of right-wing populism across the West, and suddenly came to international attention in the run-up to the 2016 American presidential, allying itself with the successful campaign of Donald Trump. The alt-right movement has successfully attracted a demographic primarily composed of alienated, mainly male internet users into its sphere of influence by adopting and popularising an idiosyncratic jargon and iconography (including the use of memes) to add an irreverent flavour to their often virulently xenophobic, anti-Semitic and racist rhetoric. The most prominent of these memes is that of Pepe, a frog with a humanoid body co-opted by the alt right as the bizarre mascot of their movement. By telling the story of Pepe's journey from harmless cartoon figure to hate symbol I hope to also tell the story of the alt-right movement and its parallel journey from obscurity to international attention. This documentary has a number of different facets pertaining to the phenomenon of memes and the sudden rise in popularity of the alt-right. I will investigate the roots of this “movement” in the chaotic and profane world of message-boards such as 4chan, how it attached itself to the campaign of Donald Trump, and how its irreverent streak conceals a much darker reality. I will conclude by asking what strategies the left has to counter this disturbing trend.

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