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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 6
Publication Date: June 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/assrj.96.12600. Effendi, A. P., Safitri, R., Prasetyo, B. D. (2022). The Representation of Society Criticism on Meme (Semiotic Analysis of Charles
Sanders Pierce on Politician Billboard Memes). Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(6). 329-343.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
The Representation of Society Criticism on Meme (Semiotic
Analysis of Charles Sanders Pierce on Politician Billboard
Memes)
Ariel Pratama Effendi
School of Communication, Brawijaya University. Malang, Indonesia
Reza Safitri
School of Communication, Brawijaya University. Malang, Indonesia
Bambang Dwi Prasetyo
School of Communication, Brawijaya University. Malang, Indonesia
ABSTRACT
This research aims to discover the meaning of three previously selected memes that
highlight the practice of placing billboards for Indonesian politicians outside of the
2024 presidential election campaign using semiotic analysis from Charles Sanders
Pierce with a descriptive qualitative approach. The three memes that are the
subject of this research are three memes that have a high virality value and are
included in Twitter's Trending Topics. The findings of this research show that the
three memes have a negative attitude against the action of placing political
billboards. These negative viewpoints are summed up in four key points that
emerge from the three memes, namely (1) Criticism of installing billboards for
politicians that are excessive in number and placement, (2) Criticism of the
unimportance of installing billboards by politicians compared to other issues that
are also being viral in the world. Twitter, (3) Criticism of the lack of empathy of
politicians towards people who are experiencing economic difficulties in the midst
of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and (4) Criticism of politicians who
only want to advertise themselves. In addition, the use of signs in the memes studied
uses general signs that are close to the Indonesian people as well as things that are
going viral close to the viral billboard phenomenon, such as The Beatles Album
Cover, Tinder Dating App Logo, footballer Lionel Messi.
Keywords: Charles Sanders Pierce’s Semiotic Analysis, Political Communications,
Political Memes.
INTRODUCTION
In Indonesia, it can be said that Memes exist on every social media that is often used by the
public, especially on Twitter social media which incidentally has the Like and Retweet feature
which makes it very easy to share messages, ideas, and ideas, including those in the form of
Memes. In addition, the egalitarian and open culture on Twitter also encourages netizens (social
media users) to participate in spreading the memes they see on social media. Netizens are
expressed to be an "agents", active actors who are creative in creating and modifying meaning
radically. This social phenomenon is also motivated by an overflowing pattern of expression
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 9, Issue 6, June-2022
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
and is indicated as a democratic process (Permana, Yulyarti, & Andhika, 2020). If in general the
media is considered a "Locus Politica" in example a place where political issues are discussed
to become a political stage, then the internet and new media which have more open and free
characteristics become Locus which is quite important for political discourse in a democratic
country (Wadipalapa, 2015)
The use of memes in the context of political aspirations in Indonesian society today is not a new
thing. Many memes discuss political issues to respond to, comment or even criticize a policy or
political issue that is currently viral. In the context of being a critical medium, the use of humor
in a meme can transcend socio-political boundaries and provide an openly acceptable space for
criticizing (Utomo, 2015). Memes often convey criticism of popular culture or issues that are
hot and developing in society. Political issues that are discussed and contain aspects of humor
in the form of memes also function as a confirmation of the group's views and strengthen the
values of certain groups in this case, of course, namely creators, senders, re-uploaders, and so
on (Permana, Yulyarti, & Andhika, 2020).
One of the issues that Twitter users in Indonesia also responded to is the phenomenon of
simultaneous installation of political billboards that occurred in mid-July 2021, or we can call
it the “Politician Billboard Phenomenon. The politicians who installed billboards in several
cities in Indonesia were Airlangga Hartanto (Chairman of the Golkar Party), Puan Maharani
(Chairman of the PDI-P DPP), Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (General Chair of the Democratic
Party), Muhaimin Iskandar (General Chairperson of PKB) (national.kompas.com). The
phenomenon of this political billboard went viral because it was placed when the Indonesian
people were amid the Covid-19 pandemic which was entering the second wave. In addition, the
billboards seem aimed at introducing presidential candidates from each party in the 2024
presidential election, given that the 2024 presidential election is still three years away.
(national.kompas.com). Memes uploaded by Twitter users in Indonesia take various forms and
use different satire and criticism.
It's crucial to talk about a meme's meaning because the meme's shape already includes a
sarcastic message and an inferred message. Additionally, it is becoming normal practice to
employ memes to express political ambitions This is what makes this research important to
discuss using the Semiotic Theory from Charles Sanders Pierce to reveal the meanings implied
in a meme in the context of representation of public criticism. The semiotic theory of Charles
Sanders Pierce is closer to the semiotics of communication (Semiotics of Communication This
theory places a strong emphasis on the creation of social signs and how these indications are
repeatedly interpreted by others, or what is known as semiosis (Sobur, 2016).
In particular for individuals the meme mentions, memes frequently create new issues.
However, it is typical for this offense to be paid back by the creation of new memes meant to
respond to earlier memes (Hamid, 2020). However, Memes have a special ability to draw in
those who are emotionally invested in the topics under discussion, regardless of whether they
accept or support those topics or reject or disagree with them. Apart from that, individuals
continue to create memes to convey their ambitions despite the drawbacks of the memes
outlined above and the official and legal manner of criticizing and making advice to those who
are criticised. This is what gives memes their meaning, and it's intriguing to examine how this
meme communicates its message using Charles Sanders Pierce's semiotics.
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Effendi, A. P., Safitri, R., Prasetyo, B. D. (2022). The Representation of Society Criticism on Meme (Semiotic Analysis of Charles Sanders Pierce on
Politician Billboard Memes). Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(6). 329-343.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.96.12600
LITERATURE REVIEW
Memes in the Context of Political Aspirations on Twitter
The term "Meme" was first proposed by Richard Dawkins (1976) in his book entitled The
Selfish Gene, which is one of the terms in the science of Microbiology. The memes in this book
refer to the “unit of imitation and cultural transmission in genes.” This is a biological term that
deals with genes. The term "Meme" has since broadened to refer to the phenomenon known as
"Meme culture" on the internet, which is a way in which ideas are imitated, disseminated, and
mediated from person to person, through interaction or conversation, both through analog and
digital media (Brunello, 2003). 2012). Referring to the definition of a meme in microbiology,
which is essentially a unit of imitation and cultural transmission, the term memesis, which
refers to simple imitation and producing creative work, is used to describe this technique in
Hebrew (Jewish). Text and images that are turned into memes are formed, processed, and given
new meanings in accordance with the goals of the new meme's author, rather than just being
copied and duplicated.
According to Wiggins and Bowers (2014), Meme has advantages over other forms of satire such
as ordinary caricatures, namely on the Internet. A meme operates by utilizing new media or the
internet in distributing the message and meaning to be conveyed, of course, through humor. In
addition, the memes distributed on social media and the internet will not only be in the same
form, but the memes will continue to grow, either with the same message but with a different
meme or with a similar meme but with a different message. The process of producing and
distributing Memes is easy, they are produced/uploaded, cloned, distributed through social
media, and then repeated. This is still related to the sharing culture that emerged when the
internet and social media grew rapidly in the world.
Figure 1: Examples of Memes Discussing Political Issues in Indonesia
Source: memegenerator.net & history.com, 2021
In the Oxford Dictionary, Meme is a form of satire. Satire serves the objective of highlighting
and denouncing the flaws of others (Permana, 2020). The form of criticism conveyed in Meme
is in the form of a combination of images to a collection of several images and writings that refer
to issues that are being discussed and become social discourse (Wadipalapa, 2015). Politics are
frequently discussed in memes in the informal setting of communication or humor, and these
memes frequently convey provocative, unreasonable, and hurtful sentiments (Tsakona & Popa,
2012). This statement is in line with the expression of Freedman (2009) which states that the
messages in satire do have the aim of attacking a person or institution that is deemed worthy
of being attacked. This attack that was launched was of course not a physical attack but in the