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Copyright

Lisa Bogerts; Wyn Brodersen; Maik Fielitz; Pablo Jost;

Published On

2025-05-02

Page Range

pp. 173–200

Language

  • English

8. Pictured hate

A visual discourse analysis of derogatory memes on Telegram

  • Lisa Bogerts (author)
  • Wyn Brodersen (author)
  • Maik Fielitz (author)
  • Pablo Jost (author)
Chapter of: Imagery of Hate Online(pp. 173–200)
Memes have become a propaganda weapon of far-right groups. While several studies highlight the strategic use of memes in far-right contexts, there is little empirical research on which groups these memes target, and how. As the visual stigmatisation of outgroups is a central means of communicating far-right worldviews, this study examines the visual propaganda of far-right and conspiratorial actors from a quantitative and qualitative perspective. To do this, we analysed memetic communication using computational and interpretive tools selected according to the visual discourse methodology. We collected our material from 1,675 alternative right-wing German-speaking channels of the messenger service Telegram, which we categorised into different sub-milieus and monitored continuously. Our findings suggest that there are significant differences in the way certain groups are targeted and a tendency to highlight the trigger points of current polarised public debates.

Contributors

Lisa Bogerts

(author)
https://protestinstitut.eu/mitglieder/lisa-bogerts

Dr Lisa Bogerts is a Berlin-based independent political scientist and visual culture professional. For eleven years she has been researching, teaching and working practically on political conflicts and protest as well as visual communication and art. She wrote her doctoral thesis at the Goethe University Frankfurt (Cluster of Excellence "Normative Orders") and at the New School for Social Research, New York City.

Wyn Brodersen

(author)
Researcher at Jena Institute for Democracy and Civil Society
https://www.idz-jena.de/ueber-das-institut/mitarbeitende/wyn-brodersen

Wyn Brodersen is a sociologist and researcher at the Jena Institute for Democracy and Civil Society. His work examines the influence of digital interactions on radicalisation processes, focusing on digital subcultures, right-wing terrorism, and their intersections. He is part of the editorial team of the online magazine Machine Against the Rage (machine-vs-rage.bag-gegen-hass.net).

Maik Fielitz

(author)
Head of Research Unit at Jena Institute for Democracy and Civil Society
https://www.idz-jena.de/ueber-das-institut/mitarbeitende/maik-fielitz

Maik Fielitz is a social scientist and conflict researcher. He is the head of the research unit on digital conflict studies at the Jena Institute for Democracy and Civil Society, as well as co-editor of the online magazine Machine Against the Rage (machine-vs-rage.net). His research examines the ways in which digital technologies and digital cultures influence the emergence and evolution of right-wing extremism, as well as the strategies employed by liberal democracies to counter authoritarian tendencies in online contexts.

Pablo Jost

(author)
Visiting Professor / Strategic Advisor at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
https://www.polkom.ifp.uni-mainz.de/pablo-jost

Dr Pablo Jost is a communication scientist at the Institute of Journalism at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, where he received his Ph.D. in 2022 with a thesis on "Popularity Indicators in Political Communication Research". He is currently a visiting professor at the Department of Journalism and Communication Research at the University of Music, Drama and Media, Hannover. As co-founder and strategic advisor of the Federal Association for Countering Online Hate, he investigates the communication of radical and extremist protest movements on digital platforms and their offline effects. His research also focuses on the media representation of social controversies, how political actors communicate, and how they adapt to the conditions of digitalization.