On the Media: Debunking Migration Memes

Impacts of social media: I think the impact of social media in this are pretty obvious. We're literally talking about social media memes.

CONTEXTS

Physical: We're talking about memes that are being shared on shared on social media sites in Europe.

Social: These memes are made either by people who have malicious intent, or people who are trying to be funny/relevant. The people who are seeing these stupid things online are the real problem because they are sustaining these ideas and themes, and they don't even really know how carelessly impactful they are being.

Psychological: The purpose of these memes is to cause people to think of refugees in a specific way: They are dangerous, deceitful people taking advantage of the people and the government. 

Cultural: I'm not sure if this is racism, or a cynical greed for hostility and antagonism. 

Temporal: Memes come from our young people, and our late generations. The way we use them is just like how propaganda posters were used in the past. People don't need to believe every part of what they're looking at because those ideas take root in our mind. I've heard about studies that show that people are likely to believe information even after it has been disproved. So even if people kind of know that it's wrong, they still kind of really believe it and that's what's happening here. 

Veracity: I think this might be the only On the Media post I do correctly because my answer for this section may always be the same. I think I have no business discussing the accuracy or authenticity of the information presented here because I don't know much else about it besides what I heard in this On the Media podcast or read about on the internet, and isn't that kind of what the problem is with this whole meme sharing thing? People don't know what the heck is going on because they're accepting information to be true which they do not know that validity of. 

That being said, I think it comes down to trust. Whose information can we trust to be reliable? I believe that memes are being posted all over social media in Europe, that they are a problem. The rest may all be speculation.

PERSONAL COMMENTS

There are parts of this story I don't understand such as: Who takes the time to make all these memes? Why are people circulating them? Why can't we all just get a long?

Last note as always: I never claim to KNOW very many things, especially when we're talking about places I've never been, people I've never known, theories I've never tested, and experiences I've never had.