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The Northern Neighbor: memes about people and power as a tool for shaping the image of Russia in Chinese digital space

https://doi.org/10.21453/2311-3065-2020-8-2-182-193

Abstract

The phenomenon of Internet meme is not often discussed in academic discourse, despite its active use in applied communication, e.g. public relations, marketing and political communications, and branding. The Internet has made the distribution of memes a daily practice, and this term (a) has become an integral part of a publicly accessible network language; (b) an element of modern network culture with a high potential for the formation of sustainable images and stereotypes. In this paper, based on an analysis of two common memes about Russia in the Chinese segment of the Internet, we attempt (1) to trace how the image of Russia is developing in the Chinese Internet segment, (2) to identify the most stable images and tropes, and (3) to evaluate the prospects for using the memes in professional communication, in our case limited to the development of country image and brands.

About the Authors

E. S. Nadezhkina
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Russian Federation


N. V. Kirillina
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Russian Federation


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Review

For citations:


Nadezhkina E.S., Kirillina N.V. The Northern Neighbor: memes about people and power as a tool for shaping the image of Russia in Chinese digital space. Communicology. 2020;8(2):181-192. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.21453/2311-3065-2020-8-2-182-193

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ISSN 2311-3065 (Print)
ISSN 2311-3332 (Online)