Techniques of propaganda in internet news memes of the Telegram messenger

The authors of the article study the propaganda potential of Internet news memes in the channels of the Telegram messenger by using the method of content analysis. At the first stage of the study, they analyzed topics of Internet news memes and found that their authors prefer news about Russian life, which can be grouped into the categories of «officials and deputies», «internal political conflicts», «statesmen», «curiosities of everyday life» and «law enforcement officers». The preference for these categories indicates a difficult situation in Russian society, the personification of the political sphere and the general entertainment orientation of these patterns of network creativity. At the second stage of the study, the authors established that typology based on the criterion of informational and emotional impact could be applied to Internet memes of not only political, but also news nature. The authors describe the dominance of «tricksters» (memes that ridicule the participants of the conflict from those who are not involved in it) and «attractors» (drawing the attention of outsiders to the actual conflict or a common problem) over «aggressors» (attacking the doctrine, party or person) and «protectors» (praising the doctrine, party or person). At the third stage of the content analysis, they concluded that the classical and modern lists of propaganda techniques were not sufficiently relevant to the specifics of Internet news memes. The range of propaganda techniques in Internet news memes is small in comparison with the materials of the mass media; one of the techniques («Labeling», «Name Calling») is basic, appearing in all registered cases; complementary techniques («Stacking the Cards», «Transfer of Negative», «Appeal to Fear», «Glittering Generalities», «Flag Waving») are sometimes combined with this technique.