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General
Election
2019

A journey through memes

1. The Timeline

A curated chronological journey through memes from election announcement to government formation. Limited to a maximum of 4 memes per news story.

Continue to scroll to view.

2. The Database

A companion database of over 1000 memes relating to this election. Sort by party, politican, issue or theme.

Visit Meme Database.

The political
significance of memes

Richard Dawkins coined “meme” in 1976, defining it as a “unit of cultural transmission” that persists by “leaping from brain to brain.” In the modern day context this refers to knowledge, gossip and jokes spread via image macros and videos on the internet.

Memes are used as a vehicle through which activist can spread key messages, define political concepts, disarm critics – Molotov Jpegs against the corporate hegemony of the mainstream media. They present an opportunity for individuals to seize the means of media production and compete for attention against the barrage of advertising,marketing and PR produced by the party machines.

They also serve as tension relief – some lighted comic relief against the psychological torture of the election cycle.

Trumps win in 2016 has been attributed, at least in part, to memes and social media. Memes ability to reduce complex ideas to sharable image-bites means they are able to engage those who may otherwise stay clear of politics. They are also anonymous in origin, meaning they can easily spread false information or half-truths with no chance of being held to account. Through the shear power of mass replication even the most insipid ideas can come to the surface.

It’s questionable whether the same could be said of this election. Echo-chambers means that unless a person is searching for them - they will rarely see memes they disagree with. Many memes are spread through dedicated facebook or Instagram pages with large follower counts – however a Conservative supporter is unlikely to follow “Grand Marshall Corbyns Patriotic Meme stash” in the same way a Labour supporter wouldn’t choose to follow “Boris Johnson’s Dank Meme Letterbox” and fill their timeline with pro-Johnson content. It is only when users share these memes to their own timelines that they have a chance of appearing on the newsfeed of a friend who may support the opposite side.

Regardless of whether they influenced the election in either direction in the future we be able to look back on memes as a type of they ephemera that reveal something about the culture of the time. The news article may tell us the facts, but the memes surrounding it hint at what people actually thought, or at least – wanted others to think.

Where are the
memes collected from?

These memes were collected from a variety of places including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and Discord.

There were many left-leaning facebook pages dedicated solely to creating and sharing memes - such as Dec 12 Shitposting Club, whereas there were comparably fewer conservative meme-only pages. Right wing memes were more spread out and posted on pages such as Bloke Diary which also share news, infographics and videos.

It 's perhaps because Labour had a much younger support base, which had many people creating and sharing memes as a means of engaging with youth culture, hence the popularity of their meme pages. The conservatives older base still appreciate a good meme however they find and share them through existing pages and groups they follow rather than going out to follow pages that specifically post memes.

Due to their sharable nature, it's often impossible to know the true origin of a meme so the exhibition does not link back to the source of any images.

What counts
as a meme?

Image + text does not make a meme. For this reason, I have excluded images such as those to the left, which although they may follow the conventions of a meme - are not intended to be humorous or witty and therefore do not follow the spirit of a meme. These types of images were hugely prevelant on social media during the election, spreading information and misinformation on both side - but are not the focus of this exhibit.

The official
party campaigns joined in

Towards the end of the election both parties utilised memes in their online campaigns. Surprisingly, they were relevant and funny to their audiences which is hard for campaign managers to achieve as memes coming from the top down often lack the authenticity of user generated content.

2
9
O
C
T

Parliament votes to hold
a General Election

Parliament Uk
0
3
N
O
V

Farage says he will not be standing as an MP

The Brexit Party leader told the BBC's Andrew Marr he had thought "very hard" but had decided he could "serve the cause better" by supporting his party's 600 candidates "across the UK".

The BBC

Labour and the Conservatives promise to turn on the public spending tap.

The 2019 election will be the first in decades where both Labour and the Conservatives promise to turn on the public spending tap.

The Guardian
0
4
N
O
V

Lib Dems accused over 'misleading
and irresponsible' leaflets

The controversial bar charts deployed by Liberal Democrats in election campaign materials can be inaccurate, a senior MP has admitted.

The Independent
0
5
N
O
V

Jacob Rees-Mogg suggests Grenfell victims should have used 'common sense'

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been criticised for saying it would have been "common sense" to flee the Grenfell Tower fire, ignoring fire brigade advice.

BBC

No homes built under flagship 2015 Tory housing pledge

Not a single house has been built as a result of a Conservatives pledge to create hundreds of thousands of new homes, the independent spending watchdog has found.

Politics Home
0
6
N
O
V

Tom Watson stands down as Labour deputy
leader and MP

Mr Watson has served as the party’s deputy leader since 2015. His tenure has been marked by frequent clashes with Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader, over the direction of the party.

Financial Times

Liberal Democrats, Greens and Plaid Cymru form 'Remain Alliance' general election pact

The Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party announced they have formed a "Remain Alliance" which will see them not stand against each other in a number of seats.

ITV News

Kay Burley ’empty chairs’
James Cleverly

Sky News presenter Kay Burley gave Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly the “empty chair” treatment after claiming he had missed a planned appearance on her breakfast show.

Politics Home
0
8
N
O
V

Boris Johnson visits flood-stricken Derbyshire

The prime minister visited Matlock to witness the impact of the severe weather, which has been described as ‘almost biblical’ by people who live in the area

The Metro
1
1
N
O
V

Farage says Brexit party will not contest 317 Tory-won seats

Party leader announces election climbdown in effort to avoid splitting leave vote

The Guardian
1
2
N
O
V

The Labour Party has
suffered a 'sophisticated
and large-scale cyber-attack'

A spokesperson said that the cyber attack failed because of their "robust" security systems.

Business Insider
1
5
N
O
V

Labour pledges free full-fibre broadband
to every UK home and business

Currently, only 7 per cent of the UK has access to full-fibre broadband, according to a report from the communications regulator Ofcom.

The Guardian
1
8
N
O
V

Lib Dems and SNP lose high court bid over TV election debate

Parties argued it was illegal and unfair to restrict broadcast to Labour and Conservatives

The Guardian
1
9
N
O
V

ITV Debate: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn go head to head

Neither seemed to land a knockout blow, with ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston describing "no significant fluffs".

ITV News

Twitter threatens 'corrective action' against Conservative party after it created a fake fact-checking service

A verified Conservative Party account rebranded 'factcheckUK' during the ITV debate, pushing out pro-Conservative messaging and making claims about Labour which it called 'facts.'

Business Insider
2
1
N
O
V

Rachel Riley's photoshopped Jeremy Corbyn T-shirt sparks huge backlash

Riley wore a t-shirt during the ITV Leaders Debate that wiped out an anti-apartheid poster that Mr Corbyn held at a protest

Birmingham Mail
2
6
N
O
V

Andrew Neil interview: Jeremy Corbyn refuses to apologise over anti-Semitism claims

Evening Standard
2
9
N
O
V

London Bridge stabbing attack declared 'terrorist incident'

Two people were killed and three were injured in the attack, which police say was carried out by a man who was released from prison in 2018.

NBC News
0
5
D
E
C

Phillip Schofield Defends 'Shameful' Selfie With Boris Johnson

The presenter and his co-host Holly Willoughby came under fire for their This Morning interview with the prime minister..

NBC News
0
6
D
E
C

Boris Johnson snubs second TV interview after avoiding Andrew Neil

The BBC has been asking the Prime Minister for a ‘date, time or venue’ for weeks, adding that ‘as of now, none has been forthcoming’

The Independent
0
9
D
E
C

Boris Johnson refuses to look at picture of boy forced to sleep on hospital floor

Boris Johnson has been accused of not caring after he repeatedly refused during a TV interview to look at a photo of a four-year-old boy forced to sleep on the floor at an overcrowded A&E unit, before pocketing the reporter’s phone on which he was being shown the picture.

The Guardian
1
1
D
E
C

Boris Johnson accused of hiding in fridge to avoid interview with Piers Morgan

Washington Post
1
2
D
E
C

Election results 2019: Boris Johnson returns to power with big majority

BBC News

The End.

In the aftermath of the Conservatives shock victory even more memes followed as Labour tried to figure out what went wrong whilst Leavers and Tories celebrated.

It’s hard to say if memes impacted votes in this election - but they sure do tell an interesting story.

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