Memes on the agenda: a discourse analysis of media appropriations of humor

This paper presents a study on the penetration of public discussion political memes in the hegemonic media based on the repercussion of memes about the arrest of former Brazilian President Lula on the websites El País (Brazilian Edition) and Estadão. The research aims to analyze the presence of memes in the media agenda and the appropriations of their discourses related to the political crisis in Brazil. For this, we take as a theoretical reference the concept of semiosphere, by Iuri Lótman; the notion of Homo Narrans developed by Alain Rabatel; and yet, the political functions of internet memes as proposed by Limor Shifman. The methodology consists of a discourse analysis of memes reproduced in the two websites mentioned. The result of this research is the reflection on the use of internet memes not only as mere entertainment, but as instruments of political activism and informative discourse