Targeted audiences and strategically targeted objectives have been the foundation for which effective propaganda based information dissemination has developed. The final portions of this article shine a spotlight on internet memes at work in the real world and future research opportunities stemming from this body of research. The focus of the article then shifts to a microscopic view of what internet memes are, and their innate faculties that allow for enhanced malleability and dispersal (including heuristic properties). The article follows a road map beginning with the historical aerial leaflet propaganda tactics, strategies, and goals highlighting the importance of targeted audiences. This article is meant as a theoretical analysis of internet memes, and their propagandist properties, so that other researchers may bring forth empirical examples. Through excavating historical uses of aerial leaflet propaganda and their respective PSYOP tactics a more comprehensive analysis of internet memes and their role in digital manipulation becomes possible. The use of aerial leaflet propaganda historically and the parallel usage of aerial leaflet propaganda and digital memes contemporarily offers a unique opportunity to explore their previously overlooked entanglements. Currently, aerial leaflet propaganda and internet memes are both in use in their respective theaters (the real-world and the digital-world). The article further highlights the parallel uses of both mediums in relation to their ability to utilize psychological tactics to disseminate information on a macroscopic level while simultaneously targeting a microscopic audience. Through the use of macroscopic comparisons a trend of parallel persuasion techniques can be observed between analog leaflet propaganda and internet memes. This article focuses on analog leaflet propaganda and modern digital internet memes in regards to their composition, dissemination, and application among their respective target audiences. Through the use of macroscopic comparison and microscopic analysis a trend of parallel persuasion techniques can be observed between analog leaflet propaganda and internet memes. Through the use of media archeology this article aims to illuminate the evolution of analog leaflet propaganda into its contemporary digital form of internet memes. Furthermore, the text discusses Internet meme's ability sew discord by consistently reaffirming preexisting tribal bonds and their relation to traditional PSYOP tactics initially used for analog leaflet propaganda. This text explores the link between internet memes and their ability to “hack” the attention of anyone connected to internet using dense modality and cognitive biases. Due to the ease of creation, and their ability to constantly reaffirm axiomatic tribal ideas, they have become an adroit tool allowing for mass influence across international borders. Internet memes can be used to target specific groups to help build and solidify tribal bonds. In the past such items were dropped from planes, now they find their way into social media across multiple platforms and their territory is global. Internet memes are one of the latest evolutions of “leaflet” propaganda and an effective tool in the arsenal of digital persuasion. University of Maryland Global Campus, Adelphi, MD, United States.
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