@article{Rastogi_Kashyap_2019, title={Political memes and Perceptions: A study on memes as a tool of political communication in the Indian context}, volume={5}, url={http://tiikmpublishing.com/proceedings/index.php/medcom/article/view/192}, DOI={10.17501/24246778.2019.5104}, abstractNote={<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The word ‘meme’ was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book ‘The Selfish Gene,’ as an attempt to explain the way cultural information spreads. A meme acts as a unit to carry cultural ideas, symbols or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena within a mimic theme. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Memes started on the Internet in 1996 with the first-ever viral sensation of a baby dancing on ‘cha-cha-cha’ ( 3D dancing baby). With its growing popularity, it has become a means of influencing the mindsets of people who view, follow and share these memes. Memes have a potential to focus on real-world issues which when consumed by a user influences them to share it further thus leading to its large consumption. Memes can be denoted as; ‘Amplification by Simplification’ which basically mean they have a potential to condense a complex political fact into a powerful, brief and an effective way which engages a large audience.  Hence, it is becoming a powerful tool for communication. </span></p>}, number={1}, journal={Proceedings of the World Conference on Media and Mass Communication}, author={Rastogi, Saumya and Kashyap, Simran}, year={2019}, month={Aug.}, pages={35–48} }