Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

The Research on the Communication Strategies of Hellish Memes on China’s Internet from the Perspective of Carnival Theory

Haoqian WuBeijing Jiaotong University*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

With the in-depth development of Internet, memes have spread from real life to cyberspace and various types of Internet memes have emerged during the process, including controversial ones. Hellish memes are one of the most typical memes among them. From the perspective of audience, this study uses Bakhtin’s Carnival theory to explore the reasons of the prevalence of hellish memes on China’s Internet, and provide communication strategies for the propaganda department of Chinese government. This research hopes to reveal the reasons of hellish memes’ prevalence in the field of audience analysis and enrich the research dimensions of hellish memes. The study finds that three closely-related reasons account for the prevalence of hellish memes on China’s Internet: Firstly, hellish memes satisfy people’s sensory pleasure; Secondly, hellish memes fit people’s rebellion against the dominant values; Thirdly, hellish memes cater to people’s pursuit of open thinking and innovation. Based on the reasons of hellish memes’ prevalence, this study also puts forward three communication Strategies for the propaganda departments of Chinese government: Firstly, they should strengthen the immorality of hellish memes through recreation on hellish memes; Secondly, they should take advantages of new media to improve the quality of hellish memes; Thirdly, they should adopt the character of open thinking shown in hellish memes to enriching the dimensions of dominant values.

Keywords: hellish memes; carnival theory; audience analysis; strategies
Published: December 7, 2023
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/20/20231274
Volume: CHR Vol.20
pp. 25-33
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