Words as Weapons and Meme Wars: The New Warfare in Political Discourse (Published)
The study was meant to examine and analyse how used new digital media rhetoric reconfigures traditional power and communication paradigms with the intention of weaponizing language. All this weaponization on digital platforms even affects democratic processes, political participation, and people’s confidence. Thus, through a qualitative research methodology, the current study demonstrates how memes and digital media platforms are used as weapons of extreme viewpoints for discrediting rivals and creating narratives. Furthermore, the paper offers an understanding of how language, technology, and politics come together to change contemporary warfare with virtual battlefields which significantly impact political discourse and democratic norms. The method will involve an exclusive and very in-depth case study, as well as a literature review of documents and reports as secondary sources of data. The paper will unveil the complex structure of weaponized words and the influence they exert on people’s opinions in the building of a digital-influenced political warfare.
Keywords: cultural transmission, digital platforms, linguistic capital, meme, weaponization of language