Rama called them 'meme-mania': How banners became the main weapon of the protest

Throughout the ten days of mass protests in Tirana, demanding the halt to the controversial project in Zvërnec and the resignation of Rama, what has stood out have been the banners with satirical messages.

Using the main slogan "Flamingo Revolution", the messages on these banners mock the old politics, including the main leaders Rama and Berisha, while conveying clear messages of criticism, dissatisfaction and also the need for change.

Prime Minister Rama referred to these banners as "meme-mania", but for communication experts, the protest banners are performing the function of political caricatures, which serve to expose the absurd and demand accountability from the government.

Blerjana Bino, executive director of the SCiDEV center in Albania and an activist for media freedom, sees these memes as part of the tradition of political satire, adapted to the digital language of the new generation.

“Essentially, a protest meme does what political caricatures have historically done: it takes a serious situation, reduces it to a recognizable image, joke or sign, and through irony exposes the contradiction, arrogance or absurdity that protesters see in power,” Bino told BIRN.

She explained that satire has a very important democratic function, as a way to criticize power, without resorting to the language of violence.

Even Ervin Goci, activist and Communication professor, sees the satirical messages of the banners as cultural and political artifacts, which contain complex codes in themselves.

“These things you call 'memes', I call message cells, communication in a world that no longer accepts shouting in chorus,” said Goci.

According to Goci, if these messages were not there in the square, the protest would simply become a rally centered on voices.

“In fact, the real protest is on the periphery of protest, where decentralized, thematized, aestheticized, but deeply critical and political politics is produced,” he added.

From one banner to another in the protest there is a combination of messages, which makes this protest unique. The creativity of the memes is considered essential to make the political message they convey understandable and shareable.

“A meme banner can communicate faster than a long political statement, because it uses cultural codes that people immediately recognize,” emphasizes Blerjana Bino.

Although satirical messages are not new, what is new is precisely the digital logic of their use. In this case, the banner is not only for the square, but is also intended for photography, social networks or the public circulation of the message.

"The meme becomes simultaneously a banner, a caricature, a political commentary, and a tool for mobilization," Bino continued.

Communication professor Ervin Goci shares the same opinion. According to him, the isolated circulation of these online messages would not make sense without contextualization in the public square.

"Despite the fact that they circulate online, the online circulation serves more as a roundabout to bring people to the square, to a digital-physical community," said Goci.

"But let's not forget that without physical contextualization on the boulevard, online circulation simply strips them of meaning," he concluded./ BIRN