MEMES AS MULTIMODAL POLITICAL DISCOURSE: A NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE 2024 PAKISTANI GENERAL ELECTIONS

Abstract

In the digital age, political memes have emerged as powerful tools for shaping public opinion and political discourse. This study explores the role of memes in constructing political narratives during the highly charged 2024 Pakistani general elections. Using a Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) approach, this article examines a corpus of 20 political memes circulated on Twitter (X) to investigate how they combine textual, visual, and symbolic elements to communicate political ideologies, reinforce existing beliefs, and challenge dominant narratives. The findings reveal that memes functioned as potent instruments for the delegitimization of political rivals, the construction of a heroic narrative around Imran Khan, the weaponization of data, and the facilitation of emotional catharsis through satire. The study concludes that far from being trivial entertainment, memes are sophisticated digital artifacts that play a critical role in democratic engagement, ideological contestation, and the formation of collective political identities in hybrid media systems.