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In
an
era
where
social
media
dominate
our
lives,
political
parties
have
been
advised
to
leverage
internet
memes,
as
it
is
fast
becoming
a
form
of
communication
tool
among
social
media
users.
Political
Marketing
Strategist
at
the
University
of
Ghana,
Professor
Kobby
Mensah
believes
that
memes
can
be
used
to
influence
voters.
He
described
memes
as
a
heuristic
form
of
communication
which
allow
people
to
be
provoked
and
engaged.
Commenting
on
the
back
of
TV3’s
feature
titled
“From
Laughter
to
deception?
The
Role
of
Internet
Memes
in
Modern
Communication,”
Prof.
Mensah
argues
that
as
politics
is
perceived
to
be
hard
news
and
perhaps,
not
appealing
to
some
people,
this
alternative
approach
can
be
adopted
to
engage
political
stakeholders
so
they
can
equally
contribute
to
the
national
discourse.
He
said,
“For
stakeholders
who
are
hard
to
reach,
especially
the
young
people,
political
parties
can
use
memes
to
obviously
communicate
information
that
young
people
actually
find
it
difficult
to
communicate.
With
issues
like
corruption,
you
can
use
memes
to
get
people
interested
in
corruption
news,
just
as
criticizing
an
opponent
too”.
He
indicated
that
political
parties
can
also
use
memes
to
communicate
their
manifestos
since
everything
cannot
be
in
hard
print.
“You
could
actually
use
memes
to
communicate
simple
ideas
and
very
complex
ideas
as
well.
And
that
could
be
far-reaching
because
you
can
have
it
gone
viral
for
example.
So
yes,
political
parties
can
effectively
use
it”.
Professor
Kobby
Mensah
spoke
to
Grace
Agyemang
on
TV3
Weekend
Central.
The
feature
titled
“From
Laughter
to
deception?
The
Role
of
Internet
Memes
in
Modern
Communication”
is
a
four-minute
news
feature
by
TV3’s
Job
Kwabena
Laboja
exploring
the
widespread
adoption
of
internet
memes
as
a
form
of
online
communication
and
how
they
are
transforming
the
way
information
is
shared
and
consumed
among
internet
users.
Internet
memes
are
predominantly
funny
online
images,
videos
and
texts
that
become
viral
through
a
collective
process
of
sharing,
imitation
and
remixing.
By
Ademayah
Nyansamoahene