The political meme that I chose to use, is a quote by president Obama and his views on women’s health. His picture is placed next to the meme and he’s winking at the camera. The quote states “Ask a republican about climate chance and they say “I’m not a scientist” but when it comes to a women’s right to choose, suddenly they all become doctors.” The meme takes a stand for being pro choice, and not allowing the government to tell women what to do with their health. In his article Shifman states that when it comes to the Barack Obama’s campaign the “The innovative use of digital media in his campaign mobilized supporters into action in multifaceted and unprecedented way.” This meme in particular is being used to show the hypocrisy that some republicans display about what topics they choose to address or advocate for. It’s trying to show people that as real as climate change is, some republicans have denied it and some have ignored it chose to stay away from sharing their opinion and leaving it up to the scientists. But when it comes to women’s rights to choose, they are playing the role of the doctor and acting as if they know what’s right for each women’s body. This meme is an example of memes in general where their main goal according to Shifman is to be a form of persuasion or political advocacy.
Shifman argues that political ads shared by our community has more of an impact on our personal opinion than those those that are broadcasted by the media, so in this case if this meme was to be shared around on social media then it might be able to persuade someone who’s on the fence about women’s rights, to give realize that politicians shouldn’t be trying to take on the role of doctors. Another reason that this meme is powerful is because they could have taken the Obama quote and simply put it against a white background but by adding a picture of him winking and his facial expression being humorous, it can play on the audience’s emotions by causing a smile or a giggle about the irony of the situation.
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