RECALIBRATING THE PROPAGANDA MODEL: MEMETIC WARFARE AS A TOOL OF IDEOLOGICAL CONTROL IN CONTEMPORARY DIGITAL POLITICS

Abstract

This study revisits Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s Propaganda Model (1988) in the context of 21st-century digital communication, focusing on the emergence of memetic warfare as a tool of ideological control. With the proliferation of user-generated content and algorithm-driven social media, memes have evolved from humorous internet culture into potent instruments of political persuasion, disinformation, and ideological entrenchment. Integrating memetic warfare within the framework of the five original filters—ownership, advertising, sourcing, flak, and fear ideology—this paper argues that memes now function as decentralized vectors of propaganda. Case studies including the 2016 U.S. election interference, Ukraine’s digital resistance, and Pakistani youth political engagement support the claim that memes are central to ideological engineering in contemporary digital politics.