meme is the message coce - the ieca | international

Presented at Bridging Divides: Spaces of Scholarship and Practice in Environmental Communication The Conference on Communication and Environment, Boulder, Colorado, June 11-14, 2015 https://theieca.org/coce2015

The Meme is the Message:

Engaging the Social Media Audience in a Meat Reduction Advocacy Campaign Judith Friedlander Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney [email protected] Dr Chris Riedy Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney [email protected] Abstract

The negative impacts of meat consumption and production receive limited media coverage. Social media communication strategies offer novel ways to raise the impacts of meat on the public agenda. This paper explores how strategic use of frames, messaging and rhetoric can engage social media audiences in a meat reduction advocacy campaign. Meat Free Mondays Australia ran a social media poll to test the popularity of different infographics for building or “melding” a broader aggregate audience for the Meat Free Mondays message. The infographics featuring heavy use of subversive pathos or “culture jamming” elements were the most popular in the poll. The research provides insights into the agenda melding process and its contribution to group consensus and aggregation/building through individuals reaching out to affiliates to incorporate their interests and values into the group agenda. The findings also provide insights into how environmental campaigners can use social media to seed and circulate Internet memes consistent with their campaign objectives.

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Introduction

The expected doubling of the global demand for meat and milk by 2050 (Steinfeld et al., 2006) has focused governmental and scientific attention on the negative environmental (Steinfeld et al., 2006; Hoekstra & Chapagain, 2008; Cordell, Drangert & White, 2009), health (Friel et al., 2009; Friel, 2010; McMichael et al., 2007) and animal welfare (Foer, 2009; Singer, 1975/2009) impacts of livestock production and consumption. Despite this, there is cultural resistance to messages about reducing meat consumption. The negative impacts of meat consumption receive limited media coverage (Neff, Chan & Clegg Smith, 2009; Friedlander, Riedy & Bonfiglioli, 2014) and powerful stakeholders resist change in meat consumption habits (Black, 2010; Meat & Livestock Australia, 2014; Macleod, 2006). In this context, the Meat Free Monday (http://www.meatfreemondays.com) and Meatless Monday (http://www.meatlessmonday.com) campaigns seek to gently initiate cultural change by asking participants to avoid meat on one day per week - Mondays. By avoiding the big ask of vegetarianism and not overtly threatening cultural mores regarding meat consumption, these meat reduction campaigns aim to offset the sources of resistance discussed above.

The ultimate aim of Meat Free Mondays Australia (MFM) (http://www.foodwise.com.au/meat-free-mondays/homepage/) is to encourage a reduction in meat consumption and raise awareness of the various environmental, health and animal welfare impacts of meat production and consumption. The MFM campaign has adopted an action research approach, experimenting with different strategies to build an online community. This paper discusses a specific strategy - the Meme is the Message poll - which drew on theories of agenda melding, rhetorical communication and culture jamming to investigate communication techniques that might attract more participants to the online community. The Meme is the Message poll asked social media communities to vote for their favourite infographics from a selection that incorporated different frames or messages, and rhetorical elements. All of the infographics sought to promote reductions in meat consumption.

The strategy behind the poll was one of agenda melding, rather than the more traditional agenda setting. Agenda melding refers to a more individualized view of agenda setting where people, rather than mass media, draw on multiple sources and groups to pursue their own agendas. The process can refer to either individuals blending agendas from various communication sources to fit in with their own preferences (Shaw & Colistra, 2008), or individuals seeking out the values and interests of family and other social connections to contribute to a coherent and salient view (Shaw & Colistra, 2008; Ragas & Roberts, 2009; Berger & Freeman, 2011). Through promoting the Meme is the Message poll in various health, advocacy, environmental, animal welfare and food/lifestyle Facebook groups, the MFM campaign aimed to build or “meld” a broader aggregate audience that will, in turn, adopt the MFM agenda.

The Meme is the Message initiative also sought to gain insights into which types of message and rhetoric are the most persuasive and engaging in campaign infographics designed for circulation via social media. In particular, it tested subversive “culture jamming” concepts to build towards a later phase of campaign research, which will seed Internet memes in an attempt to scale up the social media audience for the campaign.

The next section of this article reviews literature on the current media landscape and builds a case for

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the communication strategy employed by the MFM campaign. This case draws particularly on the literature on agenda melding, infographics, rhetorical theory and culture jamming. The paper then outlines the specific methods employed in this research, comprising: the design of multiple infographics to express different frames and rhetorical elements; an online poll to gauge infographic preferences; and focus groups to explore reactions to the infographics in more depth. The paper presents the results of the poll and focus groups and discusses implications for environmental communications.

Literature review

The current media landscape: setting and melding the agenda Media advocacy campaigns aiming to build engaged communities enter a crowded communications environment filled with messages from competing sources. Mainstream traditional news media still retains a dominant role in setting the public agenda, as the online public still receives most of its news from online versions of traditional news sources and news aggregators such as Google and Yahoo!, which rely heavily on mainstream media for their information (Smith, 2011). In this sense, the online news media continues the agenda-setting role of traditional news media. Agenda setting refers to how issue priorities or frames of news media become issue priorities or frames of the public, a media effects theory that has been replicated in more than 400 international studies (McCombs & Valenzuela, 2007). However, the new world of social media offers opportunities that challenge traditional news media’s agenda setting function, in particular, the potential to build and connect communities around particular agendas.

Our study places particular emphasis on the potential for social media to support agenda melding, rather than agenda setting. Shaw et al., (1999) introduced the concept of agenda melding in an attempt to shift emphasis away from the role of media in setting agendas and towards the role of individuals in identifying and pursuing their own agendas through group membership. The agenda melding framework “argues that the already established values and attitudes of audience members play a role in how those issues and attributes are sought out and mixed—or melded—into a coherent individual picture of events” (Shaw & Colistra, 2008, p.12). Shaw et al., (1999) argued that the evolution of media and technology is creating a more fertile environment for the melding of a wider range of group and individual agendas and that consensus building can occur through people being exposed to a set of common issues. More recent work by Ragas & Roberts (2009) set out to evaluate this agenda melding theory with the results “tentatively support(ing) the concept that when individuals join groups, even though those individuals may have different backgrounds, (they) tend to ‘meld’ their agendas with the overall agenda of the group” (p. 62). Berger & Freeman (2011) describe this as “this new, individualized view of agenda setting (which) allows for a ‘media of connections’ to satisfy the need for orientation” (p. 16).

There are clear implications for social media campaigning. Firstly, an agenda melding framework implies that campaigners need to attract the attention of potential audience members as a first step, so that individuals can assess the extent to which the campaign agenda aligns with their individual interests. Consequently, there is a role for research to identify attractive messages. Secondly, it makes sense to reach out to existing communities that could reasonably be expected to connect their existing interests with those of the new campaign. In the case of a campaign to reduce meat

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consumption, existing social media communities interested in health, animal welfare, environment and food are likely to find connections to the MFM agenda. Finally, messages that are the most likely to be shared through social networks are the most likely to facilitate agenda melding. For our study, identifying messages that existing community members would be likely to share through their social networks was an important objective.

Infographics: Efficiency for the Internet Engaging audiences in a crowded communications environment faces extra challenges due to the exponential growth of information. Clever communication techniques are required to cut through and attract audiences. It is estimated that by 2020, there will be 50 times the amount of information that was available in 2011 (Gantz & Reinsel, 2011) and while our ability to collect, store, and manage data is increasing quickly, our ability to understand it remains relatively constant [Fry, 2004). One way to more effectively communicate in this context is through strategic use of imagery. Research into the impacts of images used in health communications indicates their potential for enhancing cognition and contributing to changes in behaviour. Houts et al., (2006) found that imagery closely linked to written or spoken text, when compared to text alone, markedly increased attention to and recall of health education information, and emotional responses to pictures were found to increase or decrease target behaviours and augment cognitive processing efforts.

Consistent with this research, infographics have become popular with contemporary public communications practitioners who seek to engage and persuade audiences. Infographics feature strong visuals combined with summarizing text, and offer the ability to present complex information in a digestible form. Krum (2014) says that contrary to an older definition of infographics as “a visual representation of data”, the use of the word infographics “has evolved to include a new definition that means a larger graphic design that combines data visualizations, illustrations, text, and images together into a format that tells a complete story” and that the purpose of infographics “can be categorized into the same three objectives as public speaking: to inform, entertain, or persuade the audience” (Krum, 2014: 6). These concepts overlap with key elements in rhetorical theory: ethos, logos and pathos, which I explore in the section below.

In light of this literature on infographics and visual communication, a strategy of using infographics as a basis for agenda melding for the MFM campaign began to emerge. One of the aims of this study was to explore how images and text enhance one another in various rhetorical and message combinations, for example, through the use of visual metaphors and visual representations of well-known identities. For this purpose, focus groups were used to seek responses to the various infographics and their key features. Focus group methodology and responses are explored below.

Rhetorical communication This research set out to explore how rhetorical elements, as well as key messages or frames, can influence individuals’ preferences for infographics in a meat reduction campaign. A precise description of rhetoric is available from the writings of Aristotle in his classic text, “Rhetoric”. According to Aristotle (1991) cited in Macnamara (2012: 29), rhetoric involves three core elements. These elements are: Ethos – the credibility, character and trustworthiness of the speaker; logos – the logic and reasoned approach of the argument presented, usually supported with empirical evidence and presented through the dialectic – a rational process of argument that looks ‘at both sides’ or allows

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‘for and against’ points to be made; and pathos – the use of emotional appeals.

Contemporary theorists propose that it is “the process of using symbols to persuade others” that characterizes rhetoric (Beebe, Beebe & Ivy, 2009, pp. 26-27). According to Foss (2009): “Rhetorical theory now addresses all contexts in which symbol use occurs” (p. 855). In light of contemporary interpretations of rhetoric and evidence indicating that digestible information and concepts are more effective in a crowded media landscape, the infographics in this study set out to offer conceptual or abbreviated versions of all three rhetorical elements with “speakers” or credible characters (ethos), research or empirical evidence (logos), and emotional concepts (pathos) all presented in short-hand or summarized versions.

Rhetorical theory also has implications for the practice of culture jamming (Lasn, 1999; Sandlin & Milam, 2008), which attempts to resist the dominant ideology of consumerism and employs heavy use of subversive pathos or satiric humour in its practice. While all combinations of rhetoric’s three core elements were tested in the Meme is the Message poll, a particular objective of the MFM Australia campaign was to test research indicating that ironic communication or satiric humor is effective in engaging digital media audiences (Shifman, 2013; Wiggins & Bowers, 2014; Milner, 2013) and that strong emotional responses to content encourage sharing and virality (Berger & Milkman, 2012; Nelson-Field, 2013). Research also indicates that a culture jamming framework can contribute to the uptake and dissemination of social media messages in the form of Internet memes (Lasn, 1999; Sandlin & Milam, 2008; Wiggins & Bowers, 2014). This study offers one attempt to determine possible seeds and combinations of elements to encourage diffusion and uptake of infographics as Internet memes and tests the notion that pathos is an integral component of social media engagement. A review of the literature on culture jamming and Internet memes follows.

Memes and culture jamming The term “meme” has multiple meanings in academic literature. In his book The Selfish Gene (1989), biologist Richard Dawkins defined memes as small cultural units of transmission, analogous to genes, which are spread from person to person by copying or imitation. The advent of the Internet and digital cultures has led to the concept of the more “viral” Internet meme, which is a subject of active scholarship and debate. Central to the idea of the Internet meme is awareness of the conscious human intervention in development of such memes. Shifman (2013) suggests a definition of Internet memes as “units of popular culture that are circulated, imitated, and transformed by individual Internet users, creating a shared cultural experience in the process (p.367)”. Dawkins (Solon 2013) himself claims: “The very idea of the meme, has itself mutated and evolved in a new direction… Instead of mutating by random chance, before spreading by a form of Darwinian selection, internet memes are altered deliberately by human creativity.”

Shifman (2013) posits that in the so-called era of Web 2.0, platforms for facilitating user-generated content such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia, represent “express paths” for meme diffusion, and “content spread by individuals can scale up to mass levels within hours” (p. 365).

Understanding memes as a process or “genre” rather than a medium can provide insights into how they gestate, grow and decay. Wiggins & Bowers (2014) suggest four stages in the life of an Internet meme: The initial “original or non-parodied messages” or “spreadable media” are remixed or parodied to transform into second stage “emergent memes”; in the next third stage, “after remix and imitation,

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and rapid diffusion across social networks or other online spaces for quotidian expression, the emergent meme becomes a meme, in the current parlance of online communication”. Wiggins & Bowers (2014) argue that image macro memes (understood within popular culture as an image with captioned text), in comparison to video memes, seem to possess greater endurance, stating: “Their staying power is likely due to the ease by which members of participatory digital culture can remix and spread macro memes”.

Wiggins & Bowers (2014) claim that emergent memes often employ subversive or countercultural elements, and are “ideal vehicles for culture jamming” and “subvertising”. Culture jamming refers to “the act of resisting and re-creating commercial culture in order to transform society” (Sandlin & Milam, 2008). By implication, subversive memes do not yet manifest in widely shared cultural experiences and critical mass. Once they do, they transform into diffused units that are no longer subversive but err towards the mainstream. In this, the Internet memes would have achieved their objective in challenging or even changing the status quo.

The Meme is the Message infographics initiative offers a novel approach to identifying messages and rhetorical features that can be effective in a meat reduction campaign. In targeting different niche groups, the poll aimed to gain insights into the most engaging infographics which could be used in melding or building audiences in order to scale up a social media campaign and “seed” Internet memes. By determining the most popular messages or frames connected to a reduction in meat consumption, and assessing the most engaging rhetorical devices, including subversive pathos and humour that are effective in a culture jamming framework, the Meme is the Message initiative offers concepts and strategies that can be used by social media campaigners to seed and circulate Internet memes that can assist in raising the public agenda of the impacts of meat.

Methodology

The Meme is the Message infographics were developed in late 2013 by four University of Technology Sydney, Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) students offering design solutions to Meat Free Mondays Australia, as a community based organization, through the third year subject “The Community”.

Each student was responsible for developing six infographics on one of four key MFM messages or frames: environment, animal welfare, health and food/lifestyle. These frames emerged from previous research involving media content analysis into the most common news frames and news values in portrayals of meat in major Australian newspapers over the last five years (Friedlander, Riedy & Bonfiglioli 2014). This research indicated that news frames of animal welfare, the economy and food or culinary associations dominated over stories about climate change and other environmental impacts. This suggests challenges for meat reduction advocates in utilising the environmental frame in a media campaign. The Meme is the Message campaign sought to gain insights into whether and how the environmental frame could achieve greater traction in social media. The six different infographics devoted to each message covered a range of rhetorical combinations of ethos (graphic or factual representation of a reputable person(s) or institution(s)), logos (facts, evidence, statistics) and pathos (emotions such as humour or shock) and all featured the MFM Australia logo. Two of the six images and three of the six captions in the animal welfare infographics were changed close to the launch date due to a MFM administrator wishing to soften the shock element in this category.

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A number of concept meetings steered by this paper’s primary researcher and a MFM Australia social media administrator, helped develop appropriate infographics. (See infographics below.) The primary researcher’s (JF’s) active and engaged role in this study is consistent with an action research approach in which the researcher participates in the study and contributes to reflections, iterations and refinements. Students were informed that the major aim of MFM media campaigns, including the infographics social media initiative, was to encourage a reduction in meat consumption and present alternative, provocative and engaging concepts, information and visuals, an approach that resonates with a culture jamming framework. They were also provided with research on the impacts of meat consumption and production and image suggestions as guidelines for information, research, tone and emphasis. Students were given a number of directions to encourage consistency in graphic style including colour options, font style and size, MFM banner placement and proportions of text to image.

The poll was launched on December 5th, 2013, with the first round of 12 infographics, and the second round of infographics was posted in January 2014. The banner above the memes read: “Vote for your favourite memes below to help us decide the future direction of Meat Free Mondays”. Due to the holiday period, both links containing the 24 memes were promoted over the subsequent month. The competition closed in March 2014.

The links were distributed to over 15 different Facebook communities covering environmental, animal welfare, health and food/lifestyle interests with the aim of increasing the breadth of community membership. The communities included the Australian Meat Free Mondays group and a number of international Meat Free Mondays and Meatless Mondays initiatives such as the US Mondays Campaign and the United Kingdom Meat Free Mondays, and Australian organizations, Voiceless, Meat Free Week, DoSomething!, Lord of the Fries, Ceres, Institute for Sustainable Futures, Local Organics, Ecocentre, Oxfam, Slow Food and UTS Green. The overall membership of “likes” accumulated to over 227,000 individuals. This was not the actual participation in the poll, but the total community that could potentially have seen the poll.

Online members of the Facebook communities were asked to vote for their favourite infographics through the promotional social media application Woobox. Voters could also post optional comments and the links allowed each infographic to be clicked on for an expanded view. When a vote was made, the updated tally appeared live and only one set (multiple infographics could be selected) of voting per IP address was possible.

Qualitative data research was conducted through two focus groups that were run in Sydney (7 participants) and Melbourne (10 participants) in March 2014 to elicit more in-depth views and comments on the infographics. The Australian Facebook communities that promoted the infographics were again utilized to find focus group participants and this provided insights into the social media voting preferences. Voting, however, was not a prerequisite of focus group participation with approximately one-third of participants stating they had voted online. Three online community groups (Meat Free Mondays, Lord of the Fries, Institute for Sustainable Futures) contributed most focus group participants; approximately three-quarters of participants were female and ages ranged from approximately 20 to 70 years of age. Individuals in the three groups expressed allegiances towards various issues relating to meat reduction, for example, animal welfare, health and environmental issues. Each group was moderated by the primary researcher (JF) and an assistant took notes.

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A list of question prompts was used to initiate open discussion about attitudes towards and practices of eating and diet. Questions identified if attendees were vegetarians, vegans or meat-eaters. More specific questions asked participants about knowledge of meat reduction and other social media food campaigns with a question focusing on knowledge of Meat Free Mondays and attitudes towards this campaign. Each group was then provided with 10 minutes to examine the 24 infographics in detail. Further questions elicited responses on preferences, reasons for these preferences, and differences between those that participants liked and would share.

The focus groups were audio-recorded and transcripts were made of each session. Comments on infographics were analysed and distinctions were made between comments from vegetarians and vegans, and those who ate meat in their diet. Analysis drew on theory-driven coding (Saldaña, 2013), guided by rhetorical theory and segmentation (into vegetarians/vegans and non-vegetarians/vegans). While questions about rhetorical elements and messages were not specifically asked, these embedded theories were relevant to analysis.

Results

The following table presents the infographics in order of popularity as voted by social media participants. Indicative quotes are derived from social media and focus group comments. Infographic images are presented under the table.

Infographic ratings (per social media votes)

Caption Votes

(No’s & %)

Key message

/frame

Rhetorical elements

Indicative quotes

(from social media (SM) and focus groups (FG))

1. THE EARTH IS AT STEAK Eat more vegetables!

126

10.5%

Environment Pathos

(Combination of shock and humour; subversive interpretation of classic roast lamb being carved – a visual pun)

* “Very clever and very good imagery as well… because you’re slicing the earth up which is sort of what we’re doing by destroying it.” (FG)

* “It’s pretty graphic in terms of blood & bones.” (FG)

2. GOOD MOOD FOOD

“When people ate more fruit and vegetables, they reported feeling happier and more energetic” Dr T Conner, U of NZ

87

7.3%

Health/Food Pathos, logos, ethos

(Humour in dancing banana, research

* “A fantastic title and putting a positive spin on eating more fruit and vegetables.” (FG)

* “A good, positive image and promotes the benefits of a plant-based diet.” (SM)

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3. THE FUTURE ISN’T LOOKING TOO HOT

Actually, it is. According to the UN’s FAO, the global demand for meat and milk is set to double by 2050.

75

6.3%

Environment Pathos, logos, ethos

(Strong use of shock/humour; twist to ‘earth in space’ image; research & institution cited)

* “Would reach friends who have environmental concerns rather than animal welfare concerns.” (FG)

* “Graphically funny and sad” (SM)

4. LET US TAKE CENTRE STAGE

And give meat the night off!

67

5.6%

Health /Food Pathos

(Strong use of humour with dancing vegetables)

*”It’s a fun thing, it’s cute.” (FG)

* “Like the idea of the dancing vegetables!” (SM)

5. BE SWEET TO YOUR HEART

Reducing meat consumption can cut your risk of cardiovascular disease

63

5.3%

Health Pathos, logos

(Subtle pathos with strawberry/heart connection; visual pun; info about diet, disease)

* “Goes to the health message very simply.” (FG)

* “I like the simplicity of this one.”(SM)

6. FINISHED OFF

There are approx. 1/3rd of adult cattle finished in Australian feedlots. Consume with care. Choose with care

58

4.84%

Animal welfare Pathos, logos

(Cattle look pained: contrast to meat industry images; fact presented)

* “The graphic isn’t as aggressive as some vegan or vegetarian (messages).” (FG)

* “Poor cows” (SM)

7. WE SHARE OUR WORLD

“The environment is everything that isn’t me”

57

4.76%

Environment

Pathos, ethos

(quote from Einstein, humorous image with flora/fauna in hair)

* “The iconic image of Einstein’s head” (FG)

* “Nice aesthetic” (SM)

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8. KEEP YOUR PULSE GOING STRONG

“A cup of cooked lentils has 18 g of protein but under 1g of fat” – Harvard Medical School

56

4.7%

Health Pathos, logos, ethos

(fun, quirky image; fact from Harvard Medical School)

* “I think it’s really simple.. I like the aesthetic.. very contemporary.” (FG)

* “Lose this one… Plays into the stereotypes of plant-based diets being boring and not gourmet.” (SM)

9. (i) SMALL CHANGE BIG IMPACT

“I love eating meat.. but I love our planet even more”

9. (ii) DON’T HAVE A COW

Be a flexitarian and take a break on

54

4.5%

Environment

Animal welfare

Pathos, ethos, logos

(celebrity presented in humorous stance; fact included)

Pathos

(humour in image of dancing cow and comment)

* “Branson is really famous and people think he’s a genius and so forth.” (FG)

* “This cow’s obviously having a great time, being quite silly.” (FG)

10. (i) ALMIGHTY TOFU

Heavy on the protein, light on the wallet

ii) 9/10 AUSTRALIAN ADULTS aren’t eating enough vegetables, according to the Aust. Inst.of Health & Welfare

52

4.3%

Health

Health

Pathos, logos

Fun reversal of tofu/meat power with tofu knocking out steak; info incl.

Logos, ethos, pathos

Emphasis on info, subtle pathos and ethos

* “That’s awesome” (FG)

* “Go tofu! Fun image!”

(SM)

* “It’s simple and it’s eye-catching.” (FG)

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11. TOFU STIR FRY

Super Easy. Super Tasty. Super Healthy.

(Info. on vitamins, food groups, etc.)

41

3.4%

Health/Food Logos

Information rich with various food items linked with nutritional data

* “A great way to explain a dish in one glance.” (FG)

12. EAT LESS, FEEL FULLER

A plant based diet is full of fibre

40

3.34%

Health/Food Logos

Clean image of fruit and vegetables against white background

* “It would probably catch my eye because you immediately see it.” (FG)

13. (i) GO FREE RANGE, DON’T CHICKEN OUT

Each year 788 million meat chickens are in factory farms in Australia

(Mothers Are Demystifying Genetic Engineering)

(ii) EXCUSE ME

Enteric fermentation accounts for over 64% of the emissions produced by Australian agriculture

39

3.26%

Animal welfare

Environment

Pathos, logos,

ethos

Chickens presented in satirical way; fact & institution mentioned

Pathos, logos,

Extreme close-up of cow burping invokes humour; statistic

* “I like the Japanese anime and I can tell… the chicken itself is in pain…” (FG)

NO COMMENTS

14. FAIR PLAY

Let pigs be pigs. Consume kindly and choose free range

36

3%

Animal welfare Pathos

Subtle pathos, evokes sympathy

* “I kind of like the ‘Let pigs be pigs – consume kindly’ one.” (FG)

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15. THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET

Popularised by famous dietician, Prof Keys, is packed full of health building nutrients. Key ingredients? Plant-based foods and legumes

35

2.9%

Health Pathos, logos, ethos

Twist to classic muscled beach boy image; expert referenced; info included

* “Graphically very simple. He’s a muscle, macho man eating a vegetable so it’s funny because it’s unexpected…” (FG)

* “Plant-based ‘diets’ feed into perception of the ‘fad diet’ thing.” (SM)

16. MAKE YOUR ABS FAB

Go Meat Free this Monday. Joanna Lumley has!

33

2.75%

Health Pathos,

Ethos

Visual and literal pun on Absolutely Fabulous show title; celebrity featured

* “I didn’t particularly like the lines underneath but I just like the image – I know it’s Lumley.” (FG)

17. BEEF USES MORE WATER

It’s estimated that beef production uses 6.5 x more water than the soy that goes into tofu

31

2.6%

Environment Logos

Graphic presentation of information accompanied by statistics

* “A lot of presumed knowledge… some people may not have any concept of water usage.” (FG)

18. VEGO NIGHT

Just another excuse to invite your mates around

29

2.4%

Food/lifestyle Pathos

A twist to the mainstream Australian image of friends around a BBQ

* “I like the dinner party one … everybody looks really happy in it.” (FG)

* “Gives me a good idea.” (SM)

19. A FAIR GO

Nature is cruel but we don’t have to be: Temple Grandin

25

2%

Animal welfare Pathos, ethos

Anthropomorphism; animal advocate mentioned

* “‘A Fair Go’ is really confusing.” (FG)

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20. THE BOYZ

If the Imp, Stevo & Batman can take time off meat – so can you!

24

2%

Food/lifestyle Ethos

Macho male celebrities presented in alternative light

* “If using celebs, get some gender balance. There are so many famous vegan women celebs out there.” (SM)

21. OVER 5 MILLION turkeys are farmed each year in Australia. This Xmas, choose free range and purchase with care: Voiceless

23

1.9%

Animal welfare Logos,

Ethos

Facts on numbers farmed; institution mentioned

NO COMMENTS

Total votes: 1,196 (Total number of infographics: 24)

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Social media

The competition received 1,197 votes and 3,141 visits, indicating approximately 40 per cent of visits generated votes. The Woobox application did not allow an assessment of percentage of unique visits and voters were only allowed to vote once (multiple votes per voting session allowed) per IP address so the higher visit number may be partially due to voters assessing overall voting numbers. Launching the infographics in two rounds may have favoured the infographics featured in the initial release. However, administrators attempted to minimise this issue by promoting both links with all 24 infographics over a subsequent month. The differences between visit and voting numbers between the two links of 12 infographics were low, with the first round generating approximately 53 pc of visits and 52.5pc of votes. The Meat Free Mondays Australia membership grew by 328 “likes” to over 4,400 over the two-month duration of the competition compared to a growth of 139 “likes” for the two months

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prior to the competition. Subsequent posting of the competition assisted Facebook “likes” to climb to 4,573.

Rhetorical elements

Strong pathos rhetorical elements featured heavily in the highest-rating memes, with blends of humour and concern/shock shaping two of the top three infographic messages and humour featuring strongly in nine out of the top 10 rating memes. In the five lowest-rating infographics, pathos was negligible. An examination of the top-rating infographics indicates that much of the humour derives from satirical versions of mainstream cultural images. For example, the top-rating meme appropriates the image of the traditional lamb roast with a juxtaposed earth dripping blood and the pun “The Earth is at Steak” ensuring the point is driven home – an example of subversive culture jamming. The third highest-rating meme features a literal and visual “twist” on the benign image of the earth in space, with a self-strangling planet stating how the global demand for meat and milk is leading to a future that “isn’t looking too hot”. The rhetorical element of ethos, when presented as a visual metaphor, rated relatively highly with the seventh highest-rating meme featuring Einstein’s face and hair cultivating a bounty of nature and the ninth-highest rating meme featuring Richard Branson brandishing a flying carrot. A combination of pathos, ethos and logos featured in four of the top 10 infographics. The lowest and third-lowest rating memes corresponded to the two infographics that were “softened” close to the launch date due to the concerns by a MFM stakeholder that they were too shocking. Their eventual presentations were arguably obscure and moderate.

Frames

Environmental and health messages featured most prominently in the top 10 infographics. The top-rating environmental infographic ‘The Earth is At Steak’ was a clear favourite, receiving over 10 pc of votes. The environmental infographic ‘The Future isn’t Looking Too Hot’ ranked third.

Infographics featuring food frames generally rated lower with the exception of the health/food combinations of the positive and colourful ‘Good Mood Food’ (No. 2) and ‘Let us Take Centre Stage’, ranking 4th. This image featured vegetables with top hats and canes dancing in front of a row of steaks, which again, represents a discordant portrayal of the “status” of plant-based foods in relation to animal-based foods.

The highest-rating animal welfare infographic, ‘Finished Off’, was at 6th place. The relatively low rankings of animal welfare infographics (‘Over 5 Million’, ‘Fair Play’ and ‘A Fair Go’ among the eight least popular in the competition) may reflect late changes to some of the more confronting images requested by a MFM Australia administrator. While conclusions about the potential impacts and uptake of animal welfare infographics featuring a shock element cannot, therefore, be made from this study, it is important to note that one animal welfare infographic that retained a strong shock element (‘Finished off’) ranked 6th overall, indicating a combination of the animal welfare frame and strong negative emotions may engage social media communities. The animal welfare frame is a more difficult concept to promote in a campaign that advocates less meat consumption, rather than none at all.

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Focus groups

Focus group discussion provided opportunities for more in-depth analysis. About one-third of focus group participants said they voted online. While most focus group participants were sourced from the three communities of Meat Free Mondays, Lord of the Fries (a vegan/vegetarian food brand community) and the Institute for Sustainable Futures (an academic organization), they represented a cross-section of environmental, animal welfare, food and health concerns and could contribute to common themes of interest, demonstrating agenda melding capacities.

Focus group comments regarding preferences corroborated with many of the social media findings, however, the interactions offered a number of alternative and nuanced insights. The major difference between vegetarians/vegans and meat eaters was an expected result, with infographics promoting vegetables and vegetarian food more popular among vegans and vegetarians. Age did not seem to affect major infographic preferences.

The major themes that emerged from discussions are listed below with each selection of quotes representative of the comments/sentiments expressed.

Graphic humour: Culture jamming at play

A number of participants referred to strong and confronting messages, in particular, relating to the environment, that were made more palatable with humour. They often perceived the humour as being entwined with shock or a permutation:

“Pretty graphic but funny – real shock tactics”

“If you can make things humorous even if the issues are quite serious, I think that is a great way of spreading awareness to people who aren’t so aware of what’s going on”

These comments and others demonstrate culture jamming at play, inferring participants were jolted or forced to think more laterally about some ideas. A number of comments indicated that there is humour to be found in subverting mainstream concepts and cultural icons:

“The iconic image of Einstein’s head”

“Tofu as victor; that’s funny!”

Specific comments relating to how the overall image conveyed a “packaged pun” or message indicate that visual metaphors are effective in conveying complex meanings and the combination of pathos and other elements can create a sum greater than its parts:

“The imagery is good because you’re sort of slicing the earth up which is sort of what we’re doing by destroying it”

“It [‘The Earth is at Steak!’] is pretty graphic in terms of blood and bones and things like that… it really hit the nail on the head”

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Celebrity heads: Ethos highlighted when represented visually

Well-known individuals or celebrities received special attention when they were presented in a strong and identifiable graphic way. A close-up focus was particularly engaging and humour provided an added element. A number of comments were made about how the celebrity image alone was sufficient with too much text “distracting”, indicating that the logos element was relatively unimportant to many reviewers:

“It’s obviously Richard Branson in a very strange graphic style”

“The Einstein one I liked even though it’s too busy… the iconic image of Einstein’s head”

Personal likes and different shares: the potential for agenda melding

Participants tended to “like” infographics whose messages aligned with their lifestyle or diet, however, stated they would “share” different messages, acknowledging there were broader campaign themes and indicating the potential for agenda melding and community building. Just over one-third of focus group participants identified as vegetarians or vegans and more of the low- to mid-rating social media infographics, which had vegetarian themes – ‘Vego Night’, ‘9 out of 10 Australians (aren’t eating enough vegies)’, ‘Keep your Pulse Going Strong’ and ‘Tofu Stir Fry’ – were mentioned by this group as concepts they liked best. However, they nominated the more popular (as determined by the competition) infographics as the ones they would more likely share. One meat eater said he liked ‘Vego Night’ as it represented a different message to one he was familiar with. The focus group participants who identified as meat-eaters tended to nominate the higher-rating infographics of the social media competition and participants, in general, indicated they were aware of broader themes to those they immediately aligned with:

“I might choose ‘The future isn’t Looking Too Hot’ as I’m always sharing animal stuff… so in order to mix it up I might choose something that is more environmental because then I know I’m reaching friends who have these concerns”;

“I think you need to look at the health aspect because if you say it’s going to be good for the environment, you’re going to have a division for those people who don’t care for the environment”;

Keep it simple: Simplicity of message or design preferred

Many participants stated that even with time to review the infographics, they preferred ones that were obvious and “immediate”. Very few comments were made about the research, evidence or institutions cited in the text of many infographics, with visual concepts the main focus of attention:

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“The ‘9 out of 10’ one I kind of agree with. The simplicity of the message is particularly attractive to me and the guy looks really happy”;

“With ‘Be Sweet to your Heart’, the message is simple and goes back to the health message”;

“I quite liked this one (‘The Earth is at Steak’) as it’s kind of a funny pun. But I didn’t actually read the smaller sentence ‘Eat More Vegetables’”.

Discussion and conclusions

In an increasingly fragmented media market, it is important to identify potential strategies that can engage and empower citizens. Social media offers a number of opportunities to do so and this study explores two possible strategies in relation to the Meat Free Mondays Australia social media campaign.

Firstly, the campaign indicates there are novel ways to meld and build agendas in the social media environment. One important strategy was through the targeting of different Facebook groups, featuring individuals with interests in the environment, animal welfare, health and food, who engaged with the poll, aligning their values with the Meat Free Mondays Australia campaign. This supports literature surrounding the agenda melding framework, which indicates that individuals seek out messages and attributes that align with their interests and values. This process can assist in building a community such as Meat Free Mondays through messages that resonate with community members. Current agenda melding research also shows that individuals align their interests with those of their friends, family and affiliates and this study provides insights into a broader two-way process of this framework through individuals indicating they would reach out to affiliates to incorporate their interests and values into the group agenda. This was illustrated through focus group participant responses indicating differences between infographics that were most liked and those most likely to be shared. This agenda melding allows for a strengthened amalgamation and reinforcement of interests with individuals sharing similar values and a greater range of attributes.

Secondly, the finding that messages with strong use of pathos or “culture jamming” elements were the most popular in the competition supports research that ironic communication or subversive humour is effective in engaging digital media audiences. In contrast to the news media content analysis research (Friedlander, Riedy & Bonfiglioli, 2014) that indicates that the environmental frame has little impact on the news agenda in relation to portrayals of meat, this study suggests that environmental messages can be used effectively in a social media infographics campaign, particularly if combined with strong pathos elements. This research is congruent with social media findings reported by Guadagno et al., (2013), Nelson-Field et al. (2013) and Berger & Milkman (2012) that video content and newspaper articles are more likely to be shared if they feature high-arousal emotions, in particular, positive ones. The research also supports observations by Sandlin & Milam (2008) and Shifman (2013) that irony, humour, “mocking” or levity play important roles for those wishing to engage a social media audience. The responses to the competition indicate the infographics fit in with Wiggins & Bowers’ (2014) concept of emergent memes or “image macros” that infuse critical perspectives to mainstream commercial and cultural concepts. Wiggins & Bowers, along with academics such as Shifman (2013) and Sandlin & Milam (2008), posit that “meme” units such as these – that hijack popular, hegemonic

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culture – encourage imitation, remixing and diffusion in digital communities and can seed Internet memes. Future research could test certain emergent meme concepts with a view to scale into significant social mass and Internet meme diffusion. Subverted concepts of meat consumption and production could feature caricatures of well-known meat eaters eating plants, or an invitation to suggest an alternative cooking activity to those that appear in meat industry commercials. Further research could also analyse how meat industry groups use infographics to promote their messages and counter concepts they see as challenging their interests. This could provide added insights into effective frames and rhetorical elements for campaigners working to encourage a reduction in meat consumption.

Importantly, this study into the application and potential of infographics and strategic use of messages and rhetorical features, demonstrates how social media can be utilized to promote “issue politics” where smaller, yet cohesive groups can be encouraged to develop agency in advocacy agendas. This has relevance for environmental campaigners who experience difficulties in setting the media agenda.

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