Representing Pakistani Current Economic Conditions through Social Media Memes: A Multimodal Analysis

Abstract

Keeping in view the current economic crisis and rising inflation in Pakistan, the present study analyzes memes on this specific issue and keeps the public informed about the present circumstances. In Pakistan animations, comics, and memes are very much common these days, due to the rising influence of social media. These memes contain various issues, from ordinary daily life to the most complicated socio-political ones. These days, memes are also gaining the consciousness of researchers. For the present study, a total of twelve memes, are selected as a sample from Instagram on the topic of inflation under five distinct categories that are, budget (2022-2023), petrol hikes, a ban on imports, depreciation of the Pakistani rupee, and a relief scheme of 2000 rupees. These are studied using a framework of “Multimodal Discourse Analysis” presented by Michan (2007) which has its roots in Kress (2011) and Leeuwen (2004). The results tell that the memes are informing the public about Pakistan’s current economic crisis and inflation in a humorous, yet sarcastic manner.