Final Article

FATIMA JINNAH WOMEN UNIVERSITY RAWALPINDI
ARTICLE
CORONA MEMES AS THE SOCIAL COMMENTARY IN COVID-19: A QUALITATIVE

ANALYSIS THROUGH FAIRCLOUGH’S APPROACH TO CDA
A FINAL PROJECT SUBMITTED TO

MAM FAHMEEDA IDREES
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
SEMESTER VI
BY
GROUP 9
SYEDA SANI E ZEHRA (45)
SHAZMEEN KHAN (43)
SUMMAIYA ZAHID (44)
TANZEELA HAYAT (47)
TEHSEEN FATIMA (46)
2nd July 2022

Rawalpindi, Pakistan
2 ANALYSIS OF CORONA MEMES THROUGH FAIRCLOUGH CDA MODEL
Corona Memes as the social Commentary in Covid-19: A qualitative Analysis through

Fairclough’s approach to CDA
Fatima Jinnah Women University Rawalpindi
Authors and their work contribution

Fahmeeda Idrees
Syeda Sani Zehra Analysis/ Discussion/ Reference
Shazmeen Khan Analysis/ Introduction
Summaiya Zahid Analysis/ Literature Review
Tanzeela Hayat Theoretical Framework/Abstract
Tehseen Fatima Research Methodology/ Conclusion
Table of Contents
Abstract
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 6
1.1 Significance: ................................................................................................................ 9
1.2 Research Questions: .................................................................................................... 9
2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................. 10
3 Research Methodology ..................................................................................................... 12
4 Theoretical Framework: ................................................................................................... 12
5 Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 15
5.1 Meme 1...................................................................................................................... 15
5.2 Meme 2...................................................................................................................... 16
5.3 Meme 3...................................................................................................................... 17
5.4 Meme 4...................................................................................................................... 19
5.5 Meme 5...................................................................................................................... 20
5.6 Meme 6...................................................................................................................... 21
5.7 Meme 7...................................................................................................................... 22
5.8 Meme 8...................................................................................................................... 23
6 Discussions ....................................................................................................................... 24
7 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 25
8 References ........................................................................................................................ 26
Abstract
Background:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental and social distress exhausted people around the
globe. Corona tormented people because of its high mortality rate. Therefore, youngsters came
up with different ideas to make sense of the situation, provide relief, and in catering the anxiety.
TO CATER NHI HONA CHAHYE? People started to spend more time sharing and viewing
social media memes to get an overview of the whole situation because COVID-19 memes were
a powerful means for ordinary people to communicate with each other. As time progressed,
Facebook became the most popular platform for promoting information through memes on
ABOUT COVID-19 due to its free-of-cost and user-friendly property. However, later on, the
unlimited accessibility challenged the credibility of memes.
Introduction:
Thus, this research would comment on how Facebook COVID-19 memes have merged the
boundary between reality and perceptions with linguistic and spectacle approaches and to what
extent theSE Facebook COVID-19 memes played a vital role in reshaping the perceptions of
the Pakistani community. This research would contribute to society by awaking the public
about how much factual and misleading information Facebook memes provided and how they
have changed people’s perceptions about COVID-19.
Methodology:
This present study adopted the Descriptive Qualitative research method to conduct the
research. In addition, it used Fairclough's approach to CDA as the theoretical framework to
provide a detailed description and interpretation of the Facebook memes. This research
comprised eight Facebook memes, four English and four Urdu as secondary data.
Discussion:
As a result, we inspected that Facebook memes served in multiple ways to spread the
infodemic, portray the current reality and uplift the social and political propaganda. Besides
that, linguistic and spectacle representation of memes enabled the consumer to reshape his
thoughts.
Conclusion:
These memes served as a source of fun and amusement, but they affected the reader’s mind
differently. They had blurred the line between reality and misinformation by blending factual
and opinion-based information.
Keywords: COVID-19, Facebook memes, Fairclough’s approach, reality, social

commentary, infodemic.
1 Introduction
1 The COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the globe, affecting practically all countries
and territories (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021). Coronaviruses are a member of the diverse viral
family (Chakraborty & Maity, 2020). These are divided into four groups namely, α-, β-, γ-, and
δ (Chakraborty & Maity, 2020). According to the World Health Organization, all
coronaviruses, including SARS, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 which have been responsible
for the pandemic are β-coronaviruses (Chakraborty & Maity, 2020).
2 In December 2019, the first case of COVID-19 virus was reported in Wuhan, Hubei
Province, China, with the majority of cases linked to initial infection from a seafood market
(Chakraborty & Maity, 2020). It spread quickly worldwide in such a short time that on March
11, 2020 (Cascella et al., 2022), WHO (World Health Organization) was forced to declare it a
global pandemic. As of March 3rd, 2022, there have been approximately 451,722,895
confirmed cases of COVID-19, with approximately 6,023,288 deaths (Organization, 2020).
3 Social media is important and essential for both propagating erroneous data and
increasing awareness(Shabir et al., 2014). Shrestha Lucky (2013) defined social media as a
way of communication where people create, exchange, and convey ideas through online
discussion forums (Shabir et al., 2014). It provided a privileged forum for innovators to interact
through the production and dissemination of coronavirus Internet memes (Glǎveanu & de Saint
Laurent, 2021).
4 Social media, in the right hands, can be used as a powerful instrument for influencing
people’s attitudes and improving public health (Wijaya, 2021). YHN ADD KI AGLE PARA 4
SE It is a “medium that provides user-generated content” (Wijaya, 2021). During COVID-19,
the majority of the people spent their time in quarantine, consuming various social networking
websites such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, etc., because it was a medium for
ordinary people to communicate with one another via the internet (Choursia & Suri, 2020).
YHN WALI MEME LINE ISE PARA ME NEECHE HIGHLIGHT LANI Amidst all the chaos
and struggles during COVID-19, “Facebook" was one of the most widely used social networks
for connectivity and leisure (Zahoor, 2020). Memes need a platform to operate and flourish on
the internet and throughout the pandemic, Facebook has served as a platform for various
participants to share information through memes on the COVID-19 (Wijaya, 2021).
5 A meme is defined as “a unit of cultural information conveyed by mimic” (Rogers,

2021). The term “meme” originated from the Greek word “mimema” which means imitated
and was officially introduced by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene in 1976
(Rogers, 2021). Susan Blackmore (1999) argued that memes are instructions for executing
different behaviours or ideas that are stored in the brain and transmitted through imitation
(Chick, 1999).
6 According to Shifman (Shifman, 2012), common elements of memes include their
accessibility, inclusion of humor, and involvement of ordinary people (Zahoor, 2020). Due to
the immediate response and extensive usage of social media, memes appear even after the most
insignificant incidents that occur nationally or internationally in political and social sectors
(Zahoor, 2020). It is nearly difficult to even use the web without finding any memes. Hence,
in particular, “Internet memes” are disambiguation of Dawkin’s concept of cultural memes
(Shifman, 2012).
7 Memes are among the most popular features on basically every social networking
platform nowadays (Ghaffar, 2020). They are both products and influences that drive social
practices (Xie, 2020). A meme is a video clip, graphic, or image that tells a funny narrative or
mocks a social concept (Ghaffar, 2020). Every day, billions of people utilize multiple social
networking websites to share memes for various purposes and goals (Ghaffar, 2020). The
majority of Pakistan's population is made up of youth who are constantly embracing social
media platforms such as Facebook (Ghaffar, 2020). They are very interested in the digital world
because they want to learn and participate more in the world affairs (Ghaffar, 2020).
8 The way we interact has evolved in this modern digital world of the 21st century and as
a result, the new internet memes have become a phenomenon that is rising in popularity and
not going to fade away any time soon (Zahoor, 2020). Once a meme is created, it can be shared
anywhere online, including social media, web communities, discussions, and online forums
(Chandler, 2013). Memes are not just funny internet posts, as they break down cultural walls
worldwide and create one “meme culture” (Rogers, 2021).
9 The majority of people rely on modern technology for information on the COVID-19
pandemic, which has never been utilized in the same way during a pandemic before (Glǎveanu
& de Saint Laurent, 2021). Although there are some pieces of evidence of "fighting back"
through creative social media activism, which connects people with others to promote
beneficial social change and build more tolerant societies under these conditions (Glǎveanu &
de Saint Laurent, 2021). Memes have been used to promote misconceptions about the
coronavirus, its origins, and a variety of anti-vaccine myths (Wasike, 2022).
10 In Pakistan, many people used social and digital media to look for health-related
information (Ittefaq & Iqbal, 2018). Apart from Pakistan's fight against COVID-19, a second
vital war has to be waged simultaneously to combat COVID-19 misinformation conveyed
through memes (Naeem & Bhatti, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a noteworthy
and responsive litmus test to demonstrate how people are surrounded by a wide range of
positive and negative memes in the digital world, and how internet memes are influencing
humans with their impactful power, whether constructive or destructive (Xie, 2020).
Furthermore, memes play a significant role in providing a filter of understanding through which
'fundamental realities' of human nature can be identified (Xie, 2020).
11 For several reasons, internet memes are essential elements in critical media studies
(Chandler, 2013). Also, memes are a relatively new communicative aspect that has yet to be
thoroughly studied by researchers (Chandler, 2013).
12 So, this research focuses on the COVID-19 memes created and shared on Facebook,
through Fairclough’s CDA approach. From the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis
(CDA), discourse is viewed as a crucial strategic tool for changing the social world (Chandler,
2013). Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is defined by Fairclough and Wodak (Fairclough,
1997) as "the analysis of linguistic and semiotic elements of social processes and problems"
(Chandler, 2013). According to Fairclough, it examines the use of language in speech and
writing in social practice (Wijaya, 2021). According to Ida (2014), discourse analytics aids in
the deconstruction of text (Wijaya, 2021).
In Fairclough’s (Fairclough, 1995) perception, discourse is characterized as action and has

two aspects (Wijaya, 2021):
1. Discourse influences, convinces, or contradicts.
2. Discourse is something that is consciously and deliberately expressed.
Hence, discourse is a type of social interaction (Wijaya, 2021).

13 Plenty of other researchers have focused on psychological stress, sexual health, level
of physical activity and the consumption of electronic devices, etc., (Priyadarshini et al., 2021)
during the pandemic; however, this article’s main purpose is to highlight how much of the
information provided by memes in the disguise of humor is truly expressing reality and how it
is changing people’s perceptions about Covid-19.
1.1 Significance:
The COVID-19 pandemic is tormenting the world in these recent years. There are
bundles of information on the internet in the form of memes which have become a big part of
human life and thousands of memes are being created daily. In reality, memes are considered
to be a way of expressing true emotions and opinions with a sprinkle of humor.
But as an overabundance of everything is undesirable, there is a lot of controversy about

the authenticity of these memes. The distinction between fact and false information is already
hazy in this day and age, and memes have made it worse. No one evaluates the content to see
whether the meme they're sharing depicts the truth or is simply misleading. As a result,
countless viral memes affect and shape the reader's perception. Pakistani society is one of those
communities facing a major crisis in this world and if the youth of a country cannot decipher
true information from the false one and have an understanding of how to perceive certain things
then there is no hope for success and peace.
This digital world has its fair share of conflicts and problems, as people are facing serious
stress because of a fast-paced life and rapid advancements. But this pandemic has increased
that stress and anxiety with the risk of survival and an uncertain future. Now, even a little
misinformation can turn into a big war, if not handled carefully. The focus of this research is
to play a significant part in enhancing the important impact of memes during COVID- 19 and
to highlight the fact that how much of the information memes provide in the disguise of humor
is truly expressing the reality and how it is changing people’s perception about Covid-19.
1.2 Research Questions:

1. Determining to what extent the COVID-19 memes play their key role as a social
commentary?
2. How has the COVID-19 memes merged the boundary between reality and
perceptions?
3. How are the memes reshaping the perceptions of the community during the
pandemic in terms of raising propaganda?
2 Literature Review
As there is more complex information all around so we don’t have time to realize deeper
hidden meanings, and we have lost the patience for observing and understanding things. Due
to this, several studies and research have been carried out regarding the analysis of COVID-19
and its memes through different methods of data analysis. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is
the most common method and is used by different students for research purposes. The literature
covers a wide variety of such research; this review will highlight and focus on several studies
that were done recently and are relevant to our present article.
(Chandler, 2013) used the method of critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine the
ideological components of the First World Problems and Third World Success Internet memes.
The significance of this research was to know what ideological assumptions about global
wealth inequality are communicated through verbal and visual representations in the First
World Problems and Third World Success memes. Secondly, to know how these memes better
challenge existing power relations and represent dominated groups of people. For this, 100
memes were selected as a sample. He analyzed the visual and textual elements of memes, i.e.,
how power, dominance, and inequality are reproduced through discourse. Results revealed that
there were several binary oppositions between the meme series that indicated ideological
beliefs about the nature of wealth disparity and inequality.
Palupi analyzed the meme Makasih yang Lebih Cantik on Instagram using the Fairclough
CDA model(Palupi, 2018). A descriptive qualitative approach was used for this study and the
sentence Makasih yang Lebih Cantik (Palupi, 2018) was analyzed in three domains by
observing linguistic and non-linguistic aspects concerning historical, cultural, and social
contexts. Theory of compliment response by Herbert (1989) and politeness strategy by Brown
& Levinson (1987) were also used in the analysis. Results revealed that Indonesian women
praise back to the people who praise them by saying “Makasih yang lebih cantik” (“Thank you,
you prettier”) as they are not used to hearing other people accepting compliments by solely
saying “Thank you”. This becomes the culture of Indonesian society that they support
politeness which is proved by responding to compliments with another compliment. (BAIQ
HIKMATUL HASANAH, 2018) also used CDA to analyze the memes of Facebook and
Instagram and how they support their position through legitimization. He used the theory from
van leeuwen. His findings revealed that most of the strategies used to legitimate and de-
legitimate the memes’ position were authorization and moral evaluation, only a few of them
used rationalization and mythopoesis.
In addition to that, (Purwaningrum et al., 2021), analyzed the COVID-19 memes on social
media Instagram. They did a semiotics analysis of these memes and whether these memes are
a way of expressing or criticizing. The research was done in Indonesia where the government
implemented the policy of large-scale social restrictions instead of quarantine. The memes were
analyzed to see whether the people are in favour or against the policy. Due to this, both verbal
and non-verbal memes were collected from social media, and analysis was carried out based
on Peirce's theory. Results showed that memes were a way of criticizing government policies.
In another research study.
Another previous study (Sasongko & Andaninggar, 2021) used the Fairclough CDA model
to describe ideological assumptions in English joke memes. They did a social analysis of the
memes. A qualitative approach was used along with knife discourse analysis and visual
semiotic analysis. It was concluded that the meme-makers used interesting images and text to
help people develop new ideologies. They allowed the society to open their minds and give the
leadership to government. (Syartanti, 2020) also did CDA of COVID-19 memes through Van
Dijk's critical discourse analysis approach. She revealed that due to the impact of COVID-19,
memes have a disciplined attitude towards health protocols, as well as trade and business
competition.
In Pakistan, people are actively involved in social media and memes had become “the
hallmark of the 21st century” in the online culture of social media (Bereheny, 2016). One of
the recent research (Hayat et al., 2021) applied the theory and method of Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA) to examine the ideological components of the trending Facebook page i.e.
Khabees Orat memes. This research was important to examine how these memes are significant
and reflect the true face of Pakistani society. So, a qualitative descriptive method was applied
to analyze issues that are expressed by memes and ISO BOLD KRDEIN? Textual analysis was
done for this research. The results revealed that opinions expressed in memes could carry more
than one issue. It also showed that the Facebook page i.e., Khabees is an ironic page that states
the fact and harsh faces of society humorously. This project will help researchers to define
Asian society as well as Pakistani norms and regulations. Moreover, (Amna Shahid, 2021) also
used the CDA model to investigate the representation of women in the memes on Pakistani
Facebook pages. They used multimodal Critical discourse as a theoretical framework. Results
showed that they were represented stereotypically in a negative manner, and they concluded
that this should be avoided by educating men.
In general, Internet memes have been a growing interest, and memes were studied through
different perspectives and approaches. Our research is a bit different from these researches as
the main objective of our study is to analyze COVID-19 memes through Fairclough Critical
Discourse Model (CDA) at 3 different levels and how much reality is involved in it.
3 Research Methodology
We have selected the descriptive qualitative method for conducting this research. It is
descriptive, as we have collected, classified, and analyzed data for including it. According to
(Creswell, 2014), Qualitative research is a method for investigating and comprehending the
significance that individuals or groups ascribe to a social or human problem. The research
process includes developing questions, procedures, data collection in the participant's
environment, and data analysis inductively building from particulars to general themes.
However, by adopting a qualitative approach, our research provides a detailed description and
interpretation of the Facebook memes during COVID-19. The source of data always remains
an integral part of any research that ensures the credibility of collected data. The data for the
present study encompasses Facebook memes. We chose corona memes posted on Facebook
accounts during the year 2021. The present study selected eight Facebook memes, four English
and four Urdu. These memes express different perspectives relating to the realities of COVID
19 in Pakistan; moreover, the memes are in line with the political, social, and religious realities
in Pakistan. To answer research questions, we applied the theory and method of Critical
Discourse Analysis (CDA). CDA is an appropriate method for analyzing these particular
memes. Fairclough (1993), defines CDA as a field of study concerned with studying and
interpreting written and spoken texts to reveal discursive sources of power, dominance,
inequality, and bias. Therefore, this research analyses the text and images featured in these
memes to understand them from a broader social and cultural perspective. The study concludes
by commenting on to what extent the memes depict reality or have reshaped our thoughts.
4 Theoretical Framework:
The conceptual framework for the analysis of this study has been drawn from the Theory
of Critical Discourse Analysis. According to Kress, CDA is a tool for Linguistic analysis that
can be applied to practical discourse events and aims at exploring the impact of multiple
ideologies on the text (Liu & Guo, 2016). Thus, in past few centuries, several significant
linguists have worked on critical aspects of discourse in terms of language (Liu & Guo, 2016).
Most renowned of them were Fairclough, Wodak, and Kress. (Liu & Guo, 2016). According
to (Janks, 1997), language is a class of social practices that ties the sort of contextual
information. Therefore, Linguistics presume that only grammatical, phonological, and
semantic study of discourse doesn’t reveal sufficient information of text (Liu & Guo, 2016) if
the rhetorical intentions and writer’s point of view don’t bring forth (Kaplan, 1990). Thus, the
contextual implications of the text should be analyzed to get an understanding of deep-rooted
details within the text. (Fowler, 2013) argued that a part of the discourse is constructed to
reshape society’s ideas and thoughts (Liu & Guo, 2016).
In this way, According to Van Dijk (Van Dijk, 1988), Critical Discourse analysis provides
a contextual understanding of the written and spoken text that how language plays a vital role
in creating biases, inequality, and circulating social and political propaganda. Additionally,
CDA tries to find the connection between the social practices and discourse practices that is
vague to the common person (Sheyholislami, 2019). Therefore, our researcher has adopted
Fairclough’s (1992, 2003) three-dimensional model for the analysis of corona memes to
determine what kind of linguistic and visual elements are used in memes to persuade Pakistani
people to change their perceptions. Moreover, the research also aims to find what role the
memes played during Covid-19 as far as factual and misleading information is concerned. That
could be only possible through Fairclough’s (1992, 2003) three-dimensional model of CDA
because this greatly served for the analysis of meme as text, meme as discursive practice, and
meme as social practice (Janks, 1997). This model enabled us to locate that what is the position
of the text, who is the targeted audience of the meme, and how it is contributing significantly
(Janks, 1997). (Saleem et al., 2021) argued that Fairclough and Wodak (1997) demonstrated
that discourse reflects a variety of social and cultural issues, shows the power relations, and
contributes to and reproduces the ideologies. On this wise, memes as the discursive event could
be best interpreted within the three-dimensional framework. According to Liu & Guo (Liu &
Guo, 2016), Fairclough looks at Critical Discourse Analysis “as a systemized way to inspect
the often opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices,
events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes”
(Fairclough, 1993, p. 135). Fairclough (1992) presented three different dimensions of discourse
such as “text, discursive practice and social practice” along with three inter-related processes
of analysis “(a) Text Analysis (b) Processing Analysis (c) Social analysis” (Fairclough, 1993;
Fairclough, 1995). Fairclough believes that through this organized way, we can examine the
object of analysis like verbal or visual text, the process by which humans produced the text
(Janks, 1997) like “production, distribution and consumptions” (Liu & Guo, 2016) and
historical conditions that influenced these processes. Fairclough’s model of CDA contains
three different stages:
Textual stage: The first stage of critical discourse analysis mainly focuses on the study of
linguistic choices of text such as vocabulary, metaphor, language type, sound system, cohesion,
and coherence (Fairclough, 1995b). It also elaborates the syntactical and grammatical
structures of discourse as well as visual details that are integrated into the structure of the
written text in accompanying semantic properties. Moreover, analysis is also concerned with
the inspection of the positioning of text and what is the manner of this representation along
with the examining process that what elements are present in the text and what are absent. In
addition to that, Fairclough (Fairclough, 1995) also argued that the analysis of the text at this
first stage also gives an idea to researcher about the “particular representation of text (whether
it carries any specific ideology or not), construction of reader's and writer’s (identities) and
level of relationship between participants (whether it is formal or informal, close or distant)”
(p. 58). Specifically, for this study, the researcher will focus on linguistics choices to determine
the ideological constructions and on spectacle elements that are used to represent factual and
misleading information.
Discursive practice: The analysis of the second stage is mainly concerned with the
examination of the processes that were involved in the discourse production. This level
conceives the text as social practice, so this shows that text can’t be produced without
contextual-based social activity. At this level, the intertextuality of text is also studied to get to
know why the text producer used the discursive resources to report the particular event and
what sort of genres began to produce in society after this production. Particularly, an analysis
of the collected memes at this stage will show how the discursive events in terms of memes
perceive the world, what kind of belief system they wanted to propagate in society and do the
memes predict the reality of Pakistani society?
Social practice: The final stage of the analysis is particularly exploring the historical,
social, cultural, and contextual conditions that were prevalent in the community when the text
was created (Fairclough, 1993). It also allows the researcher to study the impact of textual
language on the ideologies of society. Resultantly, the researcher gets to know to what extent
these types of texts are produced in society and how much the society is consuming this sort of
discursive event. Furthermore, the analysis of this level also determines what groups of society
are targeted in the discourse and who are excluded from the text. Lastly, it tells the analysts
whether these discursive resources would bring change in society or whether society will resist
it. As far as the analysis of this research is concerned, at this stage the analysts will specifically
determine the contextual situation of COVID-19 memes, and their impact on society and will
find the ways the memes have contributed to society.
5 Analysis
5.1 Meme 1
Level 1(Textual and visual analysis):
At the first level, it is indicated that the meme is written in the English and Urdu
languages. The meme shows three characters from the famous cartoon “Tom and Jerry”. The
character of the cat “Tom” basically symbolizes the education minister of Pakistan in 2020,
when COVID-19 was at its peak and the mice “Jerry’s cousins” symbolize students of
Pakistan. The setting of the meme is in a room where they are shaking hands which reveals
that some agreement is being sealed with the consent of parties secretly. There is a rhythmic
quote written in Urdu which is an imitation of the “Safeguard” cartoon theme song “Pak-Pak
Pakistan” and it is in black and white combination to the get audience’s immediate attention
towards it. Moreover, the meme is expressing the mindset of Pakistani students in 2020 as they
are happy with “No Exam Policy”.
Level 2 (Discursive practice or social domain):
We can interpret this text as a fact because all the students hate giving exams. Exam
season always brings anxiety, stress, and pressure on students. So, when COVID-19 hit the
world, for the first time Pakistani students experienced this promoting culture where no exams
were held, it gave students freedom and happiness with no exam pressure. This meme shows
that students enjoy this kind of experience and want to keep this culture going on instead of
thinking about the importance of exams and their impact on their education. This meme shows
the negative impact of COVID-19 on students and their academics.
Level 3 (Environmental domain)
Pakistani government tried its best to keep the spread of COVID-19 at a minimum and
for that reason they kept institutions closed and even had to promote students based on their
previous results. This policy shook the foundation of academics. Students are afraid of only
“exams” in their whole educational careers and when they were given a no exam policy, they
enjoyed their freedom and kept on protesting to give no exams at all. This type of thinking
reflects on students’ mindset that instead of being worried about their education, they were
happy and had fun. Exams help instructors to analyze a HATAO students’ educational abilities
YHN SE AND HATAO to see if they are worthy enough to move on with their education. In
the long term, this analysis helps the economy of a country as these graduates then use their
knowledge in different sectors for the betterment of their country. But the thinking process of
students was revealed more clearly in 2020, and it raised many questions that maybe it is
necessary to change some policies in academics to make students realize the importance of
education and exams.
5.2 Meme 2
Level 1 (Textual and visual analysis):
This meme only has text in the Urdu language. It used a famous proverb and molded it
to convey its message with a bit of humor. The color of the image in the background is black
while the text is white which makes the text pop out and immediately captures the focus of the
audience. The language is simple yet appealing. The tone used is rhythmic and the use of emojis
expresses the summary of the meme because the “mask emoji” represent COVID-19, the
“tissue emoji” represent sneezing and the “smiling emoji” represents the message of the meme.
The meme is a great example of intertextuality. The original proverb is used to stop
someone from getting trapped in the material world, and the need to make people realize that
everyone who is sneezing doesn’t have COVID-19, the meme combines both of them and
creates a new humorous text that is understood by masses easily. It conveys a positive message
by giving awareness and changing peoples’ perception about COVID-19. Natural reflexes like
coughing and sneezing should not only be associated with COVID-19 as they can happen
because of many other reasons.
Pakistani society began to shun and distance themselves from anyone who sneezed
around them because they thought he/she has COVID-19. This caused a lot of problems and
broke many fights among people. This mindset was based on a false perception of COVID-19
which affected many interactions within the community. Sneezing not only happens to people
infected with COVID-19 but it is a natural reflex and also people with different allergies
experience extreme sneezing, thus associating sneezing with one disease is a totally an absurd
idea. This meme conveyed this message in a very understandable and creative way that didn’t
offend anybody and impacts the audience to think about its message afterwards.
5.3 Meme 3
At the first level, it is indicated that the meme is written in the English language. The
meme shows that the Simpson is standing and giving a presentation. The character of Simpson
symbolizes awkward social interaction or a reaction to express embarrassment. Whiteboard is
also shown in the background setting which reveals that something important is being focused
on and discuss upon. The white board is also focused with light which symbolizes clarity and
knowledge. Moreover, the tone of the text seems to be confident and assertive which is
expressing the truth perceived by Pakistani society.
We can interpret this text as a fact because Chinese products do not usually last long
as Simpson is also giving general awareness to the people that coronavirus would not last long
because it was made in China. Also, it is a satire as she has backed up her theory by giving a
genuine example Of SARS to clarify the fact. She also wants to give stress-relieving therapy
to the viewers and is humorously relaxing them.
Pakistan and China have collaborated in various projects and enjoy friendly relationship
with each other. But it is a universal complaint of Pakistani people that Chinese products
usually do not last long. They are of low quality and consumers prefer to pay a low price. Due
to this mindset of people, this meme is portraying the fact perceived by Pakistani people. It can
also be political propaganda against China from India or another country so that they can get
revenge from China and people should Boycott Chinese products. In this way, it will harm the
Chinese government. In addition to that, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) also
originated in China and spread worldwide. It caused a lot of deaths. But now, it is no longer a
threat in the world as the last known case of SARS was in 2004.
5.4 Meme 4
The image comprises students and a teacher. It shows that after lockdown, a student is
asking a question from the teacher, “when will summer vacations start?” This question is
highlighted in red color which indicates it is as important part of the meme. Red color also
symbolizes determination and courage which manifests how daring the student is. The
language used in the meme is Urdu which is the national language of Pakistan. It is in a dialogue
form. Infrastructure i.e., rooftop, windows, etc. shows that it is a government school setting.
The teacher is shown as aggressive while the students are shown as laughing which also reveals
that it is a government school.
This meme is trying to show the reality after the impact of Covid-19. It is showing the
reaction of teacher and student in a humorous and contrasting way. As students and teachers
have become used to the online environment and are in their comfort zone. Due to this, the
students are acting non-serious and making fun of their teacher. Their goals have also ended
up. The aggressive behavior of the teacher also shows that lockdown has psychologically and
mentally disturbed him and he is not in the position of teaching students physically.
All of this shows how COVID-19 has negatively impacted the behavior of students and
teachers. The education system has been destroyed. School closures due to COVID-19 have
bought disruptions all across the world. It interrupted students learning and they were being
normalized by holidays. Now, they do not feel comfortable coming to school and attending
physical classes. Thus, all this reality is portrayed in the meme.
5.5 Meme 5
Analyzing the meme on the first level indicates that the meme points toward magic as
the medicine for coronavirus. The advertisement is created on the wall so that every passer-by
can see the ad. The language of the advertisement is appealing enough to attract the people.
Also, it has confidently stated that ‘baba’ will give an ultimate solution for the corona. Native
language is used so that it is understandable for all people. As Bengalis are very well known
for their magic, the name ‘Baba Asad Bengali’ depicts that, it is giving surety to the reader that
they are professional in their work and every prayer is accepted on their door.
This disbelief is the cultural part of most countries where religion is having its great
importance. Besides religion, such people use religion as a stair to develop this disbelief in the
minds of people by luring them by casting spells. They pretend that they have divine-like
powers and credulous people get allured by them. People in apprehension thought that their
chants will solve their problems. Likewise, the corona was the disease that has no cure, this
meme mocks the typical mindset of narrow-minded people who head toward spell-casters if
there is no solution and now such people will go to these false people.
It is a very traditional form of attracting people and looting people. It is an anti-scientific

and anti-religious belief, which is controlled by mafias and they usually entice illiterate people
to increase disbelief in religion and science and they become their permanent customers. It
usually attracts illiterate people because they believe in such delusions. Whenever an issue
arises, whose solution is not discovered or invented yet, these magic mafias started prevailing
in the countries, where the literacy rate is not very high. Like Pakistan, people believe more in
magic than in medicines. It is believed in backward areas that magics work more than anything.
Such people that the time of corona went straight to ‘babas’ so that they can be protected from
the disease.
5.6 Meme 6
The meme is a satirical image that shows the absurd mentality of people during corona.
The person is shown with a logical gesture and a smile on his face which indicates the reality
of people’s belief about the coronavirus. The conditional sentence is used which shows the
causal effect between testing and corona positive. In addition, the text is symmetrically written
so that the concept is easily understood.
The humorous and weird smile mocks the ridiculous mindset of people because they
are afraid of testing. They take testing as proof of corona positivity. Moreover, it also derides
the testing quality as the cases were reported which were tested positive from one place and
negative from another place. Also, it is creating hesitation from medical aids during corona,
because testing for corona is perceived as corona positive.
It tells that if you are testing for coronavirus, it simply means that, you are positive.
Because sometimes asymptomatic people tested positive for corona and symptomatic people
tested negative for corona. In our society, people tested for corona are treated as criminals, they
were caught like kidnapped and quarantined like confining an animal in a cage. Due to such
reasons, people did not want to be tested. Because if they are tested positive, they have to pass
through such a miserable process.
5.7 Meme 7
A comparison between the mentalities of developed and underdeveloped countries is

shown. The image is divided into four parts, three parts constitute developed countries while
one part shows an underdeveloped country. Other countries are testing in laboratories
Meanwhile in Pakistan, the vendors are advertising honeydew melon as the source of curing
corona. In the advertisement only ‘kharboza (melon)’ and the cost is written in a large font size
which shows that it is an infodemic and vendors are just associated with their money not the
cure of corona. Both English and Urdu languages are used to convey the message humorously.
It is a satire of literacy and illiteracy. The literate people search for the logic and go for
the solution while illiterate people are credulous about such things. Moreover, it is mocking
Pakistani society that whatever the situation is, the vendors are in search of how they can use
this time to earn a lot of money and they use advertisements as the source of earning money.
Further, the thought that Pakistan relies on other countries for the vaccine is also satirically
depicted. When people in other countries are finding the cure for corona, people in Pakistan
are doing nothing.
It shows the belief system of Pakistan vs other countries. In Pakistan, people go more
towards home remedies while other countries believe in science and logic. People do not go
into the logic of these things but rely on norms and traditional sayings passed on from one
generation to another. Vendors in Pakistan take advantage of the illiteracy of people and their
caged mentalities. For them, every situation is a business, as people go towards herbal remedies
more than medical cures. So that they tempt the people through such advertisements. Moreover,
from previous experiences, it is deducted that Pakistan is not inventing its vaccine but waiting
for the developed countries to aid Pakistan.
5.8 Meme 8
The meme is shown the reality vs an expectation of working from home. The humorous
side of covid -19 is portrayed. Two settings are shown, one is from home and the other is from
work. The images focused on professionalism in the office while working from home are
unessentially comfortable and diverting. They are serious and concentrated while working from
the office but they are nonserious and less concentrated while working from home. The
difference is also there in the dressing. In the office, they are wearing shirts and tie whereas,
they are wearing undervest, shorts, or t-shirts while working from home. The level of
concentration is questioned because at home they are also engaged in other activities.
Moreover, simple language is used by just mentioning keywords. The black background is used
to highlight the text and images.
The comparison between reality and expectation is the portrayal of our society in covid.
Moreover, because of the distractions, less quality work is produced. There is no focus on work.
Other interpretation suggests that this meme is creating an impact that Pakistani people are
slackers. Moreover, it is the difference between the behavior when the camera is on and when
the camera is off. When there is no observation, people work in their comfort zone.
The interpretation illustrates the scene of working from home in Pakistan. It was not only
the case for office people but also for students, who are taking online classes. Things were
changed in covid. Previously, people woke up early to get ready for work but in covid, they
just get up on time and open their laptops and start working, sometimes they pay attention to
work or study and sometimes do not. It also made people idle and that has an impact on the
quality of work and study. Technology while providing ease also challenges us with its
limitations, due to these reasons people are also inattentive and distracted while doing their
work.
6 Discussion
The research has deducted that, the memes are the social commentary of Pakistani society
in Covid-19 times. The linguistics elements are a great source of consumption of memes and
they have increased the understanding of the memes. Moreover, the visual elements helped a
lot to make the meme more understandable. It shows that the memers have great knowledge of
Pakistani culture and traditions therefore, they have made such relatable memes. The research
has addressed the purpose of the analysis of the memes. The study has answered the research
questions that corona memes are the social commentary of Pakistani society and it has played
an important role in conveying infodemic and misperceptions. Also, it is reshaping the minds
of people about the vaccine and to find the alternatives to cure corona. Unexpectedly, the results
have found that the memers have the biased perception of mindset of the Pakistani people that
can promote the negative image of Pakistani society.
Our study analyzes the memes from different perspective as compared to the studies
mentioned in Literature Review. Chandler saw ideological components (Chandler, 2013) and ,
a meme sentence was analysed by (Palupi, 2018). (Hassanah,2018), analysed memes from Van
Leeuwen theory. Hayat analyzed a Facebook page to see ideological components (Hayat et al.,
2021) while Shahid saw the norms and regulations of Pakistani society (Amna Shahid, 2021).
The problem encountered during the research was in reviewing the literature because the
language of the research articles of Ph.Ds. or professors were difficult to understand. To
overcome this problem, it is recommended that the task of reviewing literature should be given
to an efficient reader and the solo researcher should give two to three times reading to have the
better understanding what the researcher wants to say.
This research analyzes the way Facebook memes portray reality and misinformation in the
disguise of humor, which creates positive and negative perceptions about COVID-19. This
study is limited to one social networking site, “Facebook”, and does not focus on the other
broad aspects, websites, and platforms of social media.
Therefore, the researchers might use other social media platforms and other topics of real
life to analyze their society. They can also apply visual theory or merge the theories of
Sociolinguistics. This study paves the way for the future researchers to analyze the memes
from theories other than Critical Discourse Analysis like Social Discourse Analysis.
7 Conclusion
During the tough and restrictive period of Covid-19, memes came as a rescue to public’s
mental and social health. However, CDA carried on Facebook memes in this research shows
that the memes have imposed broader perceptions and ideologies on people of Pakistan.
Analyzing memes not only as text, but also as discourse and social practices establishes the
notion that regular people took initiative for changing public discourse. As a stylistic and
semantic tool, meme creators used implicit meanings, comparative, and satirical language
styles, visual, and written graphics. The major themes in memes such as education, mask
wearing, violations of social (physical) distancing, lockdown, and online education possess
ability of changing people’s perception by blurring reality as some of the memes generalized
and even misrepresented the ideas. Thus, memes generally taken as a source of fun and
amusement can affect the reader’s mind differently. They can blur the line between reality and
misinformation by blending factual and opinion-based information. Keeping in view the fact
that memes are capable of propagating a narrative creating a gap of information, hoax, which
needs to be filled using proper channels of communication by volunteers, government and other
authorities.
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FATIMA JINNAH WOMEN UNIVERSITY RAWALPINDI

CORONA MEMES AS THE SOCIAL COMMENTARY IN COVID-19: A QUALITATIVE

A FINAL PROJECT SUBMITTED TO

2nd July 2022

Corona Memes as the social Commentary in Covid-19: A qualitative Analysis through

Authors and their work contribution

Keywords: COVID-19, Facebook memes, Fairclough’s approach, reality, social

5 A meme is defined as “a unit of cultural information conveyed by mimic” (Rogers,

6 According to Shifman (Shifman, 2012), common elements of memes include their

In Fairclough’s (Fairclough, 1995) perception, discourse is characterized as action and has

1. Discourse influences, convinces, or contradicts.

2. Discourse is something that is consciously and deliberately expressed.

Hence, discourse is a type of social interaction (Wijaya, 2021).

But as an overabundance of everything is undesirable, there is a lot of controversy about

1.2 Research Questions:

Level 1(Textual and visual analysis):

Level 2 (Discursive practice or social domain):

Level 3 (Environmental domain)

Level 1 (Textual and visual analysis):

Level 2 (Discursive practice or social domain):

Level 3 (Environmental domain)

Level 1(Textual and visual analysis):

Level 2 (Discursive practice or social domain):

Level 3 (Environmental domain)

Level 1(Textual and visual analysis):

Level 2 (Discursive practice or social domain):

Level 3 (Environmental domain)

Level 1 (Textual and visual analysis):

Level 2 (Discursive practice or social domain):

Level 3 (Environmental domain)

It is a very traditional form of attracting people and looting people. It is an anti-scientific

Level 1 (Textual and visual analysis):

Level 2 (Discursive practice or social domain):

Level 3 (Environmental domain)

Level 1 (Textual and visual analysis):

A comparison between the mentalities of developed and underdeveloped countries is

Level 2 (Discursive practice or social domain):

Level 3 (Environmental domain)

Level 1 (Textual and visual analysis):

Level 2 (Discursive practice or social domain):

Level 3 (Environmental domain)

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