From War to Meme: Lego-Style Animation, Toy-Like Propaganda, and Meme-Based Affective Warfare in Instagram Conflict Narratives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17977/um087v3i22026p67-81Keywords:
digital propaganda, Instagram, Lego-style animation, meme-based affective warfare, toy-like propaganda, visual political communicationAbstract
This study examines Lego-style political animation circulated by Explosive Media on Instagram as toy-like propaganda and meme-based affective warfare. Using an interpretive qualitative design, it analyzes selected Instagram videos through moving images, sound, captions, hashtags, engagement indicators, top-ranked comments, and publicly available creator interview materials. The findings identify five overlapping mechanisms: enemy humiliation, geopolitical gamification, sacred and civilizational memory, humanitarian grief linked to retaliatory legitimacy, and alternative-news credibility claims. The study argues that Lego-style animation does not merely simplify conflict; it miniaturizes violence, distances it from graphic realism, compresses ideology into repeatable signs, and supports platform circulation. Toy-like propaganda names this visual-rhetorical form, while meme-based affective warfare describes how humor, music, grief, sacred memory, credibility claims, and visible commenter participation make conflict narratives emotionally engaging, repeatable, and contestable.
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