Internet Humor And The Normalization Of Stereotypes In The Arab Digital Landscape
Keywords:
Humor, stereotypes, social media, the Arab landscapeAbstract
This study investigates how humor on Arab social media contributes to the construction and normalization of stereotypes. Focusing on memes, jokes, and short videos circulating on Instagram, and Facebook, the research explores how people are represented in humorous digital discourse and aims to decode the different types of stereotypes circulating online. The study is grounded in three interrelated theoretical frameworks: social semiotics (Hodge & Kress, 1988), which interprets how visual and verbal signs create meaning within cultural contexts; multimodal discourse analysis (Kress & Leeuwen, 2006), which examines how multiple semiotic modes—text, image, and sound—work together to shape representations; and critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1995), which exposes the ideological dimensions of humor and its role in sustaining or contesting power relations. By integrating these frameworks, the study analyzes the interplay between linguistic, visual, and auditory signs in humorous content. Findings reveal that social media humor frequently exacerbates and normalizes prejudice, confirming that these platforms perpetuate a wide range of stereotypes.
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