Memes have now become an integral part of media content. Newsrooms create their own humorous images and publish the most popular ones. Memes have also become the “heroes” of publications and an important decoration of journalistic materials. Memes are mostly informative images, often humorous, that convey news and facts in a funny, original and interesting way. Such images often become viral and attract attention. During the war, we have seen a large number of humorous images appear in journalistic materials, on media pages in social networks and messengers. The increase in memes in publications and on media pages is due to the fact that the audience likes humorous and original content in the form of images. It also draws attention to publications and successfully conveys the news and topic of the journalistic material. In addition to their entertainment and informative functions in the media, memes also help to cope with emotions, anxiety and worries. They penetrate people’s minds unnoticed and remove certain barriers. During the war, memes have the following functions: informational, psychological and practical. The informational function is to inform about the news, the psychological function is to help people cope with their feelings, and the practical function is to call on the audience to take certain actions (for example, to help the Ukrainian armed forces) using humorous images. Memes are also an effective tool for information warfare and the fight against Russian propaganda. Memes are based on humour, which softens the experience of problems or even relieves anxiety. The memes published by the media during the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022 have specific objectives: to make fun of the enemy, thus making him funny, clumsy, not so scary, and weak enough. And the soldiers who defend their land are glorified by memes, portrayed as stronger. And such humiliation of the enemy neutralises fear.
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