Memes, commonly known as "mim," are a phenomenon that frequently
appears or spreads on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
and various other social media. Memes related to elections or presidential elections
have become one of the subjects or phenomena that trigger the emergence of such
memes. This study aims to determine the types of memes that circulated during the
2019 presidential election and to understand the perception of FKIP UMP students
regarding the phenomenon of election memes on social media. This research was
conducted using descriptive qualitative methods with the data in the form of words
and presented the results descriptively in words. Primary data were obtained by
distributing questionnaires to FKIP UMP students and conducting interviews with
25 FKIP UMP students, while secondary data were collected from previous
research studies.
The results of this study reveal that memes that emerged and were uploaded
during the 2019 presidential election can be categorized as mocking personal lives,
political purposes, and entertainment memes. It was found that the perception of
FKIP UMP students can be divided into three categories: 67% very positive, 23%
positive, and 10% negative, in interpreting the 2019 election memes. Other
responses showed a positive or supportive perspective, stating that memes could
serve a purpose and bring about change, while negative perceptions indicated that
memes were merely for entertainment.