Memes futebolísticos: interações sociais em um grupo de Whatsapp

Abstract

The objective of this research was to understand the processes and dynamics resulting from social interactions mediated on the social network WhatsApp in the face of cultural representations emanating from football memes in a WhatsApp group. It is an online field research, in the qualitative line, with a sociocultural approach with a netnographic basis. Data collection took place between April and July 2021, using participant observation as a technique, and semi-structured interviews, carried out synchronously online, using data saturation as the cutoff point. The logbook was used to record the data, which were analyzed using analytical coding techniques, hermeneutic interpretation and visual design grammar. 694 memes were analyzed resulting in seven categories, namely: Football and clubs, Football and politics, Football and Covid-19, Football and reality show, Football and death, Football and violence, and Football and homosexuality. The conclusions indicate that the memes establish a new communicative form and propose meanings to football, and in the group they emphasized, in addition to the humorous aspect, the patterns of “male homosociability”, “gender playfulness”, “political satire” and “football violence”.