SAMPLE STUDY: Pope Memes on the Catholic Church & Sexual Abuse Scandal

In order to help model how to formulate a research study one memes I (Dr. Heidi Campbell) will be blogging over the next few weeks about a sample research study I am conducting on Pope Internet Memes. This case study is focused on discussion of the  Catholic Church  and the current sexual abuse allegations centering on the report released recently in Pennsylvania. Based on this I offer the following as an example of expanding on your research proposal with the template I have provided.

My research explores the theme of religion related to how Internet memes frame religious institutions in the midst of controversial situations.

This will be done by exploring how Pope Francis and the Catholic Church are being framed online through memes commenting on events related to the release of reports om the Child Sexual Abuse Controversy in the Catholic Church in 2018.

My proposed research question is: What messages and assumptions do Internet Memes communicate about religious institutions, specifically the Catholic Church, when featuring reactions to controversial events such as the Child Sexual Abuse Cover-up in the Church?

In order to answer this question, I will study 10 Internet memes related to how Pope Francis, as a representative and icon of the Catholic Church, is portrayed in relation to public responses to recent reports of child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania Diocese.

Memes will be selected on the basis of the following criteria: include an image of Pope Francis, appearing online in last 12 months, text reference most recent abuse controversy, and church's role or responsibility in these events.

The following 3 Internet memes provide examples of the types of memes I will be collecting and analyzing.  All three feature images of Pope Francis and commentary related to recent allegations about the Church's responses to the child sexual abuse scandal and have appearing online on different blogs in the last 6 months.  Each also highlight different narratives that seem to be promoted in this memetic discourse.

The first meme draws on a image of  Pope Francis which according to Knowyourmeme.com has become a stock character images associated with the current pope. It highlights Pope's supposed ignorance and lack of response to the current controversy.

The second meme uses an AP image of the Pope to challenge the Pope's pastoral response to Catholic clergy by evoking a theological narrative of mercy often used by the Pope to challenge his own action in the scandal.

The third meme uses a third image of the Pope remixed wearing meme stock character "scumbag Steve's" hat.  Scumbag Steve is used to highlight the clueless-ness and stupidity of the character. So this mash-up could be seen to communicate that the Pope's response to the scandal is ignorant and shows him to be contradictory, seemingly challenging his intelligence and handling of the situation.

All three of these memes highlight different critiques about the Church and the Pope, their authority and handling of the situation, which will be explored in more detail in my study.