POLITICAL MEMES AND PERCEPTION: THE INFLUENCE OF HUMOR IN POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH ORGANIZATION LEADERS IN GENERAL SANTOS CITY

This study looked at how humorous signifiers in political internet memes critique prevailing political views that appear natural and normal in current Philippine culture. The memes' humor is mostly hostile, as it mocks and satirizes representatives of power, the political elite, for their unpleasant attributes and activities that contradict with or violate the current administration's righteous and moralistic platform.

The purpose of this study is to assess how effective political memes are as a form of political participation among youth organization leaders in General Santos City and to determine the types of internet political meme users are they, what are the type of political activities for which internet political memes are used, and how these internet memes influence the political participation of the youth, who are the most active users of digital platforms.

On the other hand, the locale of the study is within General Santos City. The informants of the study were chosen under the list of Youth Affairs and Development Office registered organizations while the Youth Organization Leaders of the mentioned locale are the respondents. The respondents were chosen through the sampling method of purposive sampling where researchers rely on their own judgement in choosing the members of the population for data gathering. This study included ten (10) youth organization where two (2) youth officials in each organization in any urban barangays in General Santos City who are millennials, internet, and meme user are the main respondents for the paper.

Meanwhile, the researchers utilized the data gathering procedure namely: archival method and key informant interview (KII) to extract information relevant for the study.

Furthermost, the paper showed how the youth organization leaders in General Santos City use social media platforms for political activities, such as encouraging community members to engage or take action on critical political topics, shaping public opinion, and expressing their political opinions on current societal concerns. And that internet political memes had an impact on youth leaders political and civic activity.