Memes as dialogic action

The present study re-evaluates internet memes as structured dialogic actions. Based on Weigand’s Mixed Game Model (MGM), it analyses a corpus of memes generated in response to a specific political episode involving the Romanian President in January 2026. Through the analytical lens of initiative and reactive acts, communicative games and subgames, and expectation structures, the study demonstrates how memes respond to prior discourse, exploit communicative silence, and perform evaluative claims within ongoing dialogic exchanges. The analysis indicates that memes function as second-order dialogue: simultaneously reacting to political discourse and generating new communicative interactions within the public sphere.