https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481319835639 Discourse & Communication 1–17 © The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1750481319835639 journals.sagepub.com/home/dcm Weaponized iconoclasm in Internet memes featuring the expression ‘Fake News’ Christopher A Smith School of Linguistics and Language Studies,Carleton University, Canada Abstract The expression ‘Fake News’ inside Internet memes engenders significant online virulence, possibly heralding an iconoclastic emergence of weaponized propaganda for assaulting agencies reared on public trust. Internet memes are multimodal artifacts featuring ideological singularities designed for ‘flash’ consumption, often composed by numerous voices echoing popular, online culture. This study proposes that ‘Fake News’ Internet memes are weaponized iconoclastic multimodal propaganda (WIMP) discourse and attempts to delineate them as such by asking: What power relations and ideologies do Internet memes featuring the expression ‘fake news’ harbor? How might those manifestations qualify as WIMP discourse? A multimodal critical discourse analysis of a small pool of ‘fake news’ Internet memes drawn from four popular social media websites revealed what agencies were often targeted and from what political canons they likely emerged. Findings indicate that many Internet memes featuring ‘fake news’ are specifically directed, revealing an underlying hazard that WIMP discourse could diminish democratic processes while influencing online trajectories of public discourse. Keywords Fake News, Internet memes, multimodal critical discourse analysis, propaganda, weaponized discourse Introduction This study examines Internet memes featuring the expression ‘fake news’. Using Machin and Mayr’s (2012) multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), atten- tion is given to analyzing the power relations and ideologies in ‘fake news’ Internet Corresponding author: Christopher A Smith, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Paterson Building 236, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6 ,Canada. Email: Christophersmith5@cmail.carleton.ca 835639DCM 0 0 10.1177/1750481319835639Discourse & CommunicationSmith research-article 2019 Article