ABSTRACT This paper explores how and why digital content is shared and moved into circulation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It describes how visual genres such as print cartoons and popular painting now overlap with digital viral videos and memes and highlights the potential for postcolonial political critique offered by online content. The findings suggest that the circulating economy of images sometimes represents a threat to structural power, but also to people themselves, since open channels of communication invite unsolicited content that is considered to be potentially contaminating. This discussion of online practices is informed by the spiritual cosmologies and local conceptions of virality gleaned from extensive in-person interviews. Specifically, this paper addresses some of the biological metaphors people evoke to express their perceived vulnerability or exposure to visual online content.

中文翻译：

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传染性图像：刚果民主共和国的病毒式互联网内容

摘要本文探讨了如何以及为何在刚果民主共和国共享数字内容并使其流通。它描述了印刷卡通和流行绘画等视觉类型现在如何与数字病毒视频和模因重叠，并强调了在线内容提供的后殖民政治评论的潜力。研究结果表明，图像的循环经济有时对结构能力构成威胁，但也对人自身构成威胁，因为开放的交流渠道会邀请未经请求的内容，这些内容可能被污染。通过广泛的面对面访谈收集到的精神宇宙论和有关病毒性的当地观念，对在线实践进行了讨论。特别，