Anonymised Thematic Codebook: Internet Memes as a Defensive Communication Strategy in High-Threat Environments

This dataset contains the anonymised thematic coding framework developed for the qualitative longitudinal study "Internet Memes as a Defensive Communication Strategy in High-Threat Environments: A Qualitative Study of Ukrainian Media Students". Due to the high-threat environment of the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine and the sensitive nature of the participants' psychological coping mechanisms, full raw conversational transcripts of the focus groups and interviews are withheld. This ensures absolute participant anonymity and complies with strict ethical research protocols for conflict zones. To satisfy Open Science and FAIR data principles ("as open as possible, as closed as necessary"), this Codebook provides the core dataset used for discourse analysis. It maps the qualitative transition of Ukrainian media students from passive media consumers to active Militant Agents who utilise digital folklore for psychological preservation and epistemic resistance. Dataset structure (data dictionary) The dataset is structured chronologically and conceptually, demonstrating the diachronic shift in audience coping mechanisms that leads to resilience. It contains the following columns: StageThe chronological phase of the longitudinal study (e.g., Stage 1 (2023) representing initial cross-cultural articulation, and Stage 2 (2024-2025) representing internal psychological preservation). Data source/ContextThe specific qualitative collection event (e.g., Cross-cultural seminars, Focus groups in high-threat contexts, Pilot interviews in low-threat contexts). Theoretical categoryThe macro-level theoretical framework groups the codes. The categories trace a clear trajectory: Vernacular Interpretive FrameworkThe cultural and cognitive baseline required to decode local digital folklore. Defensive Communication Strategy (DCS) The active, grassroots infrastructure of cognitive defence. The Irony Gap The friction that occurs when highly contextualised humour is exported to external audiences or processed by decontextualised AI algorithms. Digital DisenchantmentThe passive, detached media consumption is typical of stable, low-threat environments (used as a control baseline). Thematic code The specific analytical code assigned to the discourse (e.g., Digital Shibboleths, Affective Filtering, Cognitive Firewall, Epistemic Vigilance, Algorithmic Obscurantism). Quote (English) The translated, depersonalised illustrative quote used in the primary manuscript. Quote (original) The exact phrasing in the original language (Ukrainian) to facilitate independent linguistic and semiotic analysis by secondary researchers. Quotes originally spoken in English are marked accordingly. Methodological note This dataset challenges traditional top-down media literacy models by highlighting concepts of Situated Cognition and Affective Hygiene. The inclusion of original Ukrainian quotes preserves the "vernacular" nuances (slang, specific syntactical structures) that are inevitably smoothed over in English translation, making it a valuable resource for digital anthropologists and discourse analysts studying wartime media practices.