Hello everyone!

When I began my research for my paper I thought “Okay, great! I have a topic on Memes, I am going to work hard, conduct research, and write an exceptional research paper.” Very soon I started to dig more, select sources and eventually, I started my paper. As I wrote the first three pages I stopped to reflect on my work, and it was a big “No” answer that came through my mind.  I just knew that all that I had worked on until that moment was not going to be the best version of my work. It took only a conference with Professor Davidson to help narrow down my topic from “The toxic use of memes” into a specific matter and issue which to be honest I wasn’t informed much about it. I thought this was a very important moment for me as a graduate student to write a research paper that is going to serve as a valuable and informative material to my audience on understanding not only the value that memes have in society but also the propaganda that hides behind the use of memes. My research paper’s main focus is how the White Nationalists use Internet Memes to spread conspiracy theories and recruit young teenagers into extremist acts and movements.

As I was organizing the material and breaking down the main points, I wanted to include on my paper I felt as if I knew exactly what I wanted to write. And then there were moments where all of a sudden, I didn’t know if I’m writing what is expected of me. I would then cut down the writing, watch a video, read an article, read another one, another one, and more and more…until I reassured that I got educated and informed myself enough on this topic. I was enthusiastic to write a paper where I give my audience an answer to all their questions on this topic and I hope I did!

Reading into Richard Dawkins’s text, The Selfish Gene, which was published in 1976, I was able to apply and connect his framework with the use of memes in today’s world. Dawkins considered “memes acting as a unit of cultural transmission” to explain how cultural information spreads. (Dawkins 249) Given the fact that memes have become one of the most popular communication mediums for public and collective discussion in all social media platforms it was easy to relate Dawkins’s concept of “cultural transmission” with the way how memes spread among the members of culture to inform and influencing people around specific interests, ideologies, political views, and conspirative theories.

An important section of my paper was finding out how memes are used for propaganda and spread negativity. As a digital user, I have always shared memes with my friends that were “pure funny memes” to communicate something we encounter in our everyday lives. Never, have I ever thought that memes can be used for other purposes let alone to think that people can actually use memes to colorblind people and persuade them into ideological beliefs that turn out to be very harmful to society. I found more information on the 4chan forum, which is an online group where users can post anonymously and controversial topics. Although I had heard about this group before, I didn’t know that it was really known to the public and considered one of the main websites associated with white nationalism that promotes racism and extremist views. As I was researching more it became clear to me that members of these groups use memes as a vehicle for their rhetoric and its “humor” as an instrument to blur the “true messages” in memes. Their goal behind the coded racialized language in memes was to draw young adults into racist cultural production, movements, and the spread of conspirative theories. To support all these claims, I analyzed very closely the case of the QAnon rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUKEWl5TIr8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isucCrzOh3M&t=67s

Like many of you, I had no idea that the QAnon conspiracy theory all began through online anonymous posts on 4chan groups and by spreading memes online to recruit more people into their ideology. At first, they claimed they were part of the government with access to important information and later they declared that America was governed by a ” secret group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles” (Roose) and that only Trump can restore justice for our country. QAnon believers used memes that spread widely to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and all social media and in a short period, reached almost every online user from where they recruited more than 55 million people who believed and supported the QAnon conspiracy theory. When Trump lost the 2020 Presidential Election, his movement very soon escalated into a movement associated with crime and violence when the members turned what was supposed to be a pro-Trump protest into a terror and violent attack on the Washington Capitol where 10 people died and over 140 people were injured. The hardest part of my research paper was to analyze cases like Jacob Chansley who I bet you know. When you think about Capitol attack most probably your mind goes to the bare-chested men in a fur headdress with horns. Well, that is Chansley who referred to himself as QAnon Shaman.

I had a very hard time believing how a person like Chansley who studied religion, philosophy, and psychology and worked in a home to help troubled youths was prey of the online recruitment by white nationalists. While he has stated for a newspaper, that he regrets so much for participating in the QAnon movement he is still serving his time in jail after being charged with two felonies and sentenced to three and a half years of jail. In addition, I analyzed the “alt-right” movement, their online activism, and massive organization in social media. Specifically, I focused on providing examples that show how the alt-right members used memes as a strategy to recruit other young members into their propaganda and organize massive protests. While I loved the fact that I am gaining so much knowledge and providing rich information for the readers of my paper I also have to admit that it was very challenging to provide proof and develop my analysis with examples. So, I began to dig around in social media myself and found examples that I never heard about before. When I identified their main information, it turned out that there were research articles written about them and they were not as unknown as I thought. However, not knowing anything about them myself made me realize how dangerous the online space is for our society. One of the cases I analyzed was of the far-right extremist group known as the Proud Boys. Although the founder of this group declares that the members are just some “funny dudes” who spread funny memes and messages on social media the sources declare that 25 members of this group hold charges related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The clearest example that I analyzed of propaganda and manipulation with memes that reached to recruit a considerable number of people into their movement is the “Boogaloo” movement which began with texts behind memes as a joke calling for violence.  In 2020 members of this movement who through memes were spreading racism, misogyny, hate, and violence were charged with terrorism offenses, and a “plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer” (Thomas).

The most recent meme that I spotted while I was digging on social media is that of Kanye. Although we all know Kanye as an artist, I had no idea that his image was used on memes by white nationalists to recruit college kids. It all began in 2022 when Kanye spread Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in his appearances on media. His declarations came into use by the white nationalist Nick Fuentes and his army of Gen Z trolls, known as “groypers,” who turned “Ye” formerly known as ‘Kanye West” into a meme to spread hateful views into the mainstream and college campuses. Kanye’s presidential campaign, #Ye2024 has helped to create a new network “Students for Ye,” which is used by Fuentes and “groypers” to persuade and recruit young college students into their radical movement. Groypers, also led the campaign “#YeIsRight” which spread a lot on college campuses and “appeared in a student organization fair at a Florida university” (Owen). If you just search #YE24 on Instagram your results will show racist videos, Anti-Semitic cartoons, and Fuentes and groyper’s logo “America First.” If you dig deeper, you are going to spot some bizarre far-right where Kanye was present like the one where he was wearing an executioner’s hood and where he admitted his love for Hitler.

The last portion of my paper examines the case of Pepe the Frog. I analyzed how the peaceful, fun frog cartoon slowly migrated into dark and racist iterations when alt-rights and 4-chan members began changing the usual mainstream of Pepe memes by adding offensive pictures and associating Pepe with mean and obnoxious messages. I also dived more into how Pepe’s image became the main meme symbol used for political purposes mostly by Trump which soon changed Pepe the Frog into “Trump Pepes” gaining tremendous popularity on social media and forums.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall researching this topic for my paper helped me to gain more expertise and knowledge on a deeper level about memes, their value, and their use in society. Like everyone in our class, I put a lot of thought, effort, and time into conducting my research and writing a well-developed and supported research paper. While this paper was challenging sometimes it was also fun to gain so much information on such an important topic. I am happy to share my newfound knowledge with all of you. I hope you all enjoyed my project and if you would like to read the final version of my research paper please email me at hasllani-avdiu@stonybrook.edu. I would be more than happy to engage in discussion and hear your opinions about this topic.

 

 

 

In “Cyborg Manifesto” Donna Haraway, addresses the future of feminism, and the differences in gender norms and she refers to the cyborg as the “leader” that will take over a new world. Haraway refers to a “cyborg” as a hybrid of humans and machines that are inserted together into one organism.

According to Haraway, cyborgs are found everywhere even “us”- humans can be considered cyborgs because as she states, we “are fabricated hybrids of machine and organism.” (Haraway 150). She then states that there are three essential “boundary breakdowns” that enable the analysis of the political-scientific aspect of cyborgs. The first boundary that Haraway draws attention to is the one between humans and animals which was broken because humans especially feminist cultures argued and initiated movements against the “separation of human and animal” and affirmed the “pleasure of connection of human and other living creatures” which confirm a deep bond between the nature and culture (150). The second distinction that Haraway addresses is the one between machines and animals (animal-human). As the author notes the machine was always a “ghost” in humans’ lives. However, with the Industrial Revolution period human life became mechanized because people started to lean their dependence on machinery, and although their creation shows humans skills and capability on creation Haraway admits that it is impossible to separate machines from being a human. This actually, makes me think about human life’s dream of creating robots even if that started by creating humans made out of metals or clay there were always the intentions of hybridization machines with organisms. The third distinction that Haraway highlights is the impreciseness and blurriness of understanding the boundary between the “physical and non-physical.” As she gives some examples of machines that are microscopic in size but that have a big importance in human lives or examples of software and silicone chips that are inserted and control all of life’s domains it makes me think about the difficulty of the division of machines and humans. What is the limit of technology and machines in humans’ lives? Is there a clear beginning or ending between the two?

Haraway uses the advent of cybernetics as a path that challenges “sexual differences” and she clearly shows her rejection of “male-dominant capitalism.”(Haraway 153)However, considering that a cyborg is a hybrid between the “machine and organism,” the nature and culture mesh together into one body and as a result, there could be specific roles meant to be performed by each of the two sexes but that stands only on the “biological differences” not gender superiority. Haraway uses the advent of cybernetics as a path that challenges “sexual differences” and she clearly shows her rejection of “male-dominant capitalism.”(Haraway 153)However, considering that a cyborg is a hybrid between the “machine and organism,” the nature and culture are meshed together into one body and as a result, there could be specific roles meant to be performed by each of the two sexes but that stands only on the “biological differences” not gender differences or superiority. Haraway considers feminism the center of cybernetics, and according to her for ages and ages females were always considered submissive, emotional, and weak “nature” and that they have in them the “nature” of being mothers or wives so since it is grounded in their “nature” and it’s permanent. Haraway calls for feminism to “fight” for changes that technology can bring, confront patriarchy, and refuse to accept gender distinctions because it is technology that can help to erase these boundaries. Haraway’s text is so relevant in modern times all around the world. Females are using technology and social media to engage in democracy and fight for gender equality, especially women who live in conflict areas of the world who are using technology to fight for their basic rights. Moreover, with the rise of smartphones and access to the internet technology is bringing women’s voices around the world in all aspects and every possible field which means that they are not doing only what the world sees as “natural” being a mom or wife. Feminism and technology have gone as far as creating female robots like the famous ones: Sofia and Erica. Sofia is one of the main female robots that promoted the process of artificial intelligence development. Erica on the other side is an advanced android that understands the “natural” language, responds with almost a human-like voice, and is able to show facial expressions.

Likewise, Trevor Scott highlights the idea that cyber feminists use virtual technology to “empower themselves by expressing their identities as females.” As a result, women’s increase in access to virtual technology promotes greater gender equality. Moreover, Scott considers “acute” the girls and young women’s desire to fight and challenge the constrained “gender stereotypes in virtual spaces.” Nowadays I find virtual technology as a space that offers power for females who are excluded from social and cultural participation. However, we have to think that technology runs differently in the world and the use of technology can be very challenging and limited for females around the world. According to Scott patriarchal control embraces the virtual technology quite often and replications are mostly done online. In such cases, I think about counties where the internet is still very limited but also about females whose job is mainly being a wife, and mom and are completely restricted from literacy instructions and unfamiliarity with basic technology let alone advanced technology.

To DO, or NOT to DO? That is the question.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is totally changing our society in every aspect. Teachers and schools have mixed feelings about the incorporation of AI in the learning process. According to the Learning Network article “Some school districts have already banned this new technology; others are attempting to teach students how to use it responsibly.” As a teacher, I have my concerns, but I am for using ChatGPT or other similar AI programs in a classroom rather than forbidding them. I accept the idea that the time we live in is an era of open technology and if used wisely AI programs can be beneficial for everyone, especially in helping students to improve their work efficiency.

The Learning Network article states two questions at the beginning, which have been a hot topic in every school since November 2022: “Is this new chatbot the end of education as we know it? Or a useful new tool for learning?” It is simple. The use of AI in classrooms is not going to destroy the traditional, human-to-human bond and what others consider a “meaningful connection” between teachers and students and neither it will not reduce students’ learning effectiveness if it is used correctly. Artificial Intelligence is not going to replace teachers or humans. It is all about the choices one decides to make. Most of the teachers reject the use of AI relying on the fact that the use of such programs is just additional tools for students to plagiarize on assignments. Now let’s be honest. In almost every school (not to say every classroom) there is a student who will probably always try using Google to copy material out of educational websites and present it as their work. However, there is a greater number of students who actually want to learn and want to move on by using the new technology programs for their work. So, as teachers, we cannot assume that AI will suddenly replace us and that every student will simply use it to cheat.

The majority of teachers did not even have the chance to be trained in these programs in order to find out the positive aspects of using AI in the classroom. Being against and trying to drive students away from such problems has influenced a lot of students to think that ChatGPT should not be considered a learning tool. Kaden a High School student states for the Learning Network that ChatGPT is a powerful tool and its use in schools is extremely useful “if it’s used productively”  but he does not leave out the possibility that students might choose to show unethical behavior and abuse with it by cheating or coping whatever information the AI is providing to complete the homework. However Jonathan a High School student as well considers AI “dangerous for motivation and knowledge.” According to Jonathan writing can be way much better by the AI programs so students can question themselves what’s the point of writing when a bot does it better?” The same opinion with Jonathan shares Sergio, also a high schooler considers AI a bad learning tool because “students can become underdeveloped in their literacy skills — writing stories or essays.” However, I disagree with these statements because the use of AI and other programs has shown results in improving students’ reading and writing skills.

 

 

Using AI, a teacher can identify what areas students are having trouble, what are their strong reading or writing and which skills they need to work more on. Moreover, AI enables teachers to record each student’s unique needs and monitor their progress slowly as the school year goes on until the students have advanced and mastered the skills, they were lacking knowledge on. For instance, I am working with 5th and 6th graders this year and the school district uses a program for math and reading known as iReady which uses AI. At the beginning of the school year students take a placement test then with the help of Artificial Intelligence, iReady creates individualized learning plans for each student based on each student’s skills. AI helps the program to create personalized practice problems in math and reading based on their needs and creates pathways for each student to slowly strengthen their needs and accomplish the academic goal for the current school year. I personally, love seeing how much students have progressed since September nu using this program every day. This program is also very loved by students because all the lessons are fun and interactive and the students are engaged while developing their critical thinking skills and help students to become analytical readers.

As a teacher, I consider AI a tool that will boost students’ self-efficacy by assisting with their learning. As long as teachers learn how to incorporate adequately AI in the classroom and encourage students to use it wisely I see it very beneficial if schools embrace Artificial Intelligence in the Classrooms.

 

Portfolios are a great way to document a student’s progress and improve learning and teaching by providing both the student and the teacher with valuable evidence that helps to monitor students’ experience in the learning process. Using ePortfolios students are given the chance not only to reflect and grow academically but also to use them as goal-setting plans and for future career advancement.

In my opinion, ePortfolios are tied up with students’ learning and progress but at the same time, they are a reflection of the teacher’s instructions and the institution’s educational curriculum goals. Klein, who draws attention to the importance of integrating social media in academic ePortfolios states that by using ePortfolios students build on their skills and qualities like “analytical ability, intellectual leadership, and creativity” (Klein 69). Rightly so, I think that engaging students in creating and using ePortfolios enhances learning for them because it enables students to reflect on their strengths, become aware of their weaknesses, and strive to improve. E-Portfliois are a great valuable learning tool for students, but it is also just as beneficial for us teachers too. This tool helps teachers to assess students’ progress in a much easier, faster, and more meaningful way. Moreover, through ePortfolio teachers can enhance their thinking and teaching practices by reflecting on the pros and downsides of the curriculum, looking for new techniques, and implementing new strategies in the process of learning in order to advance students’ improvement.

Many teachers do not assign e-portfolios to students because they view them as an overwhelming task. I, myself was also concerned before reading the well-detailed articles of Klein and Yancey that demonstrate the multiple benefits that ePortfolios have for students’ learning, motivation, confidence, and career development, and the multiple skill benefits that they gained by using them. For instance, Klein claims that since most students use social media as a tool for communication and interaction, “the egalitarian nature of content associated with social media meshes seamlessly with pedagogical models for empowering student voices” (Klein 59). This connection enables students to grow self-knowledge when using ePortfolios for different purposes and prepares them to work effectively in multiple settings. Yancey, the author of “Portfolios, Circulation, Ecology, and the Development of Literacy” considers electronic portfolios as an ecology system itself which assembles and articulates all writing drafts and reflective commentary. Moreover, in this ecology, Yancey views learning as an ongoing process where the “student principal agent of his or her own learning” (Yancey 9). Certainly, ePortfolios enable students to delve with self-exploration and expression which fosters a desire for learning and accomplishing academic goals. However, practicing the use, creation, and implementation of eportfolios in the learning process shows how students take control of their academic growth, professional planning, and success.

Teachers who work with students who are building their ePortfolios enhance their thinking, and creativity, strive for improvement, and reflect on their learning/teaching the same way as the students. Yancey refers to learning as a “reiterative process” and therefore he notes that asking students to create ePortofolio should not be an on-time thing in the classroom. Instead, portfolio-making should always be in process in a way that is never done (12). Seeing students’ progress and noticing their weaknesses teachers set new goals for new teaching strategies in order to advance students’ learning and enhance both pairs’ experiences with ePortfolios. The new goals and creation of new assignments provide us teachers not only with new strategies to improve students’ learning but also with opportunities to assess their work in a way that is manageable. What is the most important thing is the fact that the implementation and use of ePortfolios creates a teacher/student relationship where guiding and learning work very well together.

As technology has massively evolved, our way of talking and communicating with people has changed as well. When thinking about how communication has transformed over the years, it’s impossible to not draw connections to social media’s effect on this transformation. While social media is a way of mirroring our life into this world and is also a tool of communication that connects and creates relationships between people, memes are also considered a famous form of today’s communication. According to Alexis Benveniste the memes catch immediately our eye on social media while people are “scrolling through news feeds for hours a day, the meme format catches your eye, and most of them can be read and understood within seconds”(Benveniste 1). All we need is only a few words and a simple image to communicate the most complex ideas and nuanced meaning.

Memes are usually seen as a source of laughs and as a way of connecting people over shared humor but also an effective way to share comments on relevant social and political situations. While we all face challenging situations in our lives, memes are a great way to ease tension in our minds and normalize difficult circumstances. As Benveniste sates “memes encapsulate the era we are living in while also reminding us that it’s not all that serious” (Benveniste 1). However, memes oftentimes carry racism and discriminatory humor, although they are covered with the idea that they are “just jokes.”

A very successful meme that has been entertaining for internet users served as a message for racial justice but at the same time has been used to transmit discriminatory humor is that of the 4-year-old Zoë Roth in 2005. While the world knows her as ‘Disaster Girl’ Zoë Roth’s story behind the picture that became a very famous meme is not what one might think of when seeing the picture for the first time. It all started with a walk of Roth and her family in their neighborhood- Mebane, North Carolina while the local Fire Department was practicing a live drill where an old house was set on controlled fire. While all neighbors gathered around the house Zoë remembers how “firefighters allowed children to take turns holding the hose.” Zoë’s father, Dave Roth who bought a brand-new camera only couple of days ago asked Zoë to smile for a picture. Intrigued by the fire and all that was going on the block, Zoë gave a quick smirk and devilish smile while the house against the burning house on the background.

According to Zoë, her father uploaded her picture to “Zoomr” in 2007 with the caption “Firestarter,” and people did not show any interest in the picture until later that same year when Zoë’s father submitted the picture to JPG Magazine and they were contacted afterward to inform them about the major attention and the popularity the picture has received. Jamie Dubs states for “Know your Meme” that the popularity of the so-known “Disaster Girl” highlighted the best deviates like “Digg, TrendHunter, eBaum’s World Forum, and Best Week Ever” (Know Your Meme 1). Moreover Dubs makes it known that over the years the popularity of the “Disaster Girl” and its derivates were mentioned on Neatorama, photo site DamnCoolPictures, Cracked, and the Huffington Post.”

Zoë’s meme as evolved a lot over the years. Her devilish look has been used and continues to be used to this day to picture multiple purposes and different kinds of socio-political situations.Most iterations of her meme trigger funny moments and jokes in society and our everyday lives.

However, another half of those iterations portray important social and political situations.In a “Buzzfeed Video: I Accidentally Became A Meme” Zoë shares the history of how the “Disaster Girl” meme was born and also her personal thoughts about hundreds of iterations of her picture. One of the best editions of her meme was the one where her picture was used during racial justice protests “Black Lives Matter.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_y88KAPKW0

While this edition made Zoë so proud other editions made her feel anxious and very uncomfortable such as the one where Zoë’s face was attached to Hitler’s body as a way of identifying and equating her devilish smile with the joy, he took on leading a cruel dictatorship and brutality against Jews. On the article “Meming the Party Divide: Representations of Gender in Political Memes” Derek Sparby states that “ironic hatred is still hatred” and such edits of memes are dangerous for democracy. Moreover, on his classification of memes Sparby has a category of memes that fall on the Nazi and Hitler comparisons. When memes are edited by comparing the meme’s face to genocidal dictator like Hitler, memers shut every possible door for discussion or “opportunities for further dialogue” (Sparby 1). It wasn’t any less frustrating when Zoë found her face edited against the Notre Dame Catholic cathedral in Paris engulfed on fire after a terrorist attack in 2019. Moreover, in her video for Buzzfeed Zoë also states that “Last year, some Instagram account used the original picture with a caption about not being able to wave a Confederate flag, and I was like, ‘Ewww.’”

               

Although Zoë ‘s meme has gone viral and evolved so much since 2007, this meme continues to be relevant and edited in multiple ways. In 2021 Zoe sold her original meme for nearly half a million dollars to NFT to take control of her study loans as well as donate an amount of money for charity. Despite the fact that Zoë has seen her face in some disturbing images, in many interviews she has stated that “She is proud to be Disaster Girl.” Zoë ‘s meme is proof that it takes a small moment to change our lives forever.

Works Cited

Benveniste, Alexis. “The Meaning and History of Memes.” New York Times, 26 January 2022.

Fazio Marie “The World Knows Her as ‘Disaster Girl.’ She Just Made $500,000 Off the Meme” New York Times, 29 April 2021.

I Accidentally Became A Meme: Disaster Girl. BuzzFeedVideo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_y88KAPKW0

Knowyourmeme “Disaster Girl” 2009,https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/disaster-girl

Sparby, Derek M. “Meming the Party Divide: Representations of Gender in Political Memes.” Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture. 24 March, 2022.

 

It is obvious that we all wake up and sleep in a world where digital and visual rhetoric is part of our daily basis. Whether we are communicating with friends or family via text, scrolling down on our social media, posting a timeline, working at our jobs, commenting on a Facebook post, or simply reacting to others’ content, every single day we are part of this digitalization world head to toe.Reading Eyman’s Chapters 1 and 2 on Digital Rhetoric gave me a better idea of distinguishing three important terms: Rhetoric alone, Digital Rhetoric, and Visual Rhetoric. Although I will briefly examine the difference between each of these terms, this blog post will mainly focus on Visual Rhetoric and its impact on our lives.

While approaches to rhetoric date since early ages and Aristotle considered rhetoric as the “art of persuasion” Eyman communicates that in today’s world, rhetoric is associated with meaning and persuasion is knowledge and belief rather than just words because words are not the only one that is in use but it’s their meaning and the context that built the act of persuasion. I like the idea that rhetoric’s power in modern times it is not seen only as a way of using words to persuade but more as a way of making meaning of the words that are said. Moreover, Eyman also draws attention to the general association of the term “digital” with electronics or computers in particular. According to Eyman, “any system made up of individual elements satisfies the technical definition”(Eyman 165). For instance, writing whether in its printed version or in the electronic form can be considered a “digital ” mechanism because clearly it is a product of the digital system.

Digital rhetoric on the other side is defined as “defined as the application of rhetorical theory (as analytic method or heuristic for production) to digital texts and performances” (Eyman 140). In addition, Eyman notes that digital rhetoric is used in any rhetorical field whether that is traditional, classical, or contemporary rhetoric. One important rhetorical field of digital rhetoric is visual rhetoric. According to Eyman the closest one to describe visual rhetoric in a more specific way is Roland Barthes who suggests that visual rhetoric or “The Rhetoric of the Image” is a discipline of digital rhetoric where the meaning can be read through the visual elements rather than words itself. While there is no concrete definition that states what visual rhetoric is I am sure that we all know about it because it is everywhere. Literally everywhere.Beginning with your phone, advertisements you encounter all day long in your social media, especially the annoying ones that we have to skip so we can continue watching our videos, visuals in grocery stores, restaurants and mostly the ones we see in the fast food industry.

In writing the author usually uses ethos, pathos, or logos to build on the logic of an argument or convince the audience to trust the narrator. In visual rhetorics it’s the visual images, colors shapes, and strong designs that create just the appropriate visual ethos to persuade people into something. Think about Mc. Donald’s unique red color and yellow arches. These are colors that our brain instantly thinks of as soon as someone mentions Mc. Donald’s.

                          

Although we are well aware of our wise and poor food choices McDonald’s super strong formula on the ingredients they use, advertisements they create, cheap prices along with the use of the powerful colors they simply create meaning in our head and appeal to our visual sensibilities.

Besides the colors which indicate a fun and warm atmosphere filled with excitement, happiness, and increase in appetite McDonald’s has managed to target customers of all ages through the use of visual rhetoric. For instance, on my way to IKEA in Hicksville, it is impossible for my daughter to not scream in the car so she can stop to play at the McDonald’s Funhouse. Of course, playing without eating something at McDonald’s is a big NO for the parents, so she has to order a happy meal too!

Apparently, my daughter loves the way they have designed the box (almost like a purse she says) and I can carry it Mom🤔.

Moreover, she knows there is a  surprise toy inside, and all the choices a little kid her age would want to. If we pay attention to the visuals, bright colors on the food products, gigantic food items (which in reality you get totally the opposite), and pictures that show people of all ages with wide smiles eating McDonald’s one can easily draw the conclusion that it is the visual rhetoric that creates meaning for customers and persuades them to eat McMcDonald’s. It is through visual rhetoric that happiness is associated with McDonald’s products.

Eyman, Douglas. Digital Rhetoric: Theory, Method, Practice. Chapter 1: Defining and Locating Digital Rhetoric. (43-165)