The story of my connection to digital rhetoric begins with Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). She ran for Congress in the 2018 midterm election and won against tough odds. The way she utilized social media such as Twitter and Instagram rhetorically to build community and build trust with her local constituents caught my attention. I had been studying multimodal meaning-making in digital spaces, including emojis and other symbolic communication; but, for me, AOC’s digital and rhetorical strategies made everything click into place. I studied the way she balanced her personal and the political identities on social media platforms, how she connected…
Author: Kimberly Williams
Danielle Koepke
I study sound studies, critical race theory, and social media. Chinchillas are vastly underrated.