Work

Polysyndeton, Social Media, and the Contested Meanings of January 6, 2021

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Adapting a Burkean approach to rhetorical tropes, this essay argues that polysyndeton comprises a significant trope shaping political communication via social media. We argue that polysyndeton reflects the cultural dynamics of liquid modernity and furnishes an organizational logic to a particular domain of human symbolic action, namely, social media. Because polysyndeton dually stresses amplification and association, grouping things that do not have a necessary relationship and delivering them to an audience as an undifferentiated mass, it is perfectly suited to serve as a lens for interpreting the political and cultural complexities of our present era, including the Capitol Riot of January 6, 2021.

Source: International Journal of Politics Culture and Society

DOI: 10.1007/s10767-024-09485-2

Authors: Randall Fowler, John T. Moist

Institutions: Abilene Christian University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Language: English

Topic: Rhetoric and Communication Studies

Subfield: Philosophy

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,190

Funder: Abilene Christian University