PAB #3

PAB #3

The article, “The Internet Meme as a Rhetoric Discourse: Investigating Asian/Asian Americans’ Identity Negotiation” written by Zhao Ding, published in ProQuest Dissertations explains the study of drawing concepts from rhetorical criticism, vernacular rhetoric, visual rhetoric and whiteness studies. Mainly to investigate how Asian/Asian Americans’ online identities are being constructed and mediated by Internet Memes. What’s being presented in this article is the discussion regarded to Internet memes, mainly in gathered from social Medias such as Reddit, Know Your Meme, and Tumblr. The overall argument being acclaimed here is broken down into two primary reasons. The first is the investigation of rhetorical features of Internet memes and the digital public environment. The second part of this thesis introduction is truly to apprehend how memes work to negotiate ethnic identities. The author also includes in his article, “Internet memes have become a resistant tool utilized by dominated groups to seek social justice.” (pg. 4)  More than anything Zhao Ding is using his knowledge of Internet memes and searching to gather information of how they portray and influence society regarding Asians/Asian Americans’ incorporated with this such rhetorical discourse community.

The claims being made by this excerpt are able to introduce me to the specific discourse community related to Internet memes and how, in this circumstance, it’s being explained through the stereotypical humoristic portray of Asian/Asian Americans. This specific article focuses on terms such as race, self-portray of memes, and the influence on how social media is able to create an identity to those who use memes in communication. The argument represented in this article is also going to break down the visual and vernacular rhetoric which will further dissect the author’s claim. Concrete evidence is gathered by the author by form of factual evidence regarding racial discrepancies and social injustice particularly towards the Asian/Asian American society. In relation to my inquiry and to my research question, the main points made by this reading help broaden my view of how memes indeed are able to form a self-identity, specifically through social medias.  

Works Cited 

Ding, Zhao. "The Internet Meme as a Rhetoric Discourse: Investigating Asian/Americans' Identity Negotiation." ProQuest Dissertations and Thesis (2015)