The Riot Kiss: Framing Memes as Visual Argument

Abstract

This essay analyzes the riot kiss photograph taken by Rich Lam after game seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals in Vancouver and its subsequent life as a visual internet meme. Noting how this image and its reproductions both operated as memes, I argue that the riot kiss photograph's rapid circulation across numerous participatory sites exposed the diverse argument frames employed to create arguments about this image and simultaneously marked the ambiguity of commonplace readings. Public recognition of such instability motivated the continued invention of arguments about this image through reproduction and creative manipulation. I dissect the various claims fashioned about the original photograph and the ways in which the ambiguity of the frameworks for those claims motivated the creative manipulation of the photograph. This essay contributes to argumentation theory by offering an opening foray into understanding memes as forms of visual argument.

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