Introduction
America is a divided nation on many fronts. One front that it seems to find itself particularly divided on is the topic of immigration. There has been much national debate about the topic. One area where this debate occurs is social media and a particular form of debate that has risen in popularity in recent years is what is commonly called a meme.
Memes frequently act as methods of political expression and are often employed for political and social debate (Ross & Rivers, 2017). This is true for the topic of immigration in the United States. All it takes to see this phenomenon is a quick Google Images search to find hundreds of examples of such memes.
Studying the usage of these memes is important for the study of communication. Research asserts memes are an avenue in which people can respond in almost real time to contemporary political events with no fear of delay or censorship by mainstream media (Ross & Rivers, 2017). Because of this, they can potentially serve as a venue in which to gauge and study the general pulse of the national conversation and its mechanisms of debate.
Research Question
What rhetorical elements are present in popular online memes about U.S. immigration created during and after the 2016 Presidential election?
Memeing the National Discourse: Evaluating Rhetorical Methods of Popular Immigration Memes 