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Modal Ethos: Scumbag Steve and the Establishing of Ethos in Memetic Agents
Abstract
Traditionally, the artistic proofs center on the individual rhetor as the locusof ethos. However, as communication becomes internetworked, rhetorical phenomena increasingly circulate independent of traditional rhetors. This absence transfers ethos onto textual assemblages that often function as agents in their own right. This transfer of ethos is particularly apparent in memes, where fragmented images constructed across divergent networked media come together to form a single agentic text. Therefore, this chapter argues that a theory of modal ethos is important to understand this artistic proof's role in a networked media ecology. Through a modal analysis of the meme Scumbag Steve, this chapter argues that the modal construction of the meme gives it a unique point of view, complete with narrative history, affective representation, and social expertise—in short, its very own ethos. This allows networked participants to evoke the meme in controversies ranging from NSA wiretapping to the Ukraine Crisis, demanding new forms of political judgment.
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