Students in Dr. Nicole Pfannenstiel’s summer 2025 writing seminar crafted blog posts exploring Rhetoric & Composition. Over the next several weeks, we will share their work in this space to bring visibility to their posts and offer a variety of perspectives on pertinent topics within Rhetoric & Composition. These posts are written by graduate students currently in the MA and M.Ed. English programs.
Easter Eggs and Emojis
By: Georgia Emert
Digital rhetoric is the study of how persuading, meaning-making, and communicating occur in digital places (OpenAI, personal communication, June 20, 2025). This can happen in the form of tweets, memes, posts, videos, likes, etc. Unlike antient rhetoric, digital rhetoric is more than persuasion, it is a space for creating meaning, authors, and action (Drori et al., 2025).
Digital rhetoric includes modes of communication that shed light on publicly important topics (Coleman & Mari, 2025). This type of rhetoric allows audiences to rely on emotions, identities, and shared experiences while viewing digital content (Drori et al., 2025). Digital rhetoric takes the aspects of antient rhetoric and makes it contemporary, dynamic, and more public (OpenAI, personal communication, June 20, 2025). We might think of digital rhetoric as simply a website or social media post, but it includes the process of what
goes into the post, circulation, viewership, and emotions.
For example, Taylor Swift is known for her Easter Eggs (Whiteside, 2024). These East Eggs are hidden messages to Swifties that allow playful moments, engagement, and participation (Whiteside, 2024). Easter Eggs for Taylor Swift have been about build her fanbase, developing a sense of community, and creating emotions and shared experiences: the definition of digital rhetoric (Whiteside, 2024).
Things we encounter in the digital sphere are created for the sake of creation; to be circulated or to hit certain groups for fun and entertainment (SeiTert-Brockmann, Diehl, & Dobusch, 2018). Taylor Swift uses digital rhetoric to formulate how she is going to present Easter Eggs, who it will reach, the emotions they will have, and the meaning that will occur (SeiTert-Brockmann, Diehl, & Dobusch, 2018).
Digital Rhetoric is all about knowing your audience, how to use your platforms appropriately and ethically, and creating emotions (OpenAI, personal communication, June 20, 2025). Taylor does this, not only with her Easter Eggs, but with all interactions she has in the digital sphere (SeiTert-Brockmann, Diehl, & Dobusch, 2018).
Citations
Coleman, M. C., & Mari, W. (2025). An early web history of vaccine skeptical digital
rhetorics. Internet Histories, 1–23.
https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2025.2483568
Drori, I., Neumann, K., Vaara, E., Boersma, K., Kyratsis, Y., Santacreu-Vasut, E., &
Suddaby, R. (2025). Grand challenges and the rhetoric of a collective
Action. Academy of Management Perspectives, 39(1), 7–21.
https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2024.0333
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (June 20 version). [Large language model].
https://chat.openai.com/
Whiteside, A. (2024). Fandom and argumentation in the social media era: Taylor swift
fans and the rhetoric of easter egg hunts. Argumentation & Advocacy, 60(2),
119–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511431.2024.2432172
Seiffert-Brockmann, J., Diehl, T., & Dobusch, L. (2018). Memes as games: The
evolution of a digital discourse Online. New Media & Society, 20(8), 2862–2879.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817735334