What Is Rhetorical Velocity?

Composition theorist Jim Ridolfo describes rhetorical velocity as a way of thinking about composition in the context of how it will be delivered, and strategizing how and why a text—or any mode of composition—might be recomposed by a third party, be it in print or digitally. In Ridolfo and DeVoss’s web article  “Composing for Recomposition: Rhetorical Velocity and Delivery,” they describe the rhetorical velocity as a “conscious rhetorical concern for distance, travel, speed, and time, pertaining specifically to theorizing instances of strategic appropriation,” which can be difficult when you consider how easily information can be recomposed in the digital age (DeVoss). Even in strictly print media a picture can be cropped or a quote can be taken out of context, which instantly redefines the composition. The information then can spread to people who have no knowledge of the previous composition, taking the third party’s information as fact. If you look at the diagram on the right, you can see how you might consider certain variables when you compose, such as what medium might it be shared in, in order to anticipate the evolution the reception of your work—whether it will be seen as positive, neutral, or negative (Figure 1, DeVoss). 

 

Rhetorical velocity also refers to the speed at which information can be recomposed and spread once the content has been released.  When considering the concept rhetorical velocity as it apples to digital media, the speed at which a piece of media can be recomposed and spread by a third party can be seemingly instantaneous—and utterly out of the original creators control. In this way, it is easy to see how meme theory can be examined through a rhetorical scope.

 

Consider each idea, or meme, as a composition.  One morning you text your composition—a drawing, for example—to a friend, who posts it on the internet, where it is altered with a mean caption and spread through social media, and the next morning its on your twitter feed. You, the creator, are a now a part of a large internet-based culture, reluctant or not. The composition you have shared has been altered from its original context, spread at an exponential rate through that culture, and evolved past your ability to recompose the piece or reclaim your composition in any way. Your composition has become a meme, in both definitions of the term, and one with a negative outcome. DeVoss and Ridolfo give the example of the popular video meme "Chocolate Rain"sung by Tay Zonday and its variations as an example of this type of rhetorical transformation. As you can see in Figures 2 and 3 on the right, the original context of the composition is that of a political and racial commentary, while the third party transformations of the content strip the song of its context and put it in a more humorous, nonsensical mood.

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 In the case of this essay, I will be using the "Pepe the Frog" to illustrate how meme theory and rhetorical velocity can be analyzed in the context of an internet meme.