When creating JIFs, discourse communities compose for strategic recomposition. The creator needs to look at positive and negative ways in which the text may be recomposed into other texts. By doing so, it allows the composer to develop a closer relationship to his or her audience and anticipate all possible outcomes. Our society engages in this act of creativity by requiring composers to draw multiple modes of ‘meaning-making.’ This allows for user engagement amongst the audience. Particularly, if the content evokes positive emotions, the audience will want to ‘spread’ the digital media.
The examples above were composed to evoke different emotional reactions from the audience. The first GIF expresses sad, raw emotions through the use of a single tear running down the girl’s face. When looking into her eyes, you see and feel her hopelessness. On the other hand, the second example replaced Brittney Spears’ face with Lord Voldemort’s face resulting in a hilarious JIF. When asked to choose between the two, most viewers are going to go with the digital media that evokes happy and joyful emotions. Who actually wants to feel sad? No one. Viewers are going to repost or share content that evokes positive feelings; so, in turn, JIFs are more likely to be circulated through other discourse communities.
Maria Grbavac 