@article {24131,
	title = {Democratic Prosopopoeia: The Rhetorical Influence of the I-Will-Vote Image Filter on Social Media Profile Pictures During the 2015 Canadian Federal Election},
	journal = {Rhetor: The Journal of the Society for the Study of Rhetoric},
	volume = {8},
	year = {2019},
	pages = {59-98},
	abstract = {<p>
	Image filters, increasingly common in social media, are digital prosopopoeia. In this paper, I examine the act of voluntarily displaying the {\textquotedblleft}I will vote Oct 19{\textquotedblright} image filter prosopopoeia on profile pictures during the 2015 Canadian federal election. Adopting the categorical voice of a voter through the image filter encourages like-minded family and friends to vote, the ostensible aim. But it also disciplines the image filter user into becoming a stronger advocate for voting through commitment and consistency, as well as social validation pressures; prosopopoeia both enhances and reinforces identification. By putting on the prosopopoeia mask, the social media rhetor becomes a representative of the commonwealth of 59 Canadian federal voters, and, as Kenneth Burke tells us, when we put on a role, the role puts on us. In {\textquotedblleft}wearing{\textquotedblright} the filter on their profile picture, the individual has not simply done something, but has become something{\textemdash}the individual has become an electoral advocate through the process of identification, observed through recurrent political online statements, voting selfies, and the inclusion of political hashtags, embedding the {\textquotedblleft}I will vote Oct 19{\textquotedblright} image filter user within the online collective of 160,000 similar voting peers on Facebook and/or Twitter during the 2015 Canadian federal election.
</p>

<p>
	Keywords: prosopopoeia, social media, identification, voting image filter, voting selfie, hashtags, politics, activism, 2015 Canadian federal election, political rhetoric, Twitter, $\#$votenation, rhetorical figures
</p>
},
	url = {http://rhetcanada.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Rhetor-Kampherm-4.pdf},
	author = {Monique Kampherm}
}
