Communicating Resistance: How Undocumented Students Perform Activism Through Visual Counternarratives on Social Media

• In Event: Alternative Media and Counter Narratives

Abstract

The advent of the Internet has created spaces for undocumented individuals to be visible and heard. Social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, among others, have enabled the production and distribution of images that are in tension with the dominant stereotyped representations of immigrants that are perpetuated in mainstream U.S. media. Our research explores how undocumented students living in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy utilize these new online tools to build coalitions and communities through alternative representations. In particular, we look at two different sites - the #LatinxGradCaps hashtag on Instagram, and undocumented Arizona State University graduate Belen Sisa's post on Facebook challenging Donald Trump to release his tax returns. We employ visual rhetorical approaches to analyze how these images posted by DACA individuals facilitate the creation of counterspaces and counternarratives, making visible the undocumented and institutionally invisible.

Authors

• Cynthia Wang, Cal State LA

• Kristina Ruiz-Mesa, California State U, Los Angeles