Multimodal rhetorics in the gun debate: Encouraging youth agency in March for Our Lives’ “The Most Vicious Cycle”

ABSTRACT

In October 2018, March For Our Lives (MFOL) released “The Most Vicious Cycle,” a music video designed to mobilize collective agency among youth voters in the midterm election. The video, which features the song “Safe,” performed by Sage (featuring Kesha, Chika), utilizes a Rube Goldberg machine sequence to visually depict the “vicious cycle” of gun violence and the predictability of the gun control debate. Rhetorical scholars have largely examined the gun control debate by analyzing the public address of political elites and argumentation presented in gun rights discourses. There exists, then, a need to consider how youth activists, who have been excluded from the gun control debate, are using emergent discursive strategies like the music video to claim authority and exercise agency. I argue that the video’s multimodal discourse employs visual, lyrical, and sonic elements to create an immersive and instructional experience that performs a collective youth agency grounded in struggle. The video acts as a pedagogical tool to inspire collective agency by visualizing gun violence and amplification, visually refuting the status quo, and displacing authority. In moments when discourse and debate have become static, multimodal elements can provide a new perspective, making arguments felt, immediate, and grounded in experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Collective agency
• youth activism
• March for Our Lives
• multimodal discourse
• gun control

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful feedback on this essay. I also offer special thanks to Cara A. Finnegan for all of her steadfast guidance and continued support on this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Chavez and Almasy, “What Happened, Moment by Moment;” Grinberg and Levenson, “At Least 17 Dead in Florida School Shooting”

2. Gun Violence Archive, “Past Summary Ledgers.” Last accessed March 17, 2023.

3. Schaeffer, “Key Facts about Americans and Guns”

4. Molla, “Polling is Clear”

5. Grinberg and Mauddi, “How the Parkland Students;” CBS and Associated Press, “Florida Students Pressing Gun Control;” Grinberg and Almasy, “Students at Town Hall to Washington;” Rozsa and Zezima, “March for Our Lives Plans”

6. Gstalter, “March For Our Lives Releases;” Sage, “Safe, ft. Kesha, Chika.” Views as of November 5, 2022.

7. Mazza, “Kesha’s Haunting March For Our Lives Video”

8. Kesha, “Kesha on Gun Laws”

9. Frazin, “‘Complacency Kills Us;’” DiBenedetto, “Gun Reform Activists to Politicians”

10. March For Our Lives, “Our Power;” March For Our Lives, “Choose More;” March For Our Lives, “Our Work;” March For Our Lives, “Our Solutions”

11. Sage, “Safe, ft. Kesha, Chika”

12. Engels, The Politics of Resentment, 3.

13. Lopez, “Turnout Among Youth Voters”

14. While mass shootings are not the cause of the majority of gun deaths in the US (See: Gramlich, “What the Data Says About Gun Deaths in the U.S.”), the high visibility of Parkland, largely because it affected children in a well-funded school district, created openings for inviting youth into the democratic process (See: Eckstein, “The (Parkland) Kids are Alright,” 26; Cottle, “How Parkland Students Changed the Gun Debate”).

15. Springett, “Art-Making for Political Ecology,” 480–487.

16. Hogan and Rood, “Rhetorical Studies and the Gun Debate,” 364.

17. Landau and Keeley-Jonker, “Conductor of Public Feelings,” 167.

18. Amsden, “Dimensions of Temporality,” 458, 461–465, 470–473; Frank, “Facing Moloch,” 654–655, 660–666, 670–671.

19. Collins, “Second Amendment as Demanding Subject,” 745–752; Collins, “Rights Talk and Political Dispositions,” 84, 87–89; Rood, After Gun Violence, 71–72; Cryer, “The Good Man Shooting Well,” 257–259, 264.

20. Collins, “The Second Amendment as Demanding Subject,” 738, 751–752; Stuckey and O’ Rourke, “Civility, Democracy, and National Politics,” 713–719; Boser and Lake, “‘Enduring’ Incivility,” 623–634; Smith and Hollihan, “‘Out of Chaos Breathes Creation,’” 594–604; Lunceford, “Armed Victims,” 335–337, 339–341; Rood, After Gun Violence, 64–66.

21. Hayden, “Family Metaphors and the Nation,” 201–212.

22. Eckstein, “Sensing School Shootings,” 162, 166–171; Eckstein, “The (Parkland) Kids Are Alright,” 30–33.

23. Hogan and Rood, “Rhetorical Studies and the Gun Debate,” 365.

24. Groarke, “Going Multimodal,”151–154.

25. Kress and van Leeuwen, Multimodal Discourse, 20.

26. Rocci and Pollaroli, “Introduction: Multimodality in Argumentation,” 7.

27. Groarke, “Going Multimodal,” 138–140; Kjeldsen, “Visual and Multimodal Argumentation,” 127; Tseronis, “Multimodal Argumentation Magazine Covers,” 24–26; Eckstein, “Designing Soundscapes for Argumentation,” 270.

28. Prody, “Protesting War and Hegemonic Masculinity,” 453–457.

29. Mouffe, “Agnostic Intervention,” 10.

30. Kjeldsen, “Visual and Multimodal Argumentation,” 127; Kjeldsen, “Condensation and Thick Representation,” 268.

31. O’Gorman, “Aristotle’s Phantasia,” 17; Kjeldsen, “Talking to the Eye,”135; Bloomfield and Sangalang, “Juxtaposition as Visual Argument,” 154.

32. Eckstein, “Designing Soundscapes for Argumentation,” 275.

33. Mouffe, “Agnostic Intervention,” 10; Zagacki and Gallagher, “Rhetoric and Materiality,” 172; Tseronis, “Multimodal Argumentation,” 52–64; Groarke, “Going Multimodal,” 151–154; Rocci and Pollaroli, “Introduction,” 7.

34. Bruce, Painting Publics, 3. Italics in original; See also Enck-Wanzer, “Trashing the System,” 176–177, 184–191.

35. Kennerly, “Getting Carried Away,” 269.

36. Kennerly, “Getting Carried Away,” 269.

37. O’Gorman, “Aristotle’s Phantasia in the Rhetoric,” 34.

38. O’Gorman, “Aristotle’s Phantasia,” 31.

39. Kennerly, “Getting Carried Away,” 269.

40. Chavez and Almasy, “What Happened, Moment by Moment;” Fernandez, Fausset, and Bidgood, “In Texas School Shooting;” Dahl, “Trayvon Martin Shooting;” Sage, “Safe,” 0:11–0:16; 3:17–3:23; 6:26–6:32.

41. Sage, “Safe,” 0:03–0:14.

42. Sage, “Safe,” 0:10–0:46.

43. Sage, “Safe,” 0:18–0:28

44. Sage, “Safe,” 3:45–3:53.

45. Hawhee, “Looking into Aristotle’s Eyes,” 148.

46. Eckstein, “Designing Soundscapes for Argumentation,” 275.

47. Sage, “Safe,” 0:48–0:53; 2:02–2:19.

48. Sage, “Safe,” 1:13–1:28; March For Our Lives, “Memorial;” Chinni, “Youth Gun Deaths by Race;” Gramlich, “What the Data Says about Gun Deaths in the U.S.”

49. Sage, “Safe,” 2:05–2:12.

50. Sage, “Safe,” 0:43–0:58.

51. Hanna and Gallagher, “The Price Tags”

52. Rood, “Our Tears Are Not Enough,” 48–53; Rood, After Gun Violence, 73–79; Sage, “Safe,” 2:17–2:18.

53. Sage, “Safe,” 0:46–1:10.

54. Duerringer, “Dis-Honoring the Dead,” 91–94.

55. Sage, “Safe,” 1:10–1:31.

56. Sage, “Safe,” 1:23–1:29.

57. Rood, “Our Tears Are Not Enough,” 53–55; Rood, After Gun Violence, 80–82.

58. Sage, “Safe,” 2:49–3:08.

59. Rood, “Our Tears Are Not Enough,” 48–53; Rood, After Gun Violence, 73–76.

60. Sage, “Safe,” 1:31–2:00.

61. Rood, After Gun Violence, 60–66.

62. Sage, “Safe,” 2:02–2:08.

63. Sage, “Safe,” 1:57–2:02.

64. Sage, “Safe,” 2:17–2:46.

65. Sage, “Safe,” 2:39–2:41.

66. Sage, “Safe,” 6:51–7:01.

67. Sage, “Safe,” 3:10–3:20; 6:18–6:27.

68. Sage, “Safe,” 2:04–2:13.

69. Rood, “Our Tears Are Not Enough,” 53–55; Rood, After Gun Violence, 75–76, 80–81.

70. Duncombe, “Does It Work?,” 122; Mouffe, “Artistic Activism and Agnostic Spaces,” 4.

71. Prody, “Protesting War and Hegemonic Masculinity,” 457.

72. Tseronis, “Multimodal Argumentation: Verbal/Visual Divide,” 45–53.

73. March For Our Lives, “Our Power”

74. Taylor, “George Floyd Protests”

75. March For Our Lives, “Our Power,” 0:18–0:21.

76. March For Our Lives, “Our Power,” 0:34–0:41.

77. March For Our Lives, “Our Power,” 1:09–1:12.

78. March For Our Lives, “Our Power,” 1:13–1:33.

79. Sage, “Safe,” 0:17–0:18.

80. New York Times, “School Shooting in Uvalde, Texas”

81. Silverman et al., “March For Our Lives 2022”

82. Judd, “Biden Signs Gun Safety Bill”

83. March For Our Lives, “Choose More”

84. Eckstein, “The (Parkland) Kids,” 30–33; Eckstein, “Sensing School Shootings,” 167–171; Mouffe, “Agnostic Intervention,” 11–12.

85. Springett, “Art-Making for Political Ecology,” 480–485.