Stalking With Instagram: How Social Media Posts Utilize Linguistic Tools To Tell Moral Narratives Surrounding Voting

The following thesis concerns digital ethnography focused on semiotic tools used to produce moral narratives concerning whether or not it is morally permissible to vote. Drawing from Keith Basso’s chapter “Stalking with Stories,” this thesis discusses how moral narratives can be used to strike at the consciences of ‘viewers’ of social media pages on Instagram and Twitter. Specifically, the research is focused on politics in Watauga County during the 2020 General Election cycle and the social media platforms Instagram and Twitter. In this research, the argument will be made that social media users can produce moral narratives using semiotic tools to personalize their own stances on voting and to try and influence others’ positionalities as well.