Digital Communication in a GIF Culture

Abstract

GIF can be defined as a moving image characterized by brevity, repetition (loop), and an apparently low informative content; used as a pseudo-linguistic element, GIF is able to re-mediate a pre-existing text and to resemanticize it. The image originates from a process of decontextualization of an audiovisual element, quoting or referring to the original text (Uhlin) – taken from television, cinema, video art, or homemade. The fragment is then assigned with a new specific meaning, when it is used for a communicative purpose (especially on social networks), acting as a container of variable information designated to substitute articulate colloquial elements both emotional or explanatory. Through the analysis of the possible uses of GIF online, which exemplifies the actual concepts of post-truth and remix, the contribution aims to identify the communicative properties of the object, collecting cases within specific social platforms. GIF appears as a behavioral crossroad of contemporaneity, both in terms of re-use of creative contents and of demystification of current facts.

Relating, searching, and referencing: Assessing the appeal of using GIFs to communicate

“…While the GIF file format has been around since the late 1980s, the use of GIFs for the purpose of communication has evolved. Many contemporary GIFs appear as short video clips, cycling rapidly through multiple frames, yet have no audio (Poulaki, 2015; Prosperi, 2019). These GIFs enhance communication, be it within listicles, social media or text messaging (Wagener, 2020).…”