ABSTRACT
Scholars in argumentation studies have participated in the debate on whether visual images function as argument. This chapter reviews the three kinds of context and attempt to extend the third one by attending to participants’ visibility and affective capacities that become salient in the participatory visual culture. Birdsell and Groarke’s first type of context was the immediate visual context or how an image is related to other images. As the second kind of context, Birdsell and Groarke discussed an immediate verbal context or how an image relates to its accompanying verbal texts. Finally, the third kind of context is visual culture. The existence of viewers’ relatability in the participatory visual culture is a key for visual argument. Besides the frame of face or immediate visual context, the immediate verbal context of the “I am Kenji” movement needs examination.
