ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the generation of affect in digital media set against the backdrop of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election cycle. It theorizes affect as an experience of bodily intensity that takes dynamic form in digital environments as the latter rearticulate established frameworks for understanding persuasion in contemporary media environments. The author’s experience with Twitter on the occasion of the first presidential debate is used throughout to trace the organic production of digital rhetorical formations and their capacity to shape the embodied experiences of an audience.
