GIFs and the Perils of Overinterpretation: Questioning Assumed Interpersonal Impact

Doran, Martin & Zappavigna (2025: 141):

Perhaps the strongest staking resource in (39) is a GIF. This GIF is a snippet from an episode of at the conclusion of the fifth season of the TV series 'Game of Thrones' in which Cersei, the queen mother of the realm, is subjected to a humiliating punishment due to her numerous transgressions (which included engaging in an adulterous relationship with her twin brother). The penalty for this behaviour involved the removal of her hair and a naked walk through the streets, where she is forced to confront her subjects who taunt her with jeers, shouting 'shame!'. These cries are visibly rendered in the GIF through the overlayed text. Behind her is a woman ringing a bell and chanting the same words. The perpetual looping that is inherent in GIFs and animated stickers appears to amplify their interpersonal significance and require their recipients to interpret and respond to them in ways that are nuanced and contextually sensitive. In (39) the GIF serves as a kind of visual interpersonal theme which emphasises the shame at the heart of the confession genre that is leveraged in the body of the post to raise the stakes of the everyday experiences of motherhood expressed by the user.

ChatGPT Comments:

While the authors provide a detailed description of the GIF and its narrative source, their analysis makes a conceptual leap that is not fully justified. They claim that the GIF “appears to amplify their interpersonal significance” and functions as a “visual interpersonal theme” that raises the stakes of the post. However, this interpretation assumes that all recipients of the post will decode the GIF in the same way and that its cultural reference (Cersei’s punishment) maps directly onto the user’s motherhood confession.

A critical point is that this reading conflates semiotic affordance with interpreted meaning: while GIFs are certainly rich in potential interpersonal effect, the interpersonal significance is not inherent in the GIF itself but is context-dependent and variable across audiences. The authors could have been more cautious in framing this as a probabilistic or contingent effect rather than a categorical one.

In short, the description of the GIF is solid, but the interpretive claim about its effect on interpersonal stakes overextends beyond what the data can reliably support.