In the Loop: How Audiences Construct and Deconstruct Online Credibility

Entangled in the Loop: Audience Agency and the Construction of Digital Ethos

Can an algorithm or a single retweet destroy an artist’s career, or are we as audience members actively holding the hammer? When we scroll through social media feeds, click “share,” or leave a quick comment, it is easy to view ourselves as passive consumers observing a public figure’s online identity. However, modern digital rhetoric suggests that credibility is not a static trait owned solely by a creator or institution. Instead, digital credibility is an interactive, networked production—one in which the audience carries as much responsibility as the speaker.

Key Concept: Digital Ethos and Rhetorical Looping

In his webtext “In the Loop: Articulating Our Entanglement in Others’ Digital Ethos Positions” (2019), John Silvestro expands upon Kristie S. Fleckenstein’s theory of ecological digital ethos to articulate how audience members shape online credibility. Silvestro argues that digital ethos operates as an information feedback loop within a complex rhetorical ecology. Rather than a top-down broadcast where a public figure simply projects authority, digital credibility emerges through non-linear interactions among rhetors, platform affordances, communal norms, and circulating texts.

Silvestro introduces the framework of rhetorical looping to describe how audience members actively co-constitute, sustain, or dismantle an individual’s or institution’s ethos position. Through basic digital interactions—such as upvoting, quoting tweets, embedding media plug-ins, or posting long-forgotten public records—the audience constantly feeds information back into the loop. Platforms like X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Reddit do not merely host these interactions; their structured affordances (e.g., share buttons, comment threads, algorithmic recommendations) actively prompt and constrain how audience agency is exercised. Thus, an audience member is never a neutral bystander; they are an entangled co-creator of public credibility.

Case Study: Pitchfork, TikTok, and the Construction of Chappell Roan’s Digital Ethos

To observe rhetorical looping in real time, consider the rapid evolution of pop artist Chappell Roan’s digital ethos during her summer 2024 breakout, particularly following her public statements regarding boundary-setting with fans and her critique of political endorsement culture.

                             RHETORICAL LOOP

  [ Rhetor: Chappell Roan ] ———————–> [ Direct TikTok Videos ]
             ^                                                 |
             |                                                 v
  [ Platform Affordances ]                         [ Audience Engagement ]
  – Stitches / Duets                               – Subreddit Debates
  – Algorithmic FYP                                – Fan Edits / Quotes
             ^                                                 |
             |                                                 v
  [ Pop-Culture Commentary ] <———————- [ Media Coverage ]
  (Pitchfork, Vulture, Rolling Stone)

Roan initially constructed a highly accessible, community-grounded voice through drag-inspired visuals, theatrical storytelling, and vulnerable TikTok videos. Her visual style—characterized by campy, high-concept editorial makeup and DIY festival aesthetics—signaled authenticity and communal belonging within LGBTQ+ and indie-pop circles.

However, her digital ethos loop shifted when she posted a series of direct-to-camera TikTok videos addressing boundary violations by parasocial fans. Shortly after, she posted follow-up videos explaining her refusal to give blanket political endorsements.

Instead of accepting her narrative at face value, the audience immediately split, creating dynamic feedback loops across platforms:

Platform Affordances at Work: TikTok users utilized the “Stitch” and “Duet” affordances to superimpose their own commentaries alongside Roan’s original video clips, altering the context of her message.

Re-negotiating Norms: On platforms like Reddit (specifically subreddits like r/popheads), user threads debated whether her candid style represented genuine boundary-setting (a valued norm in modern fan culture) or ungratefulness toward her base.

Institutional Amplification: Major music journalism outlets like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone synthesized these fan-led comment threads into formal editorial coverage, drawing upon audience reactions to cement her new public identity as an uncompromising, anti-parasocial pop icon.

This ongoing cycle demonstrates Silvestro’s claim that a rhetor’s voice is continually reshaped by audience circulation. Roan provided the initial text, but the platform affordances and audience-led commentary ultimately determined the trajectory of her digital ethos.

Analytical Claim

Online credibility is no longer an attribute possessed by a public figure, but a volatile, co-authored negotiation. When users circulate, quote, or critique digital texts, they actively re-engineer the ethical framework of the platform itself.

While platform templates streamline user reactions into simplified metrics (likes, shares, upvotes), audience members maintain crucial agency through how they frame circulating media. By choosing which historical context to highlight or which platform affordance to deploy, audiences determine whether a creator’s identity is sustained as authentic or dismantled as problematic.

Takeaway for a Public Audience

As everyday users navigating structured corporate platforms, we must ask: When we share, quote, or comment on a public figure’s digital statement, are we thoughtfully contributing to a healthier public discourse, or are we passively allowing platform algorithms to weaponize our engagement? Recognizing our own entanglement in digital ethos is the first step toward becoming more responsible rhetorical actors online.