Instagrams that wound: Punctum, visual enthymemes, and the visual argumentation of the Transportation Security Administration

Abstract

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees often use savvy media operations to counter its negative image. In June of 2013, TSA began using the social network Instagram to share photos with the public. Most of the photos shared on TSA's Instagram feed depict potentially dangerous items (guns, knives, grenades) TSA agents have confiscated at airport security checkpoints. In this essay, I argue that TSA's use of images of potentially dangerous objects on Instagram functions as a visual enthymeme that justifies the existence of TSA, given the context of constant criticism TSA faces. This essay uses existing literature on visual enthymemes and Roland Barthes's punctum to examine the ways TSA's images depict airports as vulnerable and wounded by these dangerous objects.