In a context of globally networked social media, “viral” instances of collective affect and attention that coalesce around images of distant suffering merit consideration as significant moments of cosmopolitan expression. The case of Omran Daqneesh, the young Syrian “boy in the ambulance” whose photograph went viral in 2016, provides an instructive case study. Beginning with a quantitative assessment of the story’s diffusion and then tracing the trajectory of its viral diffusion and the affective response it produced as the image peaked and then subsided in public attention, analysis of the case illustrates how virality can articulate rhetorical cosmopolitanism, but also demonstrates the limits for political cosmopolitanism in producing sustained action.

中文翻译：

---

大都会的病毒式传播和“救护车中的男孩”

在全球联网的社交媒体中，集体影响和关注的“病毒”实例凝聚在遥远苦难形象的周围，值得考虑，将其视为国际化表达的重要时刻。叙利亚年轻的“救护车男孩”奥姆兰·达克奈什（Omran Daqneesh）的案子于2016年传播开来，该案提供了具有启发性的案例研究。从对故事的传播进行定量评估开始，然后追踪其传播的轨迹和图像达到顶峰后所产生的情感反应，然后平息公众的关注，对案例的分析说明了病毒式传播如何表达出修辞的世界主义，但也证明了这一点。政治世界主义在采取持续行动方面的局限性。