University of Amsterdam
Department of Media Studies
Date: June 30, 2016
I hereby recommend that the thesis prepared under my supervision by
Alina Niemann
entitled
Characterizing the medium: Instagram (photography)
and its users
be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
First Thesis Reader & Ad-visor dr. prf. dr. R. A. Rogers
Second Thesis Reader dr. P.L.M. Peter Vasterman
Characterizing the medium: Instagram
(photography) and its users
By
Alina Niemann
Master Thesis
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
in the programme New Media and Digital Culture in the Departement of Media studies at
the University of Amsterdam, 2016
Yes, this is my album, But learn ere you look, That all are expected To add to my book.
You are welcome to quiz it, The penalty is
That you add your own portrait For others to quiz.
Introductory poem in a family album that is exchanged be-tween friends, Chambers
A
BSTRACT
Alina Niemann Department of Media Studies University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2016
Keywords: New Media Studies, Instagram, Photography, Digital Methods
This digital methods research presents a method for researching Instagram pho-tography and offers a characterization of the medium. The method employed, ex-emplifies on how to retrieve and work with an Instagram data sample based on an ambiguous in contrast to an unambiguous hashtag. More specifically, the research studies how Instagram users employ Instagram photography and what function it fulfills for them based on a data sample created on the ambiguous [ #sabbatical ]. The analysis revealed that the users in my data sample use Instagram photography for a number of functions in relation to their experience they refer to through the hashtag. The functions observed are closely related to the photographic medium and are the creation of an awareness of the present, self-presentation, self-expression and self-branding as well as creating a memory archive on the platform. These func-tions are specifically facilitated by the platforms affordances and have to be under-stood in relation to them. This is because Instagram does not so much afford the social engagement between users but rather sets the focus on competitive behavior. It therefore differs in that functions from other platforms as Facebook or Twitter and can not be defined as a social network site. It seems that Instagram can better be conceptualized as a social awareness stream.
T
ABLE OF
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction . . . . 1
2 Literature review . . . . 4
2.1 A Genealogy of the role photography . . . 5
2.2 The exhibition space of online photographs: Social network sites . . . 13
2.3 An Instagram research overview . . . 20
2.3.1 Instagram background information . . . 20
2.3.2 Instagram research . . . 22
2.4 The quintessence . . . 27
3 Methodology . . . . 30
3.1 Retrieving Instagram data . . . 30
3.2 Narrowing down the data sample . . . 35
3.3 Describing the data sample . . . 35
3.4 Co-hashtag analysis . . . 36
3.5 Geo-location analysis . . . 38
3.6 Content analysis . . . 38
4 Findings or quali-quantitative analysis . . . . 40
4.1 Describing the data sample . . . 40
4.2 Co-hashtag analysis . . . 41
4.3 Geo-location analysis . . . 45
4.4 Identifying uses of Instagram photography . . . 48
4.4.1 Least likes: patricklynn . . . 48
4.4.2 Most filters: sheilazago . . . 50
4.4.3 Most hashtags: instantanethisness . . . 52
4.4.4 Most followed: brewsker . . . 53
5 Discussion & Conclusion . . . . 60
L
IST OF
F
IGURES
4.1 Complete hashtag graph visualization . . . 43
4.2 Centered view of the hashtag graph . . . 44
4.3 Hashtag graph of most used hashtags in my data sample . . . 45
4.4 Heatmap of the location based photo distribution . . . 46
4.5 Location based distribution of Instagram photographs . . . 47
4.6 Distribution of the Instagram photographs from the user instantanethis-ness (blue pins) and sheilazago (red pins) . . . 47
4.7 Collage of photographs by the Instagram user patricklynn . . . 49
4.8 Collage of photographs by the Instagram user sheilazago . . . 51
4.9 Collage of photographs by the Instagram user instantanethisness . . . 52
4.10 Collage of photographs by the Instagram user brewsker . . . 54
4.11 Instagram UI gives adding location same weight as for example adding a description . . . 56
L
IST OF
T
ABLES
3.1 Returned Data elements . . . 34
3.2 Selected users from the data sample . . . 39
4.1 Most frequently used hashtags in the data sample . . . 42
4.2 Instagram photography functions per user (b=brewsker, p=patricklynn, i=instantanethisness, s=sheilazago) . . . 57
C
HAPTER
1
I
NTRODUCTION
The ever advancing technological devices, programs and systems surrounding us, take up an increasingly central place in cultures and economies around the globe. Es-pecially the technological developments of the internet and devices such as personal computers, smartphones, tablets and sensors added another dimension of intercon-nectivity to our lives as they facilitate the creation of new forms of communication. This can for example be felt in the popularity and economic power of social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. Especially videos, graphics and photographs have become central to online communication today, forms of expression that are also facilitated by the existence of social media services as Snapchat or Instagram. Since its launch in 2010, the mobile phone application Instagram has risen to a number of roughly 75 Million users per day and has become one of the most popular services for sharing and exhibiting visual content (160+ Amazing Instagram Statistics). This can be related to the results of a Pew report which found that photos and videos are key to communication online and will become even more important in the future (Rainie, Brenner, and Purcell).
Despite its popularity and its role in relation to visual online communication how-ever, Instagram has not received wide academic attention yet (Hu, Yuheng et al.). When compared to platforms such as Twitter or Facebook for example, research into Instagram is scarcer although it offers researchers a ground for interesting insights and explorations (Ellison NB et. al. and others). Retrieving and analyzing data from
such platforms is a means of generating observational data with relatively little ef-fort when comparing to the manual generation and collection of data as for example through surveys or protocols (Rieder 2013, 1). This is then an additional advantage and offers great possibilities for small scale research projects. More specifically does the predominantly visual character of Instagram give researchers the possibility to study how users document and represent their lives, experiences and habits through images and videos (Highfield and Leaver 6). This is then also the point where this research aims to set off.
To my knowledge, Instagram has so far been researched through three different approaches, namely a social science, computer science and media studies approach. Research with a social sciences approach mainly aims to analyze the Instagram users and their behavior, motivations or social activities (Marwick; McCune). The com-puter science approach (quantitatively) sets the research focus on analyzing gender, age estimates or photograph types (Hu et al.; Manikonda, Hu and Kambhampati; Jang et al.) and the media studies approach researches the medium of photography or Instagram itself (Manovich; Tifentale). The results mainly present quantitative statements as for example defining the content categories to which the different posts on Instagram can be assigned (Hu et al.), or concluding that user nationality affects the style of photography, i.e. how users take a selfie (Manovich). In this research however, the aim is to study Instagram photography as an object in itself that has to be understood not only in relation to the photographic medium, but also in relation to the affordances of the platform, i.e. the underlying logic of the Instagram code. Through this I aim to characterize the medium of Instagram which allows a more thorough understanding of the medium as a whole. In the course of this research I moreover aim to develop a case that stands as an exemplifying method for how Instagram photography can be studied.
More specifically, this research examines how Instagram photography is used, what function it fulfills for the users and how the medium can be characterized. Danah Boyd (researcher at University of California - Berkeley) argues, Social Me-dia profiles can be seen as a means for users to write themselves into being. Users construct a specific image, i.e. representation of themselves and their experiences (Boyd). Especially shared photos serve as an important channel to construct a self-representation (Vivienne and Burgess). I want to investigate these mechanisms in more detail as well as how and if they come to work on Instagram. In relation to this, I aim to investigate how Instagram photography relates to the traditional pho-tographic medium and its functions. Another element I have to take into account is how the Instagram user interface influences and informs the users in their use of In-stagram photography. Through this I aim to understand the function of the platform in relation to other platforms such as Facebook or Twitter which have been defined as social network sites because they facilitate social interaction and communication (Boyd and Ellison).
I am going to undertake this research by generating an Instagram data sample which I will quantitatively as well as qualitatively analyze. This research therefore aims to contribute to the field of digital methods research by exemplifying an ap-proach for how to research Instagram photography. The research is therefore study-ing the social as well as the platform itself. These research aims lead to the followstudy-ing research and sub-research questions:
Research question: How do Instagram users employ Instagram photog-raphy and what function does it fulfill for them?
C
HAPTER
2
L
ITERATURE REVIEW
Since my research focuses on the use of Instagram photography, specifically in re-lation to the medium of photography and of the software affordances, I decided to structure my literature review in three sections in order to generate a theoretical back-ground for the interpretation of the Instagram data analysis.
The first section roughly maps out the most relevant research results on the role of photographs and photography for this thesis. Specifically of interest are findings re-lated to how the technological developments, as for example the adaptation of the phone camera, have influenced the role of photographs and photography in our lives. Through this, I develop a general understanding of the role of photographs and photography historically and how it has been researched and conceptualized so far which is important for the further investigations.
The second section elaborates on the main research on social network sites which allows to establish an understanding of how social network sites are defined and how they have been researched so far. This is relevant because through this I am able to construct a conceptual background in relation to which I can analyze the use of Instagram. Defining the character of Instagram is specifically interesting because the definition also determines how the Instagram use has to be understood and which role Instagram photography plays for the users.
The third section gives insights into the research conducted so far on Instagram which allows the identification of existing approaches, gained findings and results. It
moreover allows me to position this thesis in relation to previous research and argue the relevance of my study.
2.1
A Genealogy of the role photography
This section presents the research results on the role of photographs and photogra-phy that changed with the technological developments of the medium, especially the wider adaptation of the phone camera around 2005. Of interest for my research is not professional photography, but rather amateur photography as a socially embedded practice. This literature review is not an attempt to thoroughly cover all research, but rather to set up a framework for this thesis and highlight the most relevant findings in light of this research.
Since its invention the medium of photography underwent great changes. Es-pecially since its broader commercial adaptation which was mainly fueled by the Kodak photo camera producer through various marketing campaigns at the end of the 19th century, cameras, photographs and photography in general have become a mass-popular technology (Vivienne and Burgess 280). With the wider adaptation of photo cameras during the course of the 20th century also among untrained photogra-phers, the amateur use of the camera increasingly became a central element to family life, i.e. domestic life. Because the early amateur photographers use the photo cam-era mainly to capture the most important family events such as weddings, birthdays or baptisms and save keep the photos in albums, frames or shoe boxes. This form of photography has become embedded to our experience of family life since the rise of amateur photography and is about capturing selected positive moments and events of importance or relevance to a family. This type of photography has been termed ’domestic photography’, ’family photography’ or also ’snapshot photography’
(Sar-vas and Frohlich 6). As the photographic technology further developed and the costs of adopting this technology decreased, taking photographs became a more frequent activity and since then has become an important part of all sorts of events or experi-ences such as holidays, parties or ceremonies and increasingly gained relevance for a person’s self perception as we ”consciously and unconsciously transform ourselves before the camera, portraying a version of ourselves we hope to be” (Mendelson and Papacharissi 255). Researchers who studied the function and role of domestic pho-tography, argue that in domestic photography ideal images of happy family life are taken, selected and archived in order to form the family’s memories and as an effect shape the family’s identity in visual narratives. The photographs create a selective archive which is important on the one hand for the self understanding of the family as well as for the individual’s formation of identity. Researchers found these func-tions of domestic photography to be the strongest, which indicates that domestic photography plays an important role in the development of an understanding of the individual’s identity (Sarvas and Frohlich 5).
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the technological developments transformed photography from analogue to digital, making photography cheaper and the act of taking a photograph less meaningful, easier and more accessible. A scene or an ob-ject could be photographed several times without high cost or effort on the side of the photographer, fundamentally changing the affordances of photography (Vivi-enne and Burgess 281). The digital shift brought with it a new popular form of con-sumer camera, the phone camera. The digitization of photography fundamentally changed the storage of photos and slowly popularized a new practice of photo edit-ing with photo manipulation software and sharedit-ing practices via the internet (Sarvas and Frohlich 10). As an effect, these changes also affected the role photography and photographs played as a social artifact. Whereas the social practice of amateur
pho-tography was mainly focused on domestic phopho-tography, did the new affordances give rise to a new and growing user group, namely the individual photographer and photography focused on the self.
In 2005 van House et al. published one of the first empirical studies on the ef-fects of phone cameras on photographic practices and sharing habits in relation to photography. In 2005, phone cameras were relatively new and the technological in-frastructure for online sharing was not yet as stabilized, normalized and socialized as it is today in many well developed countries. Their survey delivers some interest-ing insights and predictions for the changinterest-ing role of photography in our lives. One of the conclusions emphasizes the changes the adaptation of phone cameras brought about for digital and domestic photography. Instead of taking photos of something personal or meaningful to the photographer (e.g. a wedding, a graduation etc.) as it was mostly the case with analogue domestic photography, phone cameras encour-age the ’ordinary’ to be captured (van House et al. 1854). Moreover the main use phone cameras are put to, according to their research, is self-expression of the in-dividual above other functions such as creating family memories (van House et al. 1856). Clearly, phone cameras encourage a very different use and can fulfill a differ-ent function than analogue cameras did with domestic photography. Based on their findings, van House et al. created a list of functions the phone cameras fulfilled for their respondents:
• Digital photographs are used as a means for self-expression, mainly with aes-thetic images
• Digital photographs serve as self-presentation, i.e. creating photographs that are aimed to influence others’ view of oneself
• Shared photographs help maintain and create a social relationship
• They also can fulfill a practical function and for example be used instead of copying etc.
As with domestic photography, the function of constructing memories is still present although other functions have added to the list. Most important is the in-creased engagement with the individual self which has become more present. Only some three years later, in 2008, Jose van Dijck published her literary research into the effects of the technological developments on the role of photography, i.e. the function photographs and especially domestic photography fulfill in peoples lives. Whereas the research carried out by van House et al. is an empirical social sciences study that gives specific insights into the effects of phone cameras, Jose van Dijck’s work sketches out the overall research into the developments of photography. In her paper, van Dijck especially focuses on two of the five uses of photographs as outlined before, namely the ability of photographs to function as collective or personal mem-ories and the use of photographs as a means of self-expression, i.e. the formation of identity. Where van House et al. identify the exact effects of phone cameras on digital photography, Jose van Dijck identifies a general shift in the use of photography since digital photography. According to her analysis, photography since the 19th century until today has underwent a fundamental transformation.
When the camera at the end of the 19th century was mainly used in families with children in order to create memories, today cameras are part of any mobile device and are mainly used by individuals and for the individual’s purpose such as the pre-sentation and communication of the self (Van Dijck 60). The technological develop-ments have thus fueled a transformation from ’domestic photography’ to ’personal photography’ (Mendelson and Paparichissi). But not only the uses of photographs
have changed, also the function photographs fulfill for us is fundamentally different. In the early days of domestic photography, a photograph was a valuable object, kept safe as a physical objects in family albums, frames and shoe boxes. In these days, photographs served to create memories, capturing moments ’as it were’. As van Dijck argues, the photograph today however has lost its reliability since digital pho-tography gave rise to the increased manipulability of photographs, thus questioning its capability of creating truthful memories (van Dijck 59).
The function of the photograph as a means of forming a self-identity, i.e. using it for self-expression, for maintaining a social relationship and self-presentation as outlined already in 2005 by van House et al., appears to have become ever more important in 2008 as van Dijck observes and that this function is closely intertwined with the online sharing platforms the photographs circulate on (Van Dijck 62).
Through the rise of web 2.0, sharing sites and social platforms, the reach of pho-tographs increased and became also strong in digital communication, replacing text messages:
In this way, the camera phone merges verbal and visual modalities - the latter seemingly adapting to the former. Pictures become more like spoken language as photographs are turning into the new currency for social interaction. (Van Dijck 62)
Van Dijck’s exploration into the research on the development of photography re-veals that the predictions made by van House et al. three years earlier have become true. Digital photographs have become ubiquitous online, even adding to texts as a means of communication. It is moreover interesting, how the functions of pho-tographs change and that the ability of digital phopho-tographs to function as a reliable source for creating personal and collective memories can now be questioned.
In his 2010 paper Daniel Palmer explores the by van Dijck observed function of digital photographs in relation to the formation of self-identity more closely. To be more precise, he investigates how sharing sites or platforms extent the functioning of digital photographs as a medium through which individuals form their identity. Compared to the technological standards of 2005, phone cameras and technical in-frastructure have greatly improved in 2010, therefore fostering visual communication to an extent that caused researchers to conceptualize photo sharing as sharing expe-riences itself (Palmer 155). Palmer states that the use of phone cameras has become normalized and socialized especially in the lives of young people who perceive pho-tographs as ephemeral objects that create an economy of presence, something that constitutes the now and is gone after a second (Palmer 158). Palmer here then sup-ports the argument put forward by Jose van Dijck where she questions the usability of digital photographs for creating memories (Palmer 159).
He conceptualizes the memories created through digital photographs on such platforms as something fluid that shapes the present, less as a static and finished event of the past. On the other hand however, online photo sharing platforms such as Flickr.com give users the opportunity to collectively share photographs, setting the personal experience in a wider context, creating connections to other users and pho-tographs, thus creating socially mediated archives. Palmer however sees the function of these archives not so much in relation to the formation of memory, but as a means to
[...] display to others of one’s personal and social identity, for the manifestation of public visibility and the social affirmation of our existence. (Palmer 167)
Here again, the most important function of digital photographs and their online lives appears to be the expression of the self and the creation of identity. Another
important finding we can extract from this, is the importance of the sharing platforms or sites the photographs circulate on and the community or publics it is related to. In order to understand the role of digital photography one has to take into account the ways in which it is shared, i.e. distributed, something noted also by Vivienne and Burgess in their 2013 paper on the remediation of the personal photograph (Vivienne and Burgess 281).
Following their argumentation, it is not so much about what photographs one takes, but much more about the digital environment the photographers/users place the photographs, and share them, in. They stress the role of online platforms and social network sites which cultivate, as they phrase it, ”hybrid practices of personal image-sharing and networked publics” (Vivienne and Burgess 281), supporting the development of a new form of public life and communication. Through these online channels, meaning is generated for the photographer/user where the online platform or site functions as a personal exhibition space or a curator (Vivienne and Burgess 282).
As Vivienne and Burgess’ research shows, the role of photography in our lives today is highly connected to the platforms they are exhibited and shared on. The scholars Hjorth and Hendry distinguish in their 2015 paper ’A Snapshot of Social Media: Camera Phone Practices’ two phases of online photo sharing since the rise of phone cameras. The first phase of online photo sharing was marked by uploading images from the phone camera or digital camera onto the computer and, in a sec-ond step, onto curating platforms like Flickr, creating a networked visuality (Ito and Okabe qu. in Hjorth and Hendry 1). Since the technology of mobile phones further advanced however, photographs are increasingly being shared directly via smart-phone apps like Instagram, making sharing much easier and more direct. Hjorth and Hendry moreover argue that these apps allow the user to create an ’emplaced
visual-ity’ (Hjorth and Hendry 1). These sharing apps give the users several options, from editing of the photograph with pre-set filters over geo-tagging to spreading them simultaneously across several other platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Hjorth and Hendry argue that the affordances of photo sharing apps and especially Instagram facilitates a new form of mediation of photography:
Emplacing involves the entanglement of movement and placing across temporal, geographic, electronic, and spatial dimensions. From nostalgia filters that evoke and emplace another time to geotagging which emplaces the image to a geographic location with fixed times, camera phone app images constantly emplace as they move through places, space, and socialities. (Hjorth and Hendry 2)
These sharing services allow the users to share personal experiences across time and space. (Hjorth and Hendry 2), therefore emplacing the photographer/user.
To summarize this short investigation into the research on the role of the prac-tice of photography and photographs especially since the rise of phone cameras and online sharing platforms, it can be stated that fundamental changes have taken place. Through the technological developments and the increased availability of digital cameras and phone cameras, the main practice of amateur photography has evolved from domestic photography to personal photography (van Dijck). Whereas (ama-teur) photography since the late 19th century was mainly about capturing special or meaningful moments of family life in order to construct memories and as an effect, shape identities, it has transformed into an almost daily practice of the individual, mainly as a means of self-expression opening up the aesthetics of the ordinary (van House et al.). The function of photographs as creating memories and archives came into question because of the manipulability of digital photographs and the increased
use of photographs as a means to reinforce the present rather than the past (van Di-jck; Palmer). Digital photographs have become ubiquitous online, allowing to share experiences, sometimes in real time, and becoming an integral element in digital communication. Therefore, the role of digital photographs got more and more inter-twined with the practice of sharing and thus the online services that facilitate this practice and function as curators or exhibition spaces. Photographs are remediated through online sharing platforms and practices and the functions of photography such as self-expression, formation of the identity and self-presentation have to be understood in relation to them (Vivienne and Burgess; Hjorth and Hendry). I will therefore further investigate the function of online platforms in relation to the forma-tion of the identity throughout the next secforma-tion.
2.2
The exhibition space of online photographs: Social network
sites
Since the evolution of websites, the rise of online services and platforms and their increased use and presence in western daily life, researchers have been interested in these phenomena, trying to grasp their influence on our life. Especially the first more popular and wider adapted platforms with a mainly socially oriented function, as for example Friendster (founded in 2002), mySpace (founded in 2003) or Facebook (founded in 2004) have received great attention (Chapman). The usership of these early social network sites were mainly teenagers and young people and therefore most of the research of that time investigates social network sites in relation on how they affect these young users. In 2007, Boyd and Ellison made an attempt to map the research that has been conducted until then on such ’social network sites’, as they define them in their article:
We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.(2)
The elements that constitute this rather broad definition are the sites affordances that facilitate the user’s social activities online. Social network sites allow the user to make new connections, maintain connections and manage them online and this it what defines these sites above any other function according to Boyd and Ellison. Sites that fall under this definition have, according to Boyd and Ellison, until that date (2007) mainly been researched in regard of the following:
[...] the bulk of sns research has focused on impression management and friend-ship performance, networks and network structure, online/offline connections, and privacy issues. (9)
Most interesting for my research, when considering all of these approaches, is the research that examines the function of social network sites in relation to impression management, a sociological approach that has often been taken up by the likes of He-witt and Forte; Quan-Haase and Collins; Mendelson and Papacharissi. Impression management is a concept that comes from sociological research and suggests that people actively control and manage information in order to form others’ opinion and impression about something. Of interest here is specifically the act of steering others’ image of oneself, an activity which is referred to more commonly as self-presentation. The sociologist Erving Goffman popularized the idea by arguing, that we engage in impression management in everyday life and that it is a part of every activity we perform (Bonatri and Schlenker).
Research into impression management in relation to social network sites thus aims to understand the function of social network sites in relation to how users en-gage on these sites and employ them in order to create a specific representation of themselves and influence others’ impression of them. More specifically, users en-gage in social network sites to create, negotiate and perform identity by expressing interests and tastes (Liu). Another important element that contributes to the self-presentation of the user are the connections that are laid, because the ’friends’ a user makes online, influence the users image (Ellison and Boyd 9). Danah Boyd further researched the effects of online communities, i.e. ’networked publics’ on the user’s self-presentation in another essay published in 2007. Investigating how teenagers engage in online communities, she discovered that the online public the users inter-act with and inter-act in, play a crucial role for the formation of their identity (Boyd 2007, 11). This process is especially important for teenagers but is nevertheless a lifelong process applicable to adults as well. When creating online profiles and engaging in online communities, the users have specific audiences in mind, creating a desired self-presentation sometimes for varying audiences (one profile for the parents, one for work etc.) (Mendelson and Papacharissi 252). Through impression management, the users try to evoke a specific self presentation that is aimed towards positioning themselves in these communities and as an effect also in society. Scholars argue that the online activities of the individual contribute as much to the performance of the identity as their offline lifes do (Buckingham; Turkle). Danah Boyd specifies this characteristic element of social network sites already in an earlier essay in 2003:
Jenny Sunden (2003) argues that, in order to exist online, we must write our-selves into being. From the flow of text in chatrooms to the creation of Profiles, people are regularly projecting themselves into the Internet so that others may view their presence and interact directly with them. (Boyd 2003)
It is interesting to note that the main focus is set on ’writing into being’, not tak-ing into account other aspects of todays online communication as for example pho-tographs. This may be explained due to the fact that at the very beginning of the 21st century, photographs were not yet as present on the web as they are today and online sharing platforms sites were still in their early stage. Moreover, as outlined in chapter 2.1, it was not after 2005 that phone camras were more widely adapted and therefore able to clear the way for an increased visual online communication. In a 2011 paper, Mendelson and Papacharissi identified this gap in scholarly attention and made an effort of researching the function of photographs in online communica-tion and self-presentacommunica-tion. They researched the funccommunica-tion of Facebook photo galleries in relation to the formation of the self and ”interrogate[d] the photographs [...] as important forms of symbolic creation of their [(the users)] world.” (252). As they found in their qualitative analysis of college students’ Facebook photos, the galleries contained photographs with repeatedly the same aesthetics and content. The pho-tographs shared were highly conventional and mostly recorded the subjects social life in contrast to for example the academic life. The photographs they analyzed in their project mainly have a social function, namely to build and maintain the sub-jects position in a community, which is the audience they address. From this the researchers here conclude that the photos shared on this social network site, are well chosen and do not represent all photos the person may have taken. As Mendelson and Papacharissi make clear that in personal photography the audience the photog-rapher has in mind is crucial for the creation of the photograph, the distribution as well as the perception of it. When taking a photograph, the photographer has a spe-cific audience in mind which is addressed through the distribution: by putting the photograph in a shoebox hidden under a bed, by publishing it in a social network site or by using it as a Christmas card. When the photograph is distributed, the audience
or community that is connected to it, is crucial for its perception, for example when other users are tagged on a photograph distributed on Facebook. The photograph fulfills a function, which Mendelson and Papacharissi argue, is mainly a social one (268).
These shared experiences are exhibited in galleries which are collectively con-structed. Through tagging and commenting, a collective visual representation is build that continuously is reformed as photographs are deleted and added or tags removed or replaced. Referring to the findings from section 2.1, the Facebook gal-leries do not function as a memory or archive but function as a reference for the self in the present (Van Dijck; Palmer).
The community a photograph is shared with and lives in, on a social network site (e.g. through tagging, commenting etc.) is a crucial factor in the photograph’s function for the user/photographer. The publicness of social network sites as Nancy K. Bayn and Danah Boyd put it in their 2012 paper ”Socially Mediated Publicness: An Introduction” is then also another area of research in social network sites that scholars have been interested in, since this technology allows the users to reach a number of people unprecedented ever before (Bayn and Boyd 321).
They argue that thinking of audiences in the context of social network sites does not suffice anymore to grasp the meaning of extended and layered audiences that can be addressed through these technologies and the collapsed environment they create. Bayn and Boyd therefore introduce the concept of ’networked public’, a term which allows to re-conceptualize the ’audience’ of social network sites. Because on social network sites, clearly addressing an audience becomes more difficult and blurred than it was the case with other media before. As Sherry Turkle already argued in the late 1990s, does the internet allow us to handle and play out multiple identities, i.e. give us a stage to handle the different identities we construct in relation to
dif-ferent audiences. A profile on Facebook for example can be addressed to a difdif-ferent audience than a profile on LinkedIn. Although different platforms offer a space for addressing relatively specified ’networked publics’, the boundaries still blur. Let us think of a possible scenario: a police officer may intend his informal Facebook profile only to be a means for the communication with close friends, it still might be viewed accidentally by his superior or by the public. Although it can be argued that users always have a specific audience in mind when creating profiles and publishing con-tent on social network sites, there are nevertheless different forms of awareness for the gap between the audience a user has in mind and the actual networked public that can be reached due to privacy settings and platform affordances. As becomes clear from the research carried out by Mendelson and Papacharissi, the audiences or the networked publics play an important role for the function of photographs and vice versa for the presentation of the self and thus the formation of identity.
To sum up, the early research on social network sites, as Boyd and Ellison de-fined them, has among other topics been focusing on impression management users engage in online. Researchers found that different elements contribute to a users self-presentation on a social network site. When using a social network site, users employ these platforms to construct an online self by expressing tastes and inter-ests, constructing profiles that are aimed towards creating a desired image of the self (Liu). Important are also the friends a user makes, i.e. the connections a user lays. The community a user engages in appears to affect a users formation of the self. This is, because social network sites allow users to experience a new extent of publicness and users have to navigate through these ’networked publics’ as Bayn and Boyd defined to better grasp the difference to audiences that can be addressed via other media.
role in the formation of the self and therefore also in impression management, the function of photographs in relation to impression management on social network sites has not been addressed widely before roughly 2007. One reason being that images were not as present then as they are today online. In 2011 Mendelson and Papacharissi made an attempt to investigate the function of Facebook photo galleries for American college students. According to their findings, Facebook galleries are a collaborative activity since users can add photos to each others galleries through tagging and engage on others photographs through commenting or liking. These photographs are then also rather used to create a collective identity in the presence and share an experience and less a reliable archive or memory tool since photographs can be deleted or tags removed. They also found that the photos uploaded to the platform presented similar content and aesthetic, focusing on the individual or a group and highlighting a shared experience or activity. From their research can be concluded that these photo galleries help building and maintaining a users social relationships as well as creating a specific self-presentation for the community the users engage in, which is also the public the users want to address.
With the further technological developments, among other factors, of mobile phones and Internet infrastructure, services such as Instagram emerged, focusing solely on visual communication. As we know from section 2.1, images are an integral element in online communication today and Instagram currently is one of the most popular visual communication platforms. In the course of the next section I therefore want to map the research that has been conducted so far on Instagram.
2.3
An Instagram research overview
In this section I will discuss the research conducted so far on the online photo and video sharing platform Instagram.The natively mobile app allows the instant shar-ing of photos, images, memes and videos and its rise can most likely be linked on the one hand to the technological developments of mobile devices as well as to the improvement of internet connections worldwide. Instagram contributes to the in-creased ubiquity of images on the web because it specifically facilitates visual com-munication. But how do the Instagram users actually use Instagram and which func-tion does it fulfill for them? Especially of interest for this thesis is, how Instagram can be conceptualized in relation to social network sites.
2.3.1
Instagram background informationLaunched in 2010, Instagram has risen to one of the most popular photo and video sharing platforms worldwide, reaching over 400 Million users only by fall of 2015 (Olanoff). Although also accessible in a limited version (it is not possible to post photographs) through a desktop computer browser, Instagram originated and still is intended as a mobile app that especially facilitates the instant sharing, and the easy manipulation of photographs and videos from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The users of Instagram are mainly female (68 % in 2014) and over 90 % are under the age of 35. Moreover, the majority of Instagram users (75 % ) come from outside the US, indicating that it is a world wide phenomena (Smith). One important feature of the app is the easy manipulation of photos and videos that allows the users to enhance looks of the photographs and adds a professional touch to them. The app started with a small number of default filters such as ’EarlyBird’, ’Mayfair’ or ’1977’. Over time the number of filters available to the users increased (from 16 in 2010 to
25 today) and advanced photo editing options such as tweaking the lighting, the focus and many others have been added (Manikonda et al. 2). Instagram now has become a powerful and extensive photo and video manipulation service. Next to the strong feature of easy visual manipulation the service moreover facilitates the instant sharing across multiple platforms (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr and Swarm) in just one finger click, i.e. tap. Before posting, the users can add captions to their photos and videos, use the # symbol in order to add keywords to them, tag or add other users by using the symbol and can add geo-location information to the post.
Next to posting videos and photos online, the app moreover allows a user to cre-ate connections to other users by ’following’ them and by being followed by others. The connections made are asymmetric, meaning that if the user A follows B, the user B does not have to follow user A back (Manikonda et al. 2). When registering, all posts made by a user are accessible by any Instagram user by default, i.e. they are public. It is however possible to change the default settings so that a user’s posts become private and are only accessible to users the user approved of.
The user’s ’home’ site, which is the main content ’stream’ next to the user’s own ’stream’ page on Instagram, contains posts of other users the user ’follows’. The content here is presented in reverse chronological order. Instagram encourages the user to follow others by making suggestions of popular accounts, often accounts of corporations or celebrities who already have many followers. A user can engage with the content of other users by ’liking it’ (clicking a heart button) or by commenting on it. Next to following other users, this is the only user-to-user interaction possible because the app does not for example allow to sent text messages between users, which means that every communication is per default ’public’ on Instagram and can be viewed by the user’s followers. All interactions related to a user’s activities on the app are listed in an update page, dividing the activities into interactions in relation to
a user’s own content and interactions in relation to other users content. These are the platform affordances which facilitate a specific use, which, as is stated in the about section of the website, has the following aim:
Instagram is a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures. Snap a photo with your mobile phone, then choose a filter to transform the image into a memory to keep around forever. We’re building Instagram to allow you to experience moments in your friends’ lives through pictures as they happen. We imagine a world more connected through photos. (Instagram.com)
The app allows instantaneous sharing of photographs which, as the description claims, is supposed to be similar to sharing experiences itself. This function then aims to specifically facilitate social interaction through images. At the same time, In-stagram also aims to be a memory tool that allows one to keep photographs forever, just like the photo albums we keep or kept in our shelves. This mission statement highlights the main functions the app wants to have for its users and offers an in-teresting discussion point for the last section of this thesis. I will therefore relate the findings of the data analysis to the stated mission of Instagram in the discussion section.
2.3.2
Instagram researchIn the further course of this section I elaborate on the research conducted on the functions and the use of Instagram in order to build a framework for my own anal-ysis. As mentioned, Instagram has to my knowledge so far mainly been researched through three different approaches, namely a social science, computer science and media studies approach. The social sciences approach aims to analyze the Instagram
users and their behavior, motivation or social activities (Marwick; McCune). The computer science approach (quantitatively) analyzes gender, age estimates or pho-tograph types (Hu et al.; Manikonda, Hu and Kambhampati; Jang et al.) and the media studies approach, researches the medium of photography itself (Manovich; Tifentale).
As probably one of the first to research Instagram, McCune investigated, using a social science approach, users motivation for using Instagram. McCune found that there are different motivations users have, ranging from ’community’, ’shar-ing’, ’seeing’ to ’documentation’ and others that often blur (76). He concludes that motivations can not be narrowed down to one driving force, but are multiple. He nevertheless comes to the conclusion that overall Instagram uses are mainly socially motivated, which indicates that Instagram might be considered a social network site although the app does not afford extended textual communication.
A team of American computer scientists however came to the conclusion to de-fine Instagram as a social awareness stream rather than as a social network site. In their research, they made an attempt to investigate ’User Activities, Demographics, Social Network Structure and User-Generated Content on Instagram’ (Manikonda et al.). Their aim was to investigate how Instagram differs from other photo sharing platforms such as Flickr and other social network sites such as Twitter, thus trying to define what Instagram is. From their quantitative analysis, they identified that Insta-gram differs very much from the other platforms. Although InstaInsta-gram, just as Flickr, is a platform for sharing photographs, the photographs shared on Flickr are rather high quality photos whereas the photos shared on Instagram are mobile phone snap-shots of everyday life. Instagram users more often than on other platforms share their GPS information with their photographs, thus placing their photographs in space and time. Moreover, users do not post lengthy comments on each others
pho-tographs, communication therefore is mainly visual. The researchers come to the conclusion that Instagram is more of a social awareness stream than a typical social network site. This term is mostly used in computer science research approaches and has been defined by Naaman et al. as a form of communication that is determined by three main distinguishing factors. First of all the communication has a public or personal-public character. Secondly, the communicated content is determined by the communication medium’s affordances that limit the content. And thirdly, the production and consumption of this form of communication is driven by the social space facilitated by the communication medium (Naaman et al. 189). In contrast to Danah Boyd’s definition of social network sites which highlights the social element that is facilitated by the services, this definition sets the focus rather on the form the communication takes on these platforms. Both definitions appear to be useful for the different approaches and the depends mainly on the aim and focus of the researcher. In the further course of this thesis I aim to be able to understand which concept is most useful in relation for my analysis.
In another 2014 paper, Hu et al. sketch out, using a computer science approach the main characteristics of photographs that can be found on Instagram by retrieving the main content types. Through their quantitative analysis, they identified eight main categories the photographs shared on Instagram can be assigned to. These categories are friends, food, gadgets, captioned photos, activity, selfie and fashion. This reveals the variety of photographic content shared via Instagram.
Further research into Instagram has particularly focused on the competitive be-havior that can be observed on such platforms as Instagram, aimed towards getting more likes, followers or comments in order to reach a status of platform celebrity, an activity also related to as ’self-branding’ (Marwick 139). Microcelebrity on a social network can in theory be reached by any user that is able to elate a large amount of
fans with her online creative activities. Often these users aiming for such a status en-gage in a form of enhanced self-presentation, i.e. self-branding where they follow a conscious strategy of seeing themselves as a brand or product that is communicated to other users (Marwick 140). These conscious and purposeful activities go beyond the normally observed activities around a users impression management, which a user often also engages in unconsciously. They are however clearly related to it:
Microcelebrity is a mindset and a collection of self-presentation practices endemic in social media, in which users strategically formulate a profile, reach out to fol-lowers, and reveal personal information to increase attention and thus improve their online status. (Marwick 138)
Somewhat related to this understanding of Instagram users, is the research by Alise Tifentale and Lev Manovich who also try to categorize the types of photographs found on Instagram along the lines of competition. Where Marwick however focuses on the social competition related to status and celebrity in which the photographs are only a means to communicate a specific image, Manovich and Tifentale relate competition to the practice of photography itself. In their 2015 paper ’Competitive Photography and the Presentation of the Self” they argue that Instagram stands in a tradition of a specific type of photography. As they state, domestic or personal photography does not grasp the character of Instagram photography. Based on a historical analysis of the practice of photography by Alise Tifentale, they come up with two contrasting modes of photography that can be found throughout history but more specifically also on Instagram. These are ’competitive photographs’ in con-trast to ’non-competitive photographs’ (12).
Manovich and Tifentale argue that there are Instagram users, who engage in cre-ating highly aesthetic and skilled photo streams on their profiles. Tifentale thinks
that these Instagram users stand in line with photographers in between profession-ality and amateurism. She argues that there has always been a type of photography, carried out by untrained but nevertheless skilled photographers that has not been acknowledged in a historic conceptualization of photography. These photographers have always produced high quality photographs to be exhibited and shared with the public and peers. She identifies this form of photography on an international level and argues that it also has a strong social element because these photographs were intended to be shared with the public and peers:
I believe that the term competitive photography brings into focus a large segment of photographic practices, contemporary and historical alike, which so far has es-caped the attention of scholars. History of photography has been focused mostly on two areas: avant-garde art and amateur photography. Competitive photogra-phy occupies a liminal space where these two areas overlap. (Tifentale)
These are elements Manovich and Tifentale recognize on Instagram as well and they conclude that Instagram photo culture is nothing ’new’ in that sense, but that the more skilled and aesthetic photographs on Instagram can be conceptualized as competitive-photography which allows to reinterpret the meaning of these photographs. One can argue however that the distinction of competitive vs. non-competitive pho-tography on Instagram is rather broad, focusing solely on the medium of photogra-phy itself and not taking into account the mediation taking place through the app. It does however put photography as a practice and tradition back into the under-standing of Instagram photographs which has not been taken into account by many scholars before who conceptualized the photographs only in relation to Instagram as a social network site.
Manovich investigated the selfie culture on Instagram in a global project called ’selfie-city’. In this project he specifically investigated differences in the selfie photo culture due to location and demographics. Manovich argues that Instagram is not used in the same way all over the world, there are regional differences and among subcultures that have to be taken into account for any type of research conducted on Instagram. This is an important notion researchers should be aware of. When looking at the de-mographics of Instagram users however, these factors should be clear as for example the majority of the Instagram users is below 35 which means that the age plays an important factor in the understanding of any findings.
2.4
The quintessence
Looking back on the insights of the past sections, I am now able to formulate the interpretative framework for my further analysis. There are several elements I have to take into account when analyzing the Instagram photographs. As my literature review shows, the photographs online have several functions for their users. Today, the photographic practice especially with phone cameras are targeted towards the social network sites they ’live’ on and can have different functions for the users. It is therefore important to understand the Instagram photographs not as a purely pho-tographic medium on itself but to understand the practice in relation to the platform and especially in relation to the ’networked public’ or audience the users want to address (Ellison and Boyd; Bayn and Boyd; Palmer). It will be interesting to exam-ine which function is most promexam-inent in my data sample. One important function is the use of photographs as a means of self-expression and self-presentation, i.e. im-pression management and researchers argue that personal photography especially is used for this end (Mendelson and Papcharissi; Boyd 2007). It is moreover an
impor-tant function as researchers argue that especially social network sites offer a stage for these activities and that users often create a desired image of themselves on these platforms (Liu; Turkle; Van Dijck). Another strong function however found in the use of photo galleries on Facebook for example, is the use of photographs as a means of sharing experiences and enhancing social relations (Mendelson and Papacharissi). Photographs can also be used to create an awareness of the presence in contrast to creating memories or archives (Palmer; Van Dijck).
As my exploration on existing Instagram research revealed, the different approaches taken up so far mainly focused on quantitative statements on the use of Instagram, i.e. what content categories can be found on Instagram, who are the users of Insta-gram etc (Hu et al.; Manovich; Manikonda et al.). With my analysis however I aim to give a dual view on the content found on Instagram, taking into account not only the software service but also the photographic medium. I aim to be able to come to a conclusion about what role Instagram photography (not Instagram) can have for the users.
To sum it up, these are the main notions I take away from my literary research that I want to take into account for the further analysis:
1. What is Instagram considering used definitions as social network stream (Boyd) or social awareness stream (Naaman et al.)?
2. Instagram is a photo and video sharing app and when analyzing the pho-tographs, they have not only to be seen as cultural or social artifacts, but should also be considered in the broader tradition of photography (Tifentale and Manovich). 3. When examining how the Instagram users engage on the platform, one has to
ex-ample the function of photographs as a memory tool and consider the findings in relation to them (Van Dijck).
C
HAPTER
3
M
ETHODOLOGY
This chapter elaborates on the methods I used and tools I employed in order to trieve, construct and analyze the Instagram data. It is my aim for this thesis to search how Instagram users employ Instagram photography and how their use re-lates to the researched functions of photographs as creating memories, forming an identity, or establishing an awareness of the present and if and how the platform’s software enhances or changes the function of Instagram photography for them. In order to research this, I first explain the reasoning behind the creation of a suitable data sample.
3.1
Retrieving Instagram data
Instagram data can be retrieved through the Instagram API and there are different methods and tools available for doing so. For the purpose of this research I used the ”Instagram Hashtag Explorer” tool developed by Bernhard Rieder, Associate Profes-sor at the University of Amsterdam and hosted by the Amsterdam Digital Methods Initiative. The tool is specifically developed for research purposes and allows, to retrieve either the latest Instagram photographs tagged with a specific hashtag or photographs posted around a specific geo-location 1. Every tool that sits on top of
the Instagram API has some limitations which determine the dataset to a certain 1The tool can be accessed via this link https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/
extent. In this case the maximum amount of retrievable items i.e. Instagram pho-tographs is limited to a total number of 20.000. Considering the possibilities of this tool and the platform affordances, I concluded that for the purpose of my research it would be most fruitful to create the data sample on the basis of a specific hashtag. The alternative of generating a data sample based on a specific latitude and longi-tude was discarded because a data sample based on a geo-location is best suited for the analysis of Instagram activities in specific areas of the world in relation to for example a landmark, an institution or an event. Since this research however aims to investigate the characteristics of the uses of Instagram photography, I decided to base my data sample on a hashtag instead. The selection of a hashtag already deter-mines to a certain extent the character of the data sample and gives the researcher some control over the sample content. When browsing through Instagram, one gets an impression about the different posts and hashtags used and it quickly becomes clear that there are different types of hashtags. Hashtags vary from relatively unam-biguous and descriptive ones as [ #selfie ], [ #flowers ] or [ #bungiejump ] to more open and ambiguous hashtags that relate either to a larger experience as for exam-ple [ #motherhood ] or [ #work ], an abstract concept [ #motivation ] or for examexam-ple a specific feeling [ #happy ], [ #sad ]. Based on this, it can be assumed that a data sample generated on an unambiguous hashtag as for example [ #cat ] would be rela-tively homogeneous in photographic content. Such a data sample would most likely contain photographs of cats which is interesting when researching for example how Instagram users portray cats online. For the purpose of this study however, such a data sample would be too homogeneous in content. A data sample based on a more ambiguous hashtag as for example [ #freedom ] however can be expected to contain much more divers photographic content and therefore offers a more varied ground for a photographic content analysis. The Instagram users refer to such an ambiguous
hashtag in different ways and forms and produce varied photographic content that documents different forms of expression. Since this categorization is loosely based on my own observations and considerations previous to generating a data sample, further research into this is necessary in order to validate my assumptions.
Considering the different types of hashtags, I concluded to use a hashtag in rela-tion to a larger experience. Because, as my literary research revealed, photography plays an important role in relation to these. After browsing through Instagram by exploring different hashtags, I came up with the idea of retrieving Instagram data re-lated to a sabbatical leave. The [ #sabbatical ] refers to an originally biblical and thus religious practice describing a time period of rest or a break from work. A sabbatical leave or a sabbatical year also has a long tradition in the academic field and over the past years, such a gap year also became increasingly socially and culturally accepted as a break in a professional career in the free market (McDearmid). Previous research into motivations behind a sabbatical leave indicate that the respective person expe-riences it as a time of transmission (Furbish). Since its increased popularity, some empirical research has been conducted and found different motivations for a sabbat-ical leave. These often lie in the search for more balance between work and free time as well as in a pursuit of a personal project or goal (Furbish 2009). It can therefore be concluded that taking a sabbatical leave is a very personal experience and can be un-derstood also as a time of individual change or transition. When browsing through the photographs with this hashtag I found that they were rather diverse in content and form as well as in user demographics (nationality) compared to other more pop-ular and common ambiguous hashtags as for example [ #motherhood ]. I therefore decided to base my further research on a data sample generated from this hashtag.
A quick manual search on Instagram via the web interface revealed that there are a total of 29.867 photos posted on Instagram with the [#sabbatical] by April 2016.
In relation to the most popular ambiguous hashtags as for example [ #love ], [ #me ] or [ #beautiful ] which have over 10 mio. Instagram posts, the frequency of this hashtag seems mid-ranged quantitatively. Due to the limitations of the API I was therefore able to retrieve a large portion of the photographs available which formed my initial data pool. By querying the Instagram API through the ’Hashtag Explorer’ script, I was able to retrieve a table containing data of 18.013 of these items. It is not clear to me why I was not able to retrieve a complete number of 20.000 items via the API and it exceeds the scope of this thesis to investigate this. Because there are several technical elements that influence the data retrieval, starting with the Hashtag Explorer tool itself, over the API restrictions to the privacy settings of the Instagram users. I argue however that this does not bias this research because this initial data sample will be further narrowed down for the actual analysis.
When querying the API, the script merges the data into three different files. The main file is a .tab file that contains the information about the items (Instagram pho-tographs). Additionally I also received a graph file, containing only data about the hashtags the items are connected with, which can be opened and edited in a graph software as for example Gephi. Another file contains additional information about the respective Instagram users who uploaded the photographs. The main file which will be most important for my quantitative analysis contains the following informa-tion:
Value Description
id ID of the photograph
created time publishing date and time of the photograph
location geo coordinates of the photograph if they were provided no comments the number of comments the photograph received on
no likes the number of likes the photograph received on Instagram filter the Instagram filter applied to the photograph
links the link to the Instagram post
caption the description the user added to the Instagram photograph thumbnail a thumbnail preview of the uploaded photograph
tags the hashtag the photograph was tagged with
user name the Instagram user name of the user who uploaded the pho-tograph
user id the user id of the Instagram user who uploaded the photo-graph
no media in queries number of media items per user in the data sample
user bio the description the user who uploaded the photograph wrote for his Instagram profile
user website the website URL of the user who uploaded the photograph user no media total number of media items the user has uploaded to
In-stagram
user followed by The number of followers the user who uploaded the photo-graph has on Instagram
user follows The number of Instagram users the user who uploaded the photograph follows on Instagram
3.2
Narrowing down the data sample
The API thus allows to export rather detailed information about the photographs and the users related to it. Browsing through the data sample, it becomes clear that on the one hand the file is rather difficult to handle with the technological devices at hand and on the other hand still contains too many items not necessarily relevant for my further analysis. The data sample has a total number of 18.013 unique Instagram photographs. The photographs have been uploaded by a total number of 4.492 dif-ferent Instagram users. Overall, the majority of the users (71 % i.e. 3.208 users) have uploaded only one photograph tagged with [ #sabbatical ]. This might indicate that these users did not use the hashtag because they are actually on a substantial period of a sabbatical leave, but rather to express a related experience or feeling. There are however a number of 241 (5 %) users who have uploaded more than 10 photographs tagged with the [ #sabbatical ]. It can therefore be argued that these users actually experience a sabbatical leave in some form and document or communicate it via In-stagram. I will thus base my further analysis on the photographs they have uploaded and specifically narrow my data sample down to their photographs. Because this al-lows me to first generate an understanding of how a specific user employs Instagram photography in relation to the [ #sabbatical ] and second relate the different users to each other. The final data sample then contains a total of 10.583 unique Instagram photographs uploaded by 241 unique users.
3.3
Describing the data sample
In order to develop a first basic understanding of the data sample, I descriptively an-alyzed the photographs and users who uploaded the photographs. The users are of
specific relevance, since my analysis will mainly be targeted on them and how they use Instagram in order to present themselves and their experience. I first conducted a simple statistical analysis directly on the table using Libre Office Calc. I calculated the averages and counts of relevant data elements using the software’s functions. More specifically, I calculated the time span within which the Instagram photographs in my data sample have been posted and how the Instagram photographs with the [ #sabbatical ] of the different users relate to the amount of photographs with other hashtags posted by them. Additionally, I calculated the use of filters and the average of the number of followers among the Instagram users in my data sample. The pur-pose of undertaking these calculations were data driven, i.e. I focused on aspects in my data sample that seemed specifically interesting and relevant. These calculations then gave me a general understanding about my data sample.
3.4
Co-hashtag analysis
In order to analyze how the Instagram users understand the [ #sabbatical ], i.e. to grasp the context of meaning they place it in, I decided to conduct a co-hashtag anal-ysis. I first used the software Libre Office Calc to count the most used hashtags in the dataset, i.e. to gather an understanding of the hashtag network. I therefore gen-erated a top 30 list of the most used hashtags in my data sample (Table 4.1). This first analysis served me as focus for the next steps.
Visualizations are a useful aid for the analysis of complex networks which can be hard when only working with data tables (Bastian, Heymann and Mathieu). I therefore used Gephi, an open source graph analysis software that allows to create graph networks from gdf files that makes the analysis of relations between data items possible. In order to tease out the structure and the relations within the larger hashtag
network, I therefore imported the gdf file, the ’Hashtag Explorer’ tool generated into Gephi. This first graph did show the network but was not clearly readable. Therefore after a first short exploration of the graph with all tags, I realized that I first had to edit the gdf file in the Gephi data laboratory in order take out the less ’important’ hashtags to create a readable graph. I therefore first deleted all hashtags, i.e. nodes from the graph that had a count below 100. These hashtags (e.g. [ #openairconcert ], [ #instadaily ] or [ #minimalist ] ) have thus only occasionally been used by the Instagram users in my data sample and are less relevant for my quantitative analysis. This left me with a graph with a total number of 265 nodes (i.e. hashtags) and 12.126 edges. In order to tease out the structure of the network, I applied the algorithm ’Force Atlas 2’ in Gephi, the purpose of which is to enhance the embedded network structure, I then checked the box to prevent overlap and increased the scaling to 10. After tweaking some settings of colors, fonts size and opacity for a more readable visualization, I exported the graph (4.1on page43).
This first graph allowed me to get a rather general overview of the network and identify the connections and hubs within the hashtag network. In order to see the relation of the whole network in relation to the most used hashtags, I created a sec-ond graph. For this, I edited the gdf file in the Gephi data laboratory and deleted all nodes, i.e. hashtags that were not in the list of the 30 most frequently used hash-tags in my data sample. Instead of the algorithm ’Force Atlas 2’ however, I applied ’Fruchtermann Rheingold’, since it worked better to tease out the networks structure. After again tweaking some settings of colors, fonts size and opacity, I exported the graph (4.3on page45).
