Online Persona Research: An Instagram Case Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21153/ps2017vol3no2art710Abstract
In the last issue’s editorial, “Five Dimensions of Online Persona” (Moore, Barbour and Lee 2017), we turned our attention to the proliferation of public identities through online platforms, and traced key nodes of research that inform how we think about and theorise online personas. We also proposed and outlined five primary dimensions to the online persona that we characterised as public, mediatised, performative, collective, and having intentional value. The scope of that work was deliberately broad and far-reaching—we envisioned that piece as neither tool nor template but, we hoped, a conceptual starting point for further thinking and research.
In this editorial we seek to continue that work by putting these theoretical foundations and concepts into practice through a study of the persona work of Instagram. This work constitutes, in many cases, significant labour: decisions are made and remade around sharing different types of images, along with the use of hashtags, framing, timing, filters, captions, or tags. Abidin (2016, p. 90) describes this as “visibility labour”, which is “the work individuals do when they self-posture and curate their self-presentations so as to be noticeable and positively prominent” to their audiences or micro-publics, and notes that the labour itself becomes invisible in the persona creation process. This distributed visibility labour forms the basis of persona work, where users and their micro-publics, in conjunction with the platform and the algorithms that drive it, are continually iterating on the persona that is produced.
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References
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Pittman, M & Reich, B 2016, ‘Social media and loneliness: Why an Instagram picture may be worth more than a thousand Twitter words’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 62, pp. 155–167.
Radesky, J & Christakis, D 2016, ‘Media and young minds’, Pediatrics, vol. 138, no. 5.
Rose, G 2010, Doing family photography: the domestic, the Public and the politics of sentiment, re-materialising cultural geography, Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Farnham.
Sanders, CR 1990, ‘The animal “Other”: Self definition, social identity and companion animals’, NA - Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 17, pp. 662-668.
Slater, D 1995, ‘Domestic photography and digital culture’, in M Lister (ed.), The photographic image in digital culture, Routledge, London, pp. 129–146.
Sontag, S 1979, On photography, Penguin, Harmondsworth.
Toalson, R 2016, ‘A dad is not a babysitter or a helper. He’s a parent’, Huffington Post, 6 December, retrieved 30 November 2017, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-toalson/a-dad-is-not-a-babysitter-or-a-helper_b_8911878.html
Veevers, JE 1985, ‘The social meaning of pets’, Marriage & Family Review, vol. 8, no. 3-4, pp. 11–30.
Zappavigna, M 2016, ‘Social media photography: construing subjectivity in Instagram images’, Visual Communication, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 271–292.
C. 2016a. “‘Aren’t These Just Young, Rich Women Doing Vain Things Online?’: Influencer Selfies as Subversive Frivolity”, Social Media + Society, vol. 2, no. 2, doi: 10.1177/2056305116641342
Abidin, C. 2016b. “Visibility labour: Engaging with Influencers’ fashion brands and #OOTD advertorial campaigns on Instagram”, Media International Australia, vol. 161, no. 1, pp. 86–100.
Alam, M.H. Ryu, W.J. and Lee, S.K., 2017. “Hashtag-based Topic Evolution in Social Media”, World Wide Web: Internet and Web Information Systems, vol. 20, no. 6, pp 1527-1549.
Appleton, N. 2017. “The reason I don’t share photos of my child online, and don’t think you should either”, Mamamia, http://www.mamamia.com.au/sharing-photos-of-your-kids-online/.
Barbour, K. 2016. “Public Audiencing: Using Twitter to study audience engagement with characters and actors”, in: Griffiths, M. & K Barbour, (eds.), Making Publics, Making Places. University of Adelaide Press, Adelaide, Australia.
Barthes, R. 1981. Camera Lucida, Vintage, London.
Baym, N. K. 2000. Tune In, Log On: Soaps, Fandom, and Online Community. SAGE.
Blatchford, E. 2017. “Should You Post Photos Of Your Child On Social Media?” Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/08/29/should-you-post-photos-of-your-child-on-social-media_a_23190070/
Brown, Z. & Tiggemann, M. 2016. “Attractive celebrity and peer images on Instagram: Effect on women’s mood and body image”, Body Image, vol. 19, pp. 37–43.
Coe, A. 2013. “Dads Caring for Their Kids: It’s Parenting, Not Babysitting”, The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/01/dads-caring-for-their-kids-its-parenting-not-babysitting/267443/
Dejmanee, T. 2016. “‘Food Porn’” as Postfeminist Play: Digital Femininity and the Female Body on Food Blogs”, Television & New Media, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 429–448.
Djafarova, E. & Rushworth, C. 2017. “Exploring the credibility of online celebrities’ Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users”, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 68, pp. 1–7.
Dotson, M.J. & Hyatt, E.M. 2008. “Understanding dog–human companionship”. Journal of Business Research, vol. 61, no. 5, pp. 457–466.
Duguay, S. 2016. “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer Visibility Through Selfies: Comparing Platform Mediators Across Ruby Rose’s Instagram and Vine Presence”, Social Media + Society vol. 2, no. 2, doi: 10.1177/2056305116641975
Garcia, J. 2016. “No, Fathers aren’t Babysitters, They’re Parents”, The Good Men Project. https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/no-fathers-arent-babysitters-theyre-parents-dg/
Gibbs, M, Meese, J, Arnold, M, Nansen, B, & Carter, M. 2015. “#Funeral and Instagram: death, social media, and platform vernacular”, Information, Communication & Society, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 255–268. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2014.987152
Haelle, T. 2016. “Do Parents Invade Children’s Privacy When They Post Photos Online?” NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/28/499595298/do-parents-invade-childrens-privacy-when-they-post-photos-online
Hand, M. 2012. Ubiquitous photography. Polity, Cambridge.
Highfield, T. & Leaver, T. 2016. “Instagrammatics and digital methods: studying visual social media, from selfies and GIFs to memes and emoji”, Communication Research and Practice, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 47–62, doi: 10.1080/22041451.2016.1155332.
Highfield, T. & Leaver, T. 2015. “A methodology for mapping Instagram hashtags”, First Monday, vol. 20, no 1, https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5563.
Kelion, L., 2017. “Posting children’s photos divides nation”, BBC News. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40804041
Leaver, T. & Highfield, T. 2018. “Visualising the ends of identity: pre-birth and post-death on Instagram”, Information, Communication & Society, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 30-45, doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2016.1259343.
Lee, K. 2016. “Making Cents of Contemporary Intimacies: The Private in the Public”, Marshall, P.D., D’Cruz, G., McDonald, S. & Lee, K. (eds) Contemporary Publics. Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 217–228.
Kelion, L. 2017. “Posting children’s photos divides nation”, BBC News, http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40804041
Manovich, L. 2016. Instagram and Contemporary Image. Online. http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/instagram-and-contemporary-image
Markham, L. 2015. “The Meringue War”, Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 91, no. 2, pp. 56–61.
Marshall, PD. 2014. Persona Studies: Mapping the Proliferation of the Public Self, Journalism, Vol.15,. No.2, pp 153-170.
Moon, J.H., Lee, E., Lee, J.-A., Choi, T.R. & Sung, Y. 2016. “The role of narcissism in self-promotion on Instagram”, Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 101, pp. 22–25.
Moore, C., Barbour, K. & Lee, K. 2017. “Five Dimensions of Online Persona”, Persona Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1–12.
Moreno, M.A., Ton, A., Selkie, E. & Evans, Y. 2016. “Secret Society 123: Understanding the Language of Self-Harm on Instagram”, Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 78–84.
Olszanowski, M. 2014. “Feminist Self-Imaging and Instagram: Tactics of Circumventing Sensorship”, Visual Communication Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 83–95.
Orlando, J. 2016. “Think again before you post online those pics of your kids”, The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/think-again-before-you-post-online-those-pics-of-your-kids-70579
Pittman, M. & Reich, B. 2016. “Social media and loneliness: Why an Instagram picture may be worth more than a thousand Twitter words”, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 62, pp. 155–167.
Radesky, J. & Christakis, D. 2016. “Media and Young Minds”, Pediatrics, vol. 138, no. 5.
Rose, G. 2010. Doing Family Photography The Domestic, The Public and The Politics of Sentiment, Re-materialising Cultural Geography. Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Farnham.
Sanders, C.R. 1990. “The Animal “Other”: Self Definition, Social Identity and Companion Animals”, NA - Advances in Consumer Research, vol. 17, pp. 662-668.
Slater, D. 1995. “Domestic Photography and Digital Culture”, in: Lister, M. (Ed.), The Photographic Image in Digital Culture. Routledge, London, pp. 129–146.
Sontag, S. 1979. On Photography. Penguin, Harmondsworth.
Toalson, R. 2016. “A Dad Is Not a Babysitter or a Helper. He’s a Parent”, Huffington Post. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-toalson/a-dad-is-not-a-babysitter-or-a-helper_b_8911878.html
Veevers, J.E. 1985. “The Social Meaning of Pets”, Marriage & Family Review, vol. 8, no. 3-4, pp. 11–30.
Zappavigna, M., 2016. “Social media photography: construing subjectivity in Instagram images”, Visual Communication, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 271–292.
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