Declaration
I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services
Blog Index
Word Count
1096
Introduction
Throughout this report, I will explore and analyse the distribution methods available to users of the Instagram application. This will be achieved through the 9 posts of both video and photographic content that I have posted to my Instagram account over the past 3 weeks, and analyse the affordances and constraints of the methods I used.
Background
Distribution refers to getting the content further from the initially published audience. During the era of legacy/analogue photography and videography, this would often be a vigorous and expensive process. With the example of cinema, movies would have to undergo the initial publishing state, getting companies and festivals to undertake preview screenings. From there, these films would be distributed to both cinema chains and locally owned theatres, for a wider release. This method of distribution has both affordances and constraints, but ultimately, was not very user-focused, and requires either wealth of copious free time and resources.
However, with regards to networked photography and videography, this process of distribution has become a lot more personally viable. With smartphones facilitating a new era of photographic history (Palmer, D. 2014 pg. 245), operating with so much “ready-made content“, users are more than able to author, publish and distribute all on the one platform, and with the case of the course prompted software, all on the one application, Instagram. Distribution on Instagram can take different forms, such as through hashtagging, and external sharing through partnered applications like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. All of this has the potential to increase the overall engagement and reception of a users content, something I experimented with throughout weeks 9-11 of Networked Media.
Evidence/What?
To investigate the prompt, I have uploaded 3 times a week over the span of 3 weeks to my Assignment 3 Instagram account ‘watch_the_door‘. These posts would vary from either two pictures and one video a week, or one picture and two videos a week. Before publishing this content to my account, I would broaden the possible reach of each video or photo by distributing further than the initial basic reach of my Instagram’s followers.
The first step would be to ‘geo-tag’ my content to the places they were captured. Palmer talks about his uncertainty of the purpose with the feature when analysing the potential of the iPhone back in 2014, but recognises it’s mainstream appeal in the foreseeable future (2014, pg. 250). Tagging the location of where your post was captured allows Instagram to recommend your content to users who have either done the same tag, engaged with content with a similar geo-tag location, or simply passed through that area whilst operating Instagram with their location detection on. The location tag of your is shown above the title on the post, and allows new users to engage with your content.
The most visible example of the distribution process on Instagram is hashtagging. Throughout my posts, I would end my title and description with a slew of terms, beginning with a #. A majority of these would be broad, examples being ‘#doors’ ‘#desaturated’ and ‘#melbourne’. These would group and filter my posts with various others with the same tag, allowing content to be grouped and distributed to a variety of other users who have either interacted with or published content that has the same hashtags. Furthermore, more content specific hashtags would be added to individual posts to target a more niche audience, such as with ‘#tram‘
The last way I distributed content posted to my Instagram was through external sharing. The Instagram application allows users to share with a variety of other connected or installed applications that are partnered with it. For both weeks 10 and 11, I used this feature to distribute those six posts across to both my personal Tumblr account and Twitter account. These would share the bulk of text attached to my posts, as well as either the visual content itself, or a link to it, depending on the platform.
Evaluation
The affordances of the location tagging on Instagram is the ease at which you can do it. Normand talks about how clear design in a product is key for user convenience, and that ‘sloppiness in design translates into confusion for users’ (Norman, D. 1999). Instagram both prompts and directs you to tag your location as you enter the publishing stage, and with your location services on, gives you options of where you are and where you were. This seamless integration is also non-intrusive in a clean post’s aesthetic. As stated before, the tag sits nicely above the title. However, a constraint of feature is engagement opportunities. This is an often forgotten feature of Instagram, with people rarely tagging locations.
The strongest affordance of the hashtagging method of distribution is possible engagement opportunities. Throughout my posting experience for Assignment 3, the use of hashtags has boosted my views and likes tenfold, bringing in over half of my engagements and followers overall. It has allowed new users to find content that interests them, and allowed me to find new users with similar interests to me. A constraint of the hashtagging process is the clutter it creates. Whilst location tags were out of the way of the focal points of a post, hashtags need to be applied to the bulk text of an image, ruining a minimalist aesthetic. Furthermore, the other constraint of this process is convenience. There is no way to save a selection of everyday hashtags, prompting direct manipulation over the convenience of command mode (Normand, D. 1998. pg. 184).
The affordances of external distribution through the Instagram application is convenience. The feature, once accounts are linked to your profile, is simple, tap the social media service you want to share to, and it will do it seamlessly. However, the constraints outway the affordances of this service, mainly in layout and conversion of design. Twitter has the biggest errors, with Tumblr working, but not as it should and easily could. This creates an unfriendly and unappealing link that does not entice me to engage further with the content. This could easily be fixed with communication and coding between Instagram and these platforms.
Conclusion
A constraint of my report is the minimal comparison between legacy and network distribution. With a higher word count, I would have touched on the differences and similarities between the two eras of photography and videography, and what might come next.
To conclude, before this course, I never really thought about distribution within Instagram, especially not to the scale that I have for this assignment. Furthermore, while all major pathways to distribute on the platform have their share of constraints to counteract perfect mapping, Instagram still stands as a prominent pillar application when it comes to powerful distribution methods.
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References
Norman, D 1999, ‘Affordance, conventions and design (Part 2)’, Nielsen Norman Group, http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordance_conv.html
Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things , Basic Book, New York (Sections: Preface vii-xv; Chapter one pp 1-13; Chapter 4 (constraints) pp 81-87; (computers) pp 177-186).
Palmer, D 2014 ‘Mobile Media Photography’, in The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media, (eds) Goggin G., Hjorth L., Routledge, New York pp. 249–55.