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Making Media blog links
Week 9 – Instagram photo
Week 9 – Instagram video
Week 10 – Instagram photo
Week 10 – Instagram video
Week 11 – Instagram photo
Week 11 – Instagram video
How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network?
Instagram and Its Affect on the Way We Publish Content
James Bowman
s3603919
Introduction
Instagram’s influence on the network has become gigantic since its formation in 2010. Looking at how it affects how photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network is useful because it helps to understand how Instagram’s affordances have changed our way of engaging with photos and especially changed our expectations and the idea of what a network-suitable photo is. Moreover, looking at how Instagram affects the network can help us to predict where use the network is heading and therefore harness the affordances presented to us.
Background
This report aims to investigate and analyse how Instagram can shape and create content based on what it affords users of the app. When discussing the term affordances in this report I refer to it in the context of Donald Norman’s definition: “the perceived and actual properties of the thing” (1998, 9). The “thing” in this case being Instagram.
The investigation intends to not only look at how the affordances of Instagram shapes content on its own application but how it can in turn affect other parts of the network, whether it be other social media applications or otherwise.
The following report is broken down into three categories in order to get a better understanding of some specific examples of how Instagram impacts the network – authoring, publishing and distributing. Using these key terms, I will investigate the prompt and hopefully unpack some specific ideas that have come forward during this task. Because of a lack of time and word count allowance I won’t be able to cover all the ways Instagram affects the network, just some of what I think are the main observations I made from this investigation.
Evidence/What?
The best way to understand how a system works is to use it and to then analyse it using your own reflection and engaging in other ideas about it too, this is what I’ve done for this investigation. Around a month ago I made an Instagram account that would publish content only on doors. The purpose of the exercise was not on the content itself but how the application can and does shape the content. I published one photo and one video a week and then wrote a reflection on both. A big part of the investigation was that every photo and video had to be entirely authored and produced in Instagram, including taking the actual photo in the app. In all my casual use of Instagram I had never done this and had either adjusted it or cropped the photo when uploading to the app. Thus, it took me a little while to get used to taking a square photo – see here and here
To get some more context on Instagram I also engaged with various videos and readings such as Lev Manovich’s “Instagram and Contemporary Image” (2016), thus giving my investigation a little more weight and helping to create a more wholistic approach.
Evaluation
Authoring:
The obvious, aforementioned constraint of taking an image in Instagram is the dimension restriction. It is similar to turning on the “square mode” on your camera on your iPhone and taking a photo – something I was always told not to do in order take good photos. However, during this process I’ve found that almost always the best Instagram photos (and indeed videos) are framed well and fit within that perfect little square. In the case of my experiment Instagram account, easily my best and most “liked” shots were of more square double doors and were framed much better (see them here and here). I also realised that while it seems a little constraining at first, publishing square photos looks a lot better for your profile ‘grid’, as there is no cropping or distortion of the picture which can happen to differently shaped shots. Grid arrangement is important to creating that classic Instagram aesthetic that Manovich talks in his analysis of “Instagrammism” (2016). Manovich however particularly focuses on what’s in the photo and how it’s edited to create that aesthetic.
In regard to the editing aspect of “designed photos” on Instagram as Manovich (2016, 73) calls them, what I found interesting (it’s something that I’ve always known but only noticed in during this exercise) is the ease of use and prevalence of editing tools for your photo/video during the authoring process. Instagram gives its users so many opportunities to add filters, reduce filters, change the contrast, change the lighting, the list goes on. This I feel enforces the idea that filtering and changing a photo is a normal part of photo sharing, an idea so different to legacy photography. Curiously, those two photos I mentioned earlier (here and here) that performed better both had the “Clarendon” filter. Perhaps this could also be another reason that for their higher ‘like’ count – because their filter better represents that Instagram aesthetic.
Authoring videos I found a more difficult task than the photos. I think this was because of a myriad of reasons including me very rarely uploading videos to Instagram in my own casual use of it and because there is significantly fewer good videographers on Instagram than there are photographers – so I had less inspiration (also how can you make cool videos of doors?). I found this to be the case when we looked at Instagram videographers in week 8 (reflection here). Nonetheless I learnt that for Instagram videos to look really pleasing they require potentially more thought than authoring a pleasing looking photo. Firstly, something I didn’t do or properly realise in creating my videos (week 9, week 10, week 11) that the cover photo must be as pleasing as a photo on its own. This is especially the case if one wants to make their profile grid a nice palette of colour and different subject matter.
The fact that Instagram allows you to keep scrolling past videos that will play either when pressed or automatically means that they must capture your attention immediately. Unlike on Facebook or YouTube and the like, the ease of scrolling on Instagram demands that videos be immediately captivating, or they will not be noticed. I feel as though this in turn affects how videos are published on the network – applying more pressure for a video to retain a familiar aesthetic and for it to be immediately capturing.
Publishing:
During this experiment I almost always added a location, and when I didn’t I felt like the photo/video was naked. Instagram again makes it so easy to add a location, captions, hashtags and tags that again there almost becomes a pressure to use these tools in order to follow social protocol. In my own casual use, I sometimes become frustrated when I see a nice landscape or building but no location is added, because I want to be able to get some context around the photo. The same as when people are in photos but not tagged. I as such always used locations as adding some context to my random collection of doors – because a door without a location is just a door; if it’s not immediately striking it is plain boring (look at how plain this video looks without a location and hashtags). I think as such the publishing process of Instagram has influenced users of the network to add context to an image or video, people want to be able to click on things like locations, hashtags and tags and allowing them to do so will elongate the amount of time they spend engaging with the image or video.
Distribution:
Having only shared Instagram photos to Facebook before, distributing the videos and photos in this exercise to Tumblr and Twitter led to some interesting observations for me. Mainly, distributing Instagram media on these platforms serves best as a teaser or almost as a form of marketing – the real engagement is always on the Instagram app. With Twitter all you get is a link and your caption and thus giving no visual clue as to what the image/video will be. Tumblr will show your piece but only with the Instagram link and logo very visible. Moreover, you can’t engage with the locations and tags I mentioned before without then being taken into the Instagram app. Interestingly, while you can share Instagram photos on other platforms, you can’t share photos from other platforms onto Instagram. I think this presents the idea that Instagram is the home of images – it’s the place you should go for aesthetically pleasing photos and videos. While Tumblr is a very visual medium, it has a different kind of aesthetic and a lot more emphasis on recycling old media rather than creating new, aesthetically pleasing media and demonstrating that “Instagrammism” that Manovich (2016) speaks of.
Conclusion
As Norman states, “we need to analyse the ways in which it encourages particular ways of thinking and working through creative and cultural practices” (1998, 5) when looking at a specific application. This is what I have attempted to do in this investigation.
After this experiment it has led me to believe that Instagram affording so many editing options and publishing options creates the concept that editing, tagging and adding locations is an essential part of creating a picture. As such the software of Instagram leads to users placing as much (if not more) emphasis on the post production of the photo as to what is actually in it. Moreover, the ways in which Instagram collaborates with other platforms enforces the idea that it is the home of photos, especially media of that ‘Instagrammism’ aesthetic. As such this investigation demonstrates just a few of the ways in which Instagram affects the ways photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network.
References:
- Norman, D 1998, “The Design of Everyday Things”, Basic Book, New York, US
- Manovich, L 2016, “Instagram and Contemporary Image”, University of San Diego, US