Name: Molly Blythe s3715996
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
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
Word Count: 1,058 words.
This report responds directly to the course prompt:
How do the affordances of Instagram affect the way photos and videos are authored, published and distributed in the network?
Title:
Instagram: An Environment You Won’t Want to Leave.
Introduction:
This report will focus on the manner in which the affordances and constants present within the Instagram platform effect the different aspects of the authoring, publishing and distribution process. Through analysing Instagram from a scholarly perspective and as a user who produced content; this report suggests that Instagram creates an environment in which users become dependent on for the majority of their authoring, publishing and distributing needs, whilst also fostering a sense of ‘ordinariness’.
Background:
Since this report is covering the notion of affordances, it becomes important to define the term; an affordance as defined by Don Norman (2013, pp.11) is the relationship between an interacting agent and the perceived properties of an object. Therefore, in this case the interacting agent will be the user and the object will be Instagram as a platform. Although due to many affordances of technology and therefore Instagram operating in an invisible manner, throughout this report an affordance may be referred to a as a feature or function.
Additionally, within in this report there is a need to define what ‘ordinary’ is. This report will use ordinary as a synonym for Manovich’s (2016, pp. 16) definition of casual users of Instagram, a user who utilises Instagram to document their life, separate from professional or designed users. Manovich (2016, pp. 15) states that 80% of content on Instagram can be described as casual.
Evidence?:
In order to gain a deeper understanding into Instagram’s affordances and constraints, I completed weekly photo and video posts to Instagram. From this hands on experience within Instagram itself, I was able to understand how casual users navigate these affordances and constants, and most importantly how these effect the authoring, publishing and distribution process. Additionally, this experience helped to contextualise the theoretical aspect of this report and link it back to user experiences.
From my first image post I soon understood that whilst Instagram provides users with the ability post across multiple platforms from within Instagram, you need to remember to take advantage of this affordance when you get the chance because you can’t go back and fit it. Whilst with my first video post I was more aware when this needed to be done, I did not realise how different the post would appear across different platforms; with twitter only posting a link, while Tumblr displays the whole post. My second image post I was able to explore Instagram’s filters; observing that Instagram offers preset filters for users to choose from as well a various setting to change the visual appearance of their image, although Instagram does not allow users to save their setting as their own filter for continued use, but rather they would have to repeat the same steps for each image/post. Similarly, with my second video post I realised that Instagram puts constraints on the in app editing a user can do on a video, only being able to select a preset filter and not change any individual settings, potentially pushing users who want a specific visual look to look for these affordances outside of Instagram. My third image post, I discovered that Instagram hides some of their image editing features, by not giving any instruction regarding how to access them. My third video post however, focused on how one might work around Instagram’s constraining video editing features.
Evaluation:
Manovich (2016, pp.2) suggests that alternative to popular belief Instagram fosters the ‘ordinary’ and moves away from this notion of the professional established though analogue mediums. Many users share images and video for the primary reason of communicating with friends and family, and to document their life. Instagram provided users with the affordance of almost instantly sharing a moment in their life, but sharing it in an aesthetically pleasing manner with the aid of Instagram’s filters. These filters whilst aiding users in presenting a more visually appealing image and at times of more deigned appearance, do not subtract from the sense of self ‘ordinary’ users aim to present. Ferwerda, Schedl & Tkalcic (2016, pp. 850 – 860) in their study suggest an individuals choice of Instagram filter and editing choices can have high correlation to certain personality traits; such as openness, extroversion, and possessing an agreeable or friendly nature. Thus the affordance of filters not only allows more casual users to author their content in a visually appealing manner, but also allows users to inadvertently accurately document their current personality to friends and family. Khoo et al (2017, pp.5) puts forth the notion of affecting practises by encouraging certain practises and downplaying others, which Instagram does by hiding some editing features by not instructing users how to access them, discussed in more detail in week 11. Whilst, abiding by Instagram’s constricted editing features users are encouraged to sustain an ‘ordinary’ appearance rather than a professional or designed appearance that the editing affordances of Lightroom or Snapseed allow. Instagram’s affordance of editing content before posting allows users to present a more professional appearance but one not outside of Instagram’s own constraints.
The act of publishing, preparing a piece of content for consumption, and distribution, the process of expanding the reach of such content, has become morphed together with the emergency of networked apps such as Instagram. Users are given the affordance of further distributing their content within steps of the publishing stage on Instagram; users can simultaneously distribute on multiple platforms from Instagram or increase the spread of their content on Instagram using features such as hashtags, geo-locations, or tagging other accounts. This ease of accessibility for users to access such affordances that shorten the whole process of publishing and distributing content, and distribute content to a wider audience consequently keeps users solely on Instagram. Linking back again to Khoo et al (2017, pp.5) idea of affecting practises, it becomes apparent that Instagram fosters an environment in which users become reliant only on Instagram and its affordances to publish and distribute content within a networked environment.
Conclusion:
Therefore, this report concludes that the affordances Instagram puts to the forefront aid in users in simplifying the authoring, publishing and distribution process; but utilising such affordances comes at the cost of becoming reliant on Instagram and the ‘ordinary’ it fosters. This report could have benefited from more scholarly research into the manner in which Instagram merges the publishing and distribution process, and being more concise could have aided in expressing ideas more directly.
References:
Ferwerda, B, Schedl, M, & Tkalcic, M 2016, ‘Using Instagram Picture Features to Predict Users’ Personality’, in Tian, Q, Sebe, N, Qi, G, Huet, B, Hong, R, & Liu X (eds), MultiMedia Modeling Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 9516, viewed 9 May 2020, <https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/10.1007/978-3-319-27671-7_71>.
Khoo, E, Hight, C, Torrens, R & Cowie, B 2017, Software Literacy: Education and Beyond, Springer, Singapore.
Manovich, L 2016, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego, USA.
Norman, D 2013, The Design of Everyday Things : Revised and Expanded Edition, Basic Books, Boulder, ProQuest Ebook Central database.