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! " VISU AL DIGITAL MEDIA EVERYDAY CONTENT, EVERYDAY CHALLENGES TIM HIGHFIELD UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM | @TIMHIGHFIELD
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VISUAL DIGITALMEDIAEVERYDAY CONTENT, EVERYDAY CHALLENGES
TIM HIGHFIELD UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM | @TIMHIGHFIELD
OUTLINE
Introduction
1. Visual digital media2. Researching visual digital media3. Challenges and opportunities
Conclusion
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INTRODUCTION
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Everyday practices and politics
Visual content
Digital cultures
THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
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THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
“the ubiquity of the visual within everyday social media content and practices has led to (and been encouraged by) new technological capabilities and platform affordances, and… is a critical part of online communication.”Tim Highfield & Tama Leaver (2016). ‘Instagrammatics and digital methods’
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THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
“Images play an important role in how we experience being in the world and increasingly, due to the ubiquity of online interaction, how we ‘shape’ our world”
Katrin Tiidenberg & Edgar Goméz Cruz (2015). ‘Selfies, image and the re-making of the body’
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THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
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THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
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THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
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THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
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THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
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THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
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“Any time anyone uses a selfie to take a stand against racist, classist, misogynist, homophobic, ageist, or ableist views of what a worthwhile representation is, or should be, issues of political power are clearly at stake.”Theresa M. Senft & Nancy K. Baym (2015) ‘What does the selfie say?’
THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
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“We cannot ignore the role and power of images in spreading BLM’s messages… [the images shared] tell us much about what those involved in circulating BLM-related content on Twitter did, or were trying to do.”Deen Freelon, Charlton D. McIlwain, & Meredith D. Clark (2016). ‘Beyond the hashtags: #Ferguson, #BlackLivesMatter, and the online struggle for offline justice’
THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
“The power accrued by the images testified to this new regime of visuality, meaning-making through images coupled with the power of social media and their new role in publishing and associated changes in political agency.”Olga Goriunova (2015). ‘Introduction’, in The Iconic Image on Social Media: A rapid research response to the death of Aylan Kurdi*
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THE VISUAL AND THE DIGITAL
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Power of the digital visual•Meaning-making• Representation• Visibility• The self• The platform• Truth and accountability• Talking (back to) power
RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
The visual as ubiquitous within digital media, but it’s not just about the visual
The visual brings with it multiple layers of meaning, context - cultural and political - plus framing and accompaniments
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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KC GreenGunshow (‘On fire’)
gunshowcomic.com/648
RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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“specificities of practice are crucial in understanding how an image has certain effects, particularly when the ‘same’ image, circulating digitally, can appear in very different kinds of places”Gillian Rose (2016). Visual Methodologies.
RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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“each social media platform comes to have its own unique combination of styles, grammars, and logics, which can be considered as constituting a ‘platform vernacular’”Martin Gibbs et al. (2015). ‘#funeral and Instagram: death, social media, and platform vernacular’
RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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Selfies and self-representationCommunities and practicesAestheticsInfluencers and economiesHashtags, events, topics
RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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LGBTQ useBlack youth culturesIdentityHumourMonetization, platform economies
RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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MemesFake newsCommunity dynamicsInterpersonal + group communicationPolitical talkPrivate vs public communication
RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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RepresentationAestheticsMeaning and intentFlexibilityDiscourseCultures
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RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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HumourMeaningAppropriationIntentPowerPolitics
RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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Images including memes “carry complex layers of meaning, which embed multiple modes of communication…
multiple communicative modes intertwine into a single message”Ryan Milner (2016). The world made meme.
RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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criteria for critical visual methodology:1. take images seriously2. think about the social conditions of images and their modes of distribution3. consider your way of looking at imagesGillian Rose (2016). Visual Methodologies.
RESEARCHING VISUAL DIGITAL MEDIA
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“we never just look at one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves”
John Berger et al. (1972). Ways of seeing.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
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“the need for additional critical considerations that arise from the vast scope of visual social media, its formats and functions, cultures, and practices”
Tim Highfield & Tama Leaver (2016). ‘Instagrammatics and digital methods’
ACCESSIBILITY
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ACCESSIBILITY
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ACCESSIBILITY
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“Scholars pay attention to hashtags for many of the same reasons that platforms do: the convenience of accessing data from what appears to be a diverse range of users…”Ysabel Gerrard (2018). ‘Beyond the hashtag’.
ETHICS
What is public? What is private?
How do we interpret public, private, intentionality here?
How do we represent and reproduce our subjects?
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RESPONSIBILITY
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“Concerns about privacy in visual representations emerge from the perspective that individuals with a reasonable expectation of privacy — an admittedly murky category —should not have their likeness reproduced without their expressed consent.”
Ryan Milner (2016). The world made meme.
RESPONSIBILITY
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“personal “live” pictures sent around through the internet may remain there for life, turning up in unforeseen contexts, reframed and repurposed.”José van Dijck (2008). ‘Digital photography: Communication, identity, memory’.
RESPONSIBILITY
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RESPONSIBILITY
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RESPONSIBILITY
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“Platforms have take-it-or-leave-it terms of service that nearly always overreach. In times of massive surveillance, we never know where our data will end up, used by whom for what purposes.”Nancy Baym (2015). ‘Social media and the struggle for society’.
RESPONSIBILITY
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ACCURACY
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INTERPRETATION, MEANING, INTENT
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[the ambivalent internet]“could go either way, in fact could go any way simultaneously, immediately complicating any easy assessment of authorial intent, social consequence, and cultural worth.”Whitney Phillips & Ryan Milner (2017). The ambivalent internet.
CULTURE
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PRACTICES AND POLITICS
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PRACTICES AND POLITICS
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PRACTICES AND POLITICS
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“Hashtags are perhaps the most visible form of social media communication, making them vulnerable to platforms’ interventions, especially if they are controversial. But they are also versatile, ready to be re-shaped or even abandoned by users in response to platforms’ rules…”Ysabel Gerrard (2018). ‘Beyond the hashtag’.
PRACTICES AND POLITICS
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users — aware of the platform guidelines and norms — “communicate via coded workarounds”, applying unanticipated uses to platforms designed for other purposesKath Albury (2017). ‘Sexual expression in social media’.
DIGITAL MEDIA CONTEXTS
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DIGITAL MEDIA CONTEXTS
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“Scholars must keep in mind that activity on Twitter and Facebook takes place in the analog of a shopping mall and not in some romantic notion of the agora or even the intimate space of a home or social club.”Daren Brabham (2015). ‘Studying normal, everyday social media’.
CONCLUSION
Key questions for visual social mediaMeaning?Applications and appropriation?Ownership?Ethics?Platforms?Temporality and historicity?Practices and cultures?
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CONCLUSION
Key challenges for visual social mediaNew tools for gathering data, methods for studying the digital visualImplications and verification of tech developments(cross-)Platform access and permissionsChanging functionalities, affordances, appearancesNew ways of presenting and sharing research through the digital visual…
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Tama Leaver, Tim Highfield, & Crystal Abidin
Polity
December 2019
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