"selfie stories”: big data and personal narratives in instagram
DESCRIPTION
This is my presentation for the ePatients' panel at the Medicine 2.0 conference (Med2) held at Torremolinos last 10th of October. My intervention was focused on the cultural and sociel relevance of Instagram as a privileged site for deploying narratives of the self, as well as the selfie as a primer form of self expression and its applications in Health. Through my presentation I tried to dismantle some of the stereotypes regarding the selfie, showing its complexities, some relevant research on Instagram and selfies and our research proposal, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. This research proposal has been developed by the research group Mediaccions #digital culture, based in the IN3 and the Open University of CataloniaTRANSCRIPT
"Selfie stories”: big data and personal narratives in Instagram.
Antoni Roig (UOC/ IN3)Information and Communication Sciences Department
Mediaccions, digital culture research group
Medicine 2.0 Conference. Torremolinos, 10th October, 2014
First, a disclaimer
Errrr….I’m a cultural
researcher!!!
Mediaccions research group: an overview
Mediaccions #digital culture is an interdiciplinary research group at the Open University of Catalonia devoted to the study of the different manifestations and practices related to digital culture and communication.
Cultural anthropologyMedia and communicationArt and DesignArt, Science and Technology Studies
Social transformationsCultural practicesEmergent media forms
Research scope Interdisciplinary approach
• Co-creation and participation in cultural production.• Transmedia and new narratives• Social engagement and creativity• Co-design and projections of the future
Research lines
Selfies? What selfies?
Selfies? What selfies?
Selfies? What selfies?
Selfies? What selfies?
Selfies? What selfies?
Selfies? Why selfies?
[From a study on how a certain demographic of highly skilled professionally successful, well-educated, urban women, uses Facebook and Instagram for self-portrayal] -> “endlessly constructed self’, ‘curated portrayal’, ‘communication through likes’ (Marianne Aerni, 2014)
• Not just related to youth, insanity, narcissism, sex or celebrities• There are multiple practices under the ‘selfie’
moniker• Selfies are social and everyday• Selfies are perceived as personal timelines,
present and ‘authentic’• Instagram is a prime site for self storytelling and
personal narratives
Instagram: the big data approach
Personal narratives and health
Selfies as life stories
Selfies as life stories
Selfie stories: our approach
Focus on personal narratives and continuous self-construction of the self.
Two main targets:
Combination of quantitative and qualitative approach, 3 phases:
(1) Using Big Data analysis for broader uses through general and specific tags (selfie-related tags), geolocalization and popularity in a given time span. -> continuous flow analysis -> evolution of a tag cloud through time.
(2) Ethnographical approach to narrative flows and intensive users -> interrelation with big data approach
-Intensive uses.-Specific uses
Selfie stories: our approach
(3) Identification and analysis of specific practices and contexts:
- Hypothesis: the selfie, as a form of expression of the self and articulator of personal narratives, configures different collective practices and can foster new ones.
- Working target fields: immigration, health and education.
Elisenda Ardèvol, Pau Alsina, Matteo Casteliardi, Begoña
Enguix, Antoni Roig, Gemma San Cornelio
Researchers involved
Smile!! Thank you!!
www.newmediapractices.nethttp://www.mediaccions.net/
@mediacciones