Bibliography

Bibliography

 Jenkins, H 2008, Convergence Culture : Where Old And New Media Collide / Henry Jenkins, n.p.: New York ; London : New York University Press, 2008

Berstrom, Backman,. Marketing and Pr in Social Media , How the utilisation of Instagram builds and maintains customer relationships, 2013

Miller,H., The Presentation of Self in Electronic Life: Goffman on the Internet, University of London, 1995

L Dugan, How Not To Get Your Hashtag Hijacked (Like McDonald’s Did) [INFOGRAPHIC]. Mediabistro, 2012-03-27.

Fawkes, J., ‘Public Relations and Communications’ in The public relations handbook, ed. Theaker, A., p. 5-13, Routledge, New York, 2001

Moreu, E., What Is Instagram? Using Instagram as a Mobile Photo App and as a Social Network, About.com http://webtrends.about.com/od/prof4/a/What-Is-Instagram- Wiki.htm [Retrieved 2013-05-02]

Dugan, L., How Not To Get Your Hashtag Hijacked (Like McDonald’s Did) [INFOGRAPHIC]. Mediabistro, 2012-03-27

Bente, J. Instagram in the Photo Archives Curation, Participation, and Documentation through Social Media, 2013

Park, R, E. Race and Culture, Glen coesil; The Free Press/ 1950, p.249.

Jenkins, 2006, Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21^st Century. White Paper. MacArthur Foundation. p.7/10

Photo’s, Videos 

Aarhus Rocks; #NS13, URL: http://blog.dengamleby.dk/aarhus/tag/rock/

Banksy;, Photo Url; http://www.cruc.es/banksy-instagram/

Nike campaign; URL: http://www.digitaltrainingacademy.com/casestudies/2015/01/instagram_case_study_nike_lets_customers_design_their_own_trainers_with_instagram_photos.php#more

TBT Celeb; URL: mashable.com (10 celebrities that mastered the #tbt)

Instagram at the museum, Url (https://youtu.be/qOicZb7LOu8)

Conclusion

To conclude, through Jenkins theory of participatory culture, It can definitely be argued that social media apps such as Instagram, are creating a new power struggle between User and Producer, however if producers started to accept users active behaviour and used it to their advantage the benefits are clearly shown as are the disadvantages. When looking at Goffmans theories it is clear to say that through the evolution of technology the act of playing a "role" to aid social agenda and feel accepted, Users are now being looked at closely as a guide as to what is hot and whats not. It is fair to therefore say that companies can therefore use this knowledge to gain some power back, by making sure their product is trending and popular, users are more likely to share it in a positive light. Not only for marketing but for educational purposes as well, users have created themselves a new phenomenon in connecting with one another, The archives although could be said to be discouraging museum visits and learning in youth, by posting them on Instagram it has created opportunities for people to view and consume information that may not be easily accessible to them otherwise. Whether the power lies with the user or producer is an argument still up for discussion however in my opinion most of the power at the moment seems to lie with the user, with some of the power still up for grabs from the institutions if they wish to embrace this new technological change, which as I have shown through case studies, some seem to be accepting and it could be said that this is proving beneficial.

Personal Reflection.

Through my research into the social media app Instagram, I have found out that it is so much more than a social media app, Gaining insight into Participatory Culture, and applying it to my media text has enabled me to see how active we as users are in the sharing and creation of content. As an active user of the app Instagram, I simply saw it as a way of uploading photos and editing them for my friends to see, through research I have discovered without even realising it even I am subject to Goffmans theories of self presentation, even I find myself guilty of uploading photo's and spending time editing and perfecting them in order for some form of self acceptance, whether we like to admit it or not we are all guilty of using hashtags in order to gain more followers or likes, even the use of the app "Tagstagram" is used by myself and many of my followers to find the most popular hashtags in order to gain popularity, and even in my conversations with my peers I often hear phrases such as "how many likes did you get." As superficial as this sounds this kind of culture in my generation does exist.

Finding out about historical archives on Instagram was a new revolution for me, I now am aware that this app has the potential for so much more than just social media. The case studies I researched when looking at marketing on Instagram have taught me as a future media producer that using social media is definitely the way forward in gaining ultimate success, however it shouldn't be used lightly and time must be taken in making sure the account is actively popular and trending before launching such campaigns. Using my own Instagram account as a research method has enabled me to compare myself to the users these journals talk about as examples, In some cases I would say however I don't tend to use Instagram to join in on hashtag campaigns so this is a useful example of how i would use my own use of the text to argue some points that these journals have to offer.  I have learnt that social media is not one dimensional which is what I saw it as before conducting this textual analysis, from doing this research it has definitely broadened my knowledge on how powerful the user is in today's technological age, the technology that we now have access to is constantly changing minute by minute. My own engagement of the text will now be somewhat extended now that I know the endless possibilities this app has to offer.

 Here I show an example of myself engaging with "Tagstagram"
      (left)

This photo is an example of me

optimizing Instagram as my most

used app by putting it in my home 

bar.                                                 

These two photo's are clear examples of me participating in actively sharing and marketing companies products, and using hashtags, a clear example of how Instagram is a powerful platform for users passively advertising products.

Marketing and PR of Instagram.

"It is probably no mere historical accident that the word person in its first meaning is a mask, it is rather a recognition of the fact that everyone is always and everywhere, more or less consciously playing a role." (Robert Ezra Park 1950) In today's technology it is being said that the texts that users actively share or upload are part of a social agenda to further their social status. Could it therefore be said when someone uploads a picture of a companies brand, or text that they are accepting the companies product as a positive element in aiding their profile or page for others to then view? Or could it be said that because of this "role" we are playing forces us to join in on the "trends" uploading pictures of products we don't necessarily believe in just to fit in? Are we all being fake and pretending to be people we aren't just for the acceptance of others?

Regardless of the above questions, the active role users play in sharing and distributing companies products across the web to improve their social status should be seen as a compliment, someone values you're product enough to openly advertise to others they use it, a huge risk in today's technological age where getting the most "likes" or "comments" seems to be ruling young audiences minds. In Hugh Millers journal he states  "Goffman sees embarrassment as an important indicator of where people fail to present an an acceptable self and an important motivator." Here Goffman is furthering the point that this self presentation is an important goal for young people, one which could inevitably aid companies at no cost, however the growing participatory culture of sharing and creating could put the companies at risk if they don't take control of the situation.

Companies don't need to own a social media account for their product to be shared and distributed on these social media apps, The journal by Bergstrom and Backman talks about Mcdonalds as a clear example of this, if you search Mcdonalds on Instagram over 2,000,000 results come up, meaning that anything could be posted without the companies control. This doesn't mean that by taking control the company is necessarily saved from boycotting and negative posts. The twitter campaign "Mcdstories" resulted in "hashtag hijacking" with people posting photos such as " found a finger nail in my #mcfries #McDstories." (Bergstrom and Backman, 2013)

Although the case study mentioned above is a negative example of companies using social media to market their products, it doesn't always go this way, Companies such as "Nike" in 2013 launched the #PHOTOID campaign, during this campaign users were asked to upload their favourite pictures and in response nike would design a trainer with the same colour scheme. 

The results

• 100,000 shoes created in the first week

• 600 shoes created per hour at peak

• 8% clicked through to buy shoes on Nike ID

• Zero media spend

Nike ID’s online community is estimated to be 15 million strong with revenue of the fiscal year 2013 exceeding $100 million.

(Url: www.digitaltrainingacademy)


Nike could be said to be more successful than the Mcdonalds campaign due to its higher popularity, its a clothing line that people see as fashionable, Mcdonalds on the other hand is a fast food chain and not seen as a way of advertising a good lifestyle, which brings us back to Goffman's point of self presentation, In Bergstom and Backmans journal it is said that "Goffman defines life as having two spheres, front stage and back stage, people act with the knowledge that others, who are themselves playing a role, are judging them. Parts of human life considered unfit for public display is kept backstage hidden from the view of critical onlookers." (J. Fawkes, 2001) Therefore the reason Nike was more successful is purely down to the influence of social agenda, Companies need this social acceptance for their campaigns to work in the first place, therefore this is a clear example of why users are so important to producers in todays technological age. Bringing us back to Jenkins briefly his theory of participatory culture states that it "aids conglomerates, and businesses" (Jenkins,2006) It is easy to say that these marketing campaigns are proving his theory, however It can also be proven above that it doesn't always work to the companies advantage, so when do companies know when to take the risk?

Nike made sure of their followings before launching the campaigns with their own Instagram providing beautifully shot images of people wearing their products. They made sure they had the popularity needed to make the campaign successful. Stated by the digital training academy website.

Instagram at the Museum

Museums around the world have been using Instagram to show their archives across social media since as early as 2011. Since then Museums have started to use hashtags to collect together information that users can then find at the touch of a button. This new way of viewing historical information through what is supposed to be a social media app, is further proof of the emerging participatory culture in todays web.



"NARA's policy on Instagram states "here we'll post pictures and videos of behind the scenes looks, shots from our exhibits, special events and more, all through the eyes of Instagrams trademark vintage filters" (Bente,Jenson, 2014) This movement and idea of using Instagram to store historical archives, is a revolution of technology, and in addition to this proof that an active audience is now being encouraged rather than supressed, people are now beginning to realise that with the help of users social media can become a hub for sharing and connecting people together, The realisation that today's youth is less interested in attending exhibitions and broadening their knowledge and more interested in technology and social agenda has made people take a step back and think about ways in which they can combine the two in order to make sure these archives are still seen and noticed and not just limited to an older generation. It could be said however that the use of technology to store these archives is encouraging the youth of today to refrain from visiting museums and seeing the exhibitions for themselves.

National US archives.

In Jenses Journal it says; Critics might argue that the quality of Instagrams photographs might not show the exhibitionists work in its full potential therefore lessening the quality of the owners work. However another reason for having these archives up on social media, is shown through an exhibition run by Riksarkvet. "the use of hashtags on Instagram was used by the museum to encourage users to upload past memories of summer using the hashtag #arkivsommer."(Jenson,2014) This was a way of not only exhibiting their summer exhibition but also gave users and the artists an insight into what other people felt the exhibition meant to them, behind the scenes photos and their own photographs. This use of participatory culture adds a new layer to the exhibition an outsiders view, and therefore makes it more interesting for a consumer here the museum has seen the issues with people lacking interest in museum exhibitions and not only fixed it but also added more depth to the meaning of the work.





In the Journal "Instagram in the Photo Archives Curation, Participation, and Documentation through Social Media" by Jenson it is argued that this use of Instagram conflicts with the meaning of the app in that the photos uploaded are meant to be "instant" not historical.
Although this is true, Instagram encourages the uploading of old photos for example the use of the hashtag "tbt" or "throwback thursday" users are encouraged to upload old photos from the past, maybe even photos that they wouldn't have had the chance to share with their followers because they were before the time of Instagram. Therefore, is uploading archives on a social media app such a bad thing? Would it not have been done in the first place if such technology existed? The use of participation within this exhibitions just means that the exhibition is shown to a broader range of people, which is what the artist would've wanted in the first place. This case study is a clear example of the benefits that producers gain from accepting participatory culture as a way of benefitting their products not as a disadvantage.

Example of #tbt used by celebrities on Instagram





The Old Museum, did a similar thing with their exhibition "Aarhus Rocks" working closely with a local music festival, and a media school they encouraged students to take photos from the music festival to help aid exhibiting "live contemporary music today." from this a small minority of the photos were added to the archive collection. In Jensons journal it states " the museum emphasises the importance of the fact that new young audiences have been reached and that they are active in the collective collection process." The use of media students to aid research for an educational exhibition using an app they feel comfortable with only encourages young people more this clever use of Instagram successfully proves that working with users to create a successful campaign that can be viewed at the touch of a button works, and the use of hashtags is so much more than just a social agenda. Jenson states "the hashtag is more than a collection of characters it is an efficient tool to be used to reach new audiences facilitate streams of conversation, and connect people together." Could Instagram therefore be an extremely important tool that institutions cannot afford to ignore?

#NS13 collection of photos uploaded by media students for the "Aarhus Rocks" exhibition.

Instagram and Partcipatory Culture.

The Social Media App Instagram is made up of 5 Main buttons. The home page acts as a news feed, The user can scroll through their followers uploads and like or comment on them.















The Activity Button shows, What your followers are liking and also shows how your followers are interacting with your content for example who has followed you, who has liked your photo's or commented on them. This aspect means users are constantly informed of the activity of their followers and introduces them to content they may not have seen otherwise.

When A user takes a photo, a set of 19 pre modified filters can be selected from, allowing the user to make their photos more professional, Instagram has allowed users to create images on a professional level, This is a clear example of prosumer behaviour, Instagram has enabled users to create and share content of a professional level, blurring the boundaries between producers and consumers and allowing the audience to take further control. Prosumerism by definition is a consumer using semi professional tools or equipment to produce content of a professional level, in essence this is why Instagram was created in the first place. The "Share" option allows users to share there content onto other social media websites meaning Instagram is becoming a cross platform phenomenon. Henry Jenkins says that Participatory culture is " the development of tools/ technologies and enabling the creation of content." (Jenkins,2006) Instagram is a key example of this happening, are producers therefore losing power to their audiences? It could be said that because Instagram have ownership of the photos posted on their app, the users are handing over free content for institutions to then use for their own benefit, therefore Instagram is creating a world in which producers are allowing a more "active" audience and stepping away from the traditional view of passive consumers. In addition to this the use of pre modified filters means that users are all producing similar looking content, something that professional photographers step away from, Instagram therefore may only be creating the impression that it is allowing the creation of professional content, when in actual fact the level of professionalism is still limited to the tools that they give the user to modify their content.

The explore button shows you the most popular photos and gives the user a chance to see photos from people they don't follow and people they do, it also has a recommended list of people for you to follow and celebrities that you haven't followed. The search option allows the user to search popular hashtags and usernames of their friends, The use of hashtags on Instagram collects photos that have all have the same hashtags allowing users to search for images, and also creates trends with popular hashtags. Hashtags could be said to be a useful tool in which users can actively participate in the sharing and searching of media, this opens a new door in the marketing of media products. "We are moving away from a world in which some produce  and many consume media toward one in which everyone has an active stake in the culture that is produced." (Jenkins) It could be said that due to the hashtag trends on Instagram, the most popular photos are chosen by the users, therefore meaning we are in control over what is most likely to be seen by other users. In addition to this users are actively in control over what they search on Instagram. They can however create their own hashtag trends to encourage users to create and share their content, although this still depends on the use of user participation to make this work, something many producers don't seem to be accepting and using to their advantage as Jenkins says "Corporations imagine participation as something they can start and stop,reroute, commodify and market" (Jenkins 2001) with this in mind, could it be said that although they appear to be accepting audience participation they still feel they have full control?

Geotagging is another popular feature of Instagram, Users can tag themselves and others in certain places, which is also another way of collecting images in an organised fashion, other photos with the same geo tag will be put into a folder which will open when anybody clicks on the place tags, The way in which Instagram can archive content in an organised way using geotags and hashtags means a wide variety of information can be accessed at the touch of a button furthering "the growth of media conglomorates." Can Instagram be used as more than just a social media app this is something producers need to think carefully about and take advantage of rather than get lost in the powerstruggle between themselves and the audience.

An Introduction

Is Instagram becoming a platform for prosumers, allowing us to actively participate in the viewing, sharing and marketing of media texts? Is instagram becoming more than just a social platform for sharing photographs and receiving likes and comments? How much power do the users of instagram actually hold?

In the past audiences have been described as passive, simply accepting the media they consume giving producers the ultimate power to manipulate and choose what their audiences consume and see, describing audiences as a mass population rather than individuals with opinions and ideas. In recent years it is fair to say that Audiences are not passive, but actively engage with media aiding it to survive in today’s media age.  “Audiences are no longer understood as mere consumers who passively accept anything the media offers, but as active individuals and members of social groupings who consume media products in the context of their personal and social goals.” (Ball-Rokeach & Cantor, 1986) Could it be said that audiences are becoming more active in consuming their media due to some kind of social agenda? Are social networks becoming a platform in which consumers can create and share existing content with their own opinions and ideas attached, and how do producers control this kind of sharing, They can either embrace it or try and go against it. Audiences can no longer be described as a “mass” as Williams says “there are no masses only way of seeing masses.” (1958, Williams) It could be said that producers are now realizing that the power of audience is strengthening and the use of “Participatory culture.” Should not be ignored but used to their advantage, Henry Jenkins describes Participatory Culture as “the development of tools/technologies enabling the creation of content.” Focusing in on the Social Media platform Instagram, an app used to edit and upload photos to then share with friends and the internet, Could that be the only use for this app, or could it be used in many different ways to evolve the way in which audiences are taking power in the way they consume, Focusing in on Goffman, Jenkins and other theorists the discussion of how Instagram is now being used as a platform for participation is left wide open.  Social media is becoming more than just a platform for sharing and communicating, by using social Media we are actively passing information around which can be seen and reshared by anyone, this in itself is a powerful concept and not one that can be easily controlled, Looking at it more closely the social aspect of these platforms also mean that as users there are unspoken expectations that have been created by the want to be accepted or liked, so could it be said that even though as users we have the complete control over what we post these social set of rules prevent us at some stage, and could this be used by producers to gain some of the control back? Could “trends” on social media be used at the producers advantage to make us want to share and see certain things.