ECREA 6th European Communication ConferenceDigital Culture and Communication Section

Prague, 9-12 November 2016

Selfie stories in time. Connecting qualitative and quantitative analysis of image-based personal narratives

Gemma San Cornelio,Antoni Roig,

Elisenda Ardèvol

Mediaccions Research Group, UOCwww.selfiestories.net

Context of the research

● Focus on personal narratives generated by users in social networks.

● Selfie as object of study: current example of the modes of representation of self?

● Mixed methods: quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis with a two-folded aim:

1) to foster the debate on the possibilities and limitations of “Data Analytics” in social research

2) to expand qualitative research on this issue, providing a framework of analysis from Big Data.

"Selfiestories and personal data" - Project funded by the BBVA - 12/2015- 06/2017

Some theoretical references

● Selfie as ‘performed’ in different social contexts as part of a personal or collective narrative (Vivien and Burgess, 2013).

● Selfie in a broader spectrum of images and narrative threads that emerge within and between images conforming larger narrative streams or feeds (Fallon, 2014).

● Selfie understood as a cultural form beyond the ‘selfie tag’ (Gunthert, 2015)

● Social and technological devices are key to the understanding of the practices of the selfie and constitute an ‘alternative genealogy’, along with chats and other ways of technology-mediated interaction (Gómez and Thornham, 2015)

● Big data needs thick data (Wang, 2013)

Selfies as personal narratives

● A human is “essentially a story-telling animal” (MacIntyre 1984:216), and storytelling “may be the way through which human beings make sense of their own lives and the lives of others” (McAdams 1995:207, emphasis in original). in Loseke, 2007

● Narratives create identity at all levels of human social life. At the macro-level, there are stories producing cultural identities,At the meso-level, the policymaking process produces narratives of institutional identities, Finally, at the micro-level, there are stories producing personal identities, the self-understandings of unique, embodied selves about their selves. These narratives “serve as vehicles for rendering ourselves intelligible” (K. Gergen 1994:186)

● Personal narratives, assume what is called 'formulas', involving narrative models that are repeated because give meaning to a particular situation.

Selfies as personal narratives

● From the field of literature and narratology, autobiography is studied according to narrative archetypes (consciously or unconsciously) based on existing cultural canons and well known: as the upward trajectory to success, or are chosen the disastrous road to failure, or the hero who overcomes obstacles that make it different from its initial climb back.

● As stated in classic narrative studies, time is one of the key dimensions of our experience of narrative along causality or space. In digital storytelling or transmedia projects, different notions and layers of time become essential, combining the ‘clock and calendar’ time of our everyday life interactions with the condensed event-based time of most narrative cultural products.

Time-based narratives: methodological convenience

● Time is a central element in narrative

● Establishing time clues allow mixing qualitative and quantitative methodologies: coordinating parallel actions

● Allows for a double perspective: synchronic and diachronic.

Time-based selfie stories: a timeline

Stories of the everyday.

Stories of the extraordinary

Re-focusing stories (life-changing moments)

stories of the here and the now

Purposeful stories

Story entry points for analysis

1) Episodes of the everyday. Governed primarily by the 'clock and calendar time', cyclic and shareable with others. shaped by conventions of what is considered a 'normal' everyday (working time, leisure time, family, friends, environments, home, mood, pets). Seasonal ordinary moments can also be considered (weekends, holidays, special days like Halloween, Christmas or St. Valentine)

2) Episodes of the here and the now (Socio-cultural events). Here the ordinary and the extraordinary intersect through a special episode: highlight an explicit distinction and is shared with others who are 'here and now' through hashtags for the event. Event narrative streams are mostly synchronous, but there are also asynchronous publications (uploading photos afterwards as a reminiscence from legitimated users).

Story entry points for analysis

3) Purposeful episodes: a kind of extraordinary personal story or shared initiative. Here we consider notable journeys, activism campaigns, physical or creative challenges. User acts as the initiator or as an active participant. Time is shaped by the challenge itself, and usually a specific timeline. Here we also include collective trends matching the release of cultural products and ephemeral fashions such as Pokemon Go, where there is no explicit call.

4) Episodes of self-affirmation: connected to narratives of definition of the self in relation to others. They can be stories about personal identity (sexual, political), life-changing experiences (maternity, fame, immigration), or stories of self-improvement and re-affirmation (weight loss, recovery after a serious illness or accident, coexistence with certain health conditions, effects of war). There is no specific timespan and, even if they remain attached to the clock & calendar time' they can become less important in relation to the link established between publications (temporary lapse).

Case studies: description

● Events: Primavera Sound, BCN Games World● Challenges: 2femmesen2cv, agostoen31clicks, cuentobuscafoto● Emerging Sex/ Gender categories● Campaigns: meninhijab● Everyday stories: halloweenselfie, pokemonselfie● Purposeful stories: maternity

We study both users and tags

The Primavera Sound case (I)

Double method:

1) Data scraper (instagram API) during 24 h (01/06/16) monitoring the tag: #primaverasound2016Sample: 1.760 entries

2) Ethnographic fieldwork (7 h) (01/06/16) 12 interviews (30 people involved, age range: 20-40)Participant observation

The primavera sound case (II)

Preliminar findings: types of images● Selfie: 8,2% + selfiegrupo: 7,2%, Scenario: 47,8

%, portrait: 19,6%, merchansiding: 4,14%, other: 19,5%, error: 2,26%

● Selfie is not the predominant image, the tag selfie is not used

● Our participants confirm less use of selfie

The primavera sound case (III)

Users with more likes: a commercial brand, followed by popular users (followed)

Average of pictures uploaded:around 1-2 (most common) Some users > 5

Not necessarily coincident with most liked (just one, Pedro Mujica/Selfie)

Define different types of stories:Most liked show successful, trendy, adventurous

Most active show more variety of situations

The primavera sound case (IV)

Streams of pictures uploading

There are peaks in picture uploading but many users continue uploading some days after the event (meaningful experience)

Capture from: 20:50 -20:53

Barcelona Games World

Same methodology as PS

1) Data scraper (instagram API) during 24 h (07/10/16) monitoring the tag: #bcngamesworldSample: 719 entries

2) Ethnographic fieldwork (4 h) (07/10/16) 3 interviews (10 people involved, age range: 20-35)Participant observation

Analysis in progress

Preliminary conclusions and next steps

Celebrities, authenticity and the feminized body

● Our mixed methodology has proved valid in terms of contextualizing the quantitative data with an experience and time-based context. It has allowed not only to correct technical and methodological problems, but also to understand different logics of instagram use.

● Sinchronic research (big data and fieldwork) allow us to enrich the big data with meaningful experience of users.

● The importance of diachronic and non-linear publication: enhancing the importance of different temporalities.

● At the same time, the interviews have provided interesting information regarding the selfie practice and meaning pointing to less use and less explicit tags. Pointing to a consolidation and normalization of the practice in a broader context.

● Case studies and stories point entries in this project have allowed to preliminary identify interesting users in terms of narrative models and archetypes: e.g.: bloggers showing successful life stories in the PS case.

Celebrities, authenticity and the feminized body

Thank you!gsan_cornelio@uoc.eduaroigt@uoc.edueardevol@uoc.edu

Mediaccions Research Group, UOCwww.selfiestories.net

Special thanks to Maite Garcia for her continuous support

Research team:

Gemma San CornelioElisenda ArdèvolAntoni Roig TeloPau AlsinaBegonya EnguixIrma Vilà ÒdenaErick Gonzalo Gomez NarvaezMaite Garcia (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

Edgar Gómez Cruz (Leeds University/ RMIT)

Matteo Ciastellardi,Marco Quaggiotto (Universita Politecnico de Milano)