Exploring feminisms on Instagram
Reflections on the challenges and possibilities of incorporating digital methods strategies in feminist social media research
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v6i1.188Keywords:
digital methods, critical methodologies, social media feminisms, hashtags, Instagram, PortugalAbstract
Over the past decade, Instagram has become increasingly popular and embedded in the contemporary experience of everyday feminisms. The platform allows for the co-existence of political, personal, mundane, and aesthetically-oriented content, created by both established feminist actors and “ordinary” people (i.e. not activists, career politicians, or celebrities). While feminist media studies have long studied similar practices of online feminism, historically the discipline has tended to privilege qualitative approaches, rather than more quantitatively-oriented digital methods approaches. However, the study of feminist expressions on Instagram can benefit from a critical engagement and selective embrace of some possibilities enabled by digital methods.This article offers a reflection on the use of digital methods’ tools and strategies informed by a feminist media studies theoretical and epistemological lens. This draws on an exploratory case study conducted by the author, which combined qualitative and digital methods to explore a wide landscape of feminist hashtags on Portuguese Instagram. Grounded on this case, the article examines the methodological possibilities and challenges brought by digital methods, and the tensions that can arise from their combination with qualitative feminist approaches. It explores how digital analysis tools can be adopted in combination with qualitative analysis, allowing for the emergence of new insights, critical engagements with large amounts of data, intuitive explorations of datasets, while still allowing to zoom in on specific content for in-depth qualitative engagements. Finally, it also reflects on the ethical implications of a feminist approach to digital methods at the data collecting stage, positing methodological alternatives grounded on a feminist ethics of care.
References
Banet-Weiser, S. (2018) Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny. Durham: Duke University Press.
Berry, D. M. and Fagerjord, A. (2017) Digital humanities: Knowledge and critique in a digital age. Cambridge: Polity Books.
boyd, d. and Crawford, K. (2012) “Critical Questions for Big Data: Provocations for a cultural, technological, and scholarly phenomenon.” Information, Communication & Society, 15(5), p.662–679. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2012.678878
Brabham, D. C. (2015) “Studying Normal, Everyday Social Media.” Social Media+Society, 1(1), p.1–2. doi: 10.1177/2056305115580484
Breuer, F. and Roth, W-M. (2003) “Subjectivity and Reflexivity in the Social Sciences: Epistemic Windows and Methodical Consequences.” Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 4(2). doi: 10.17169/fqs-4.2.698
Bruns, A. (2019) “After the ‘APIcalypse’: social media platforms and their fight against critical scholarly research.” Information, Communication & Society, 22(11), p.1544–1566. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2019.1637447
Bruns, A. and Burgess, J. (2015) “Twitter Hashtags from ad hoc to Calculated Publics.” In N. Rambukkana (Ed.) Hashtag Publics: The Power and Politics of Discursive Networks. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 13–28.
Bruns, A. et al. (2016) “Towards a typology of hashtag publics: a large- scale comparative study of user engagement across trending topics.” Communication Research and Practice, 2(1), p.20–46. doi: 10.1080/22041451.2016.1155328
Caldeira, S. P. (2023a). “Instagrammable feminisms: Aesthetics and attention-seeking strategies on Portuguese feminist Instagram.” Convergence. doi: 10.1177/13548565231171048
Caldeira, S. P. (2023b). “The Pluralization of Feminist Hashtag Landscapes: An Exploratory Mapping of Feminist Hashtags on Portuguese Instagram.” Social Media + Society. doi: 10.1177/20563051231171638
Caldeira, S. P. & Machado, A. F. (2023). “The red lipstick movement: Exploring #VermelhoEmBelem and feminist hashtag movements in the context of the rise of far-right populism in Portugal.” Feminist Media Studies. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2023.2166971
Caldeira, S. P., De Ridder, S. and Van Bauwel, S. (2020) “Between the Mundane and the Political: Women’s Self-Representations on Instagram.” Social Media + Society, 6(2), p.1–14. doi: 10.1177/2056305120940802
Caliandro, A. and Anselmi, G. (2016) “Affordances-Based Brand Relations: An Inquire on Memetic Brands on Instagram.” Social Media + Society, 7(2), p.1–18. doi: 10.1177/20563051211021367
Caliandro, A. and Graham, J. (2020) “Studying Instagram Beyond Selfies.” Social Media + Society, 6(2), p.1–7. doi: 10.1177/2056305120924779
Chamberlain, P. (2017) The Feminist Fourth Wave: Affective Temporality. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Crepax, R. (2020) “The Aestheticisation of Feminism: A Case Study of Feminist Instagram Aesthetics.” ZoneModa Journal, 10(1S), p.71–81. doi: 10.6092/issn.2611-0563/10555
de Sá Pereira, M. P. (2019) “Mixed Methodological Digital Humanities.” In: M. Gold and L. Klein (Eds.) Debates in Digital Humanities 2019. Available at: https://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/read/untitled-f2acf72c-a469-49d8-be35- 67f9ac1e3a60/section/edca6328-c9da-42a6-8e49-11658e5907f0#ch34
Dumitrica, D. and Hockin-Boyers, H. (2022) “Slideshow activism on Instagram: constructing the political activist subject.” Information, Communication & Society, doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2022.2155487
Fiesler, C. and Proferes, N. (2018) “Participant” Perceptions of Twitter Research Ethics.” Information, Communication & Society, 4(1), p.1—14. doi: 10.1177/2056305118763366
Fotopoulou, A. (2016) “Digital and networked by default? Women’s organisations and the social imaginary of networked feminism.” New Media & Society, 18(6), p.989–1005. doi: 10.1177/1461444814552264
franzke, a. s. (2020) Feminist Research Ethics, IRE 3.0 Companion 6.3, Association of Internet Researchers. Available at: https://aoir.org/reports/ethics3.pdf
Freelon, D. (2018) “Computational Research in the Post-API Age” Political Communication, 35(4), p.665—668. doi: 10.1080/10584609.2018.1477506
Garraio, J. et al. (2020) The Unimaginable Rapist and the Backlash Against #MeToo in Portugal. Europe Now. https://www.europenowjournal.org/2020/03/09/the-unimaginable-rapist-and-the-backlash-against-metoo-in-portugal/
Gephi Consortium. (2017) Gephi (Version 0.9.2) [software]. https://gephi.org/
Gill, R. (2016) “Post-postfeminism?: New feminist visibilities in postfeminist times.” Feminist Media Studies, 16(4), p.610–630. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2016.1193293
Gold, M. (2012) “The Digital Humanities Moment.” In: M. Gold (Ed.) Debates in Digital Humanities. Available at: http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/2
Gutiérrez, M. (2019) ‘The Good, the Bad and the Beauty of ‘Good Enough Data’’, In: A. Daly, S. K. Devitt and M. Mann. (Eds.) Good Data. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, pp. 54–76.
Harvey, A. (2020) Feminist Media Studies. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hesse, A. et al. (2019) “Qualitative Research Ethics in the Big Data Era.” American Behavioral Scientist, 63(5), p.560–583. doi: 10.1177/0002764218805806
Highfield, T. (2016) Social Media and Everyday Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Highfield, T. and Leaver, T. (2015) “A methodology for mapping Instagram hashtags.” First Monday, 20(1–5). doi: 10.5210/fm.v20i1.5563
Jackson, S.J., Bailey, M. and Welles, B.F. (2020) #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice [ebook]. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Jacomy, M. (n.d.) Table 2 Net [software]. https://medialab.github.io/table2net/
Keller, J. (2019) ““Oh, She’s a Tumblr Feminist”: Exploring the Platform Vernacular of Girls’ Social Media Feminisms.” Social Media + Society, 5(3), p.1–11. doi: 10.1177/2056305119867442.
Klassen, S. and Fiesler, C. (2022) ““This Isn’t Your Data, Friend”: Black Twitter as a Case Study on Research Ethics for Public Data.” Social Media + Society, 8(4), p.1–11. doi: 10.1177/20563051221144317
Lamartine, C. & Cerqueira, C. (2023). “Communicating through Cyberfeminism: Communication Strategies for the Construction of the International Feminist Strike in Portugal.” social sciences, 12(9), 473. doi: 10.3390/socsci12090473
Leaver, T., Highfield, T. and Abidin, C. (2020) Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Leurs, K. (2017) “Feminist data studies: using digital methods for ethical, reflexive and situated socio-cultural research.” Feminist Review 151, p.130—154. doi: 10.1057/s41305-017-0043-1
Literat, I. and Kligler-Vilenchik, N. (2019) “Youth collective political expression on social media: The role of affordances and memetic dimensions for voicing political views.” new media & society, 21(9), p.1988–2009. doi: 10.1177/1461444819837571
Luka, M. E., Millette, M. and Wallace, J. (2017) “‘A Feminist Perspective on Ethical Digital Methods” In: M. Zimmer and K. Kinder-Kurlanda (Eds.) Internet Research Ethics for the Social Age: New Challenges, Cases, and Contexts. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 21–36.
Manovich, L. (2012) “Trending: The Promises and the Challenges
of Big Social Data.” In: M. Gold (Ed.) Debates in Digital Humanities. Available at: https://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/ projects/debates-in-the-digital-humanities
Manovich, L. (2017) Instagram and Contemporary Image. Available at: http://manovich.net/index.php/projects/ instagram-and-contemporary-image
Markham, A. N. (2005) “The Methods, Politics, and Ethics of Representation in Online Ethnography." In: N. K Denzin, and Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 793-820.
Markham, A. N., Tiidenberg, K. and Herman, A. (2018) “Ethics as Methods: Doing Ethics in the Era of Big Data Research—Introduction.” Social Media + Society, 4(3), p.1–9. doi: 10.1177/2056305118784502
Marôpo, L., Torres da Silva, M. & Magalhães, M. (2017) Feminismo online em Portugal: um mapeamento do ativismo no Facebook. In: S. Pereira and M. Pinto (Eds.) Literacia, Media e Cidadania - Livro de Atas do 4.º Congresso (pp. 280-293).
Marres, N. & Moats, D. (2015). “Mapping Controversies with Social Media: The Case for Symmetry.” Social Media + Society, 1—17.
Marwick, A. (2019) "None of this is new (media): Feminisms in the social media age." In T. Oren and A. L. Press (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Feminism. London: Routledge, pp. 309-332.
Maxwell, J. and Chmiel, M. (2014) “Notes Toward a Theory of Qualitative Data Analysis.” In: U. Flick (Ed.) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 21–34.
Munro, E. (2013) “Feminism: a fourth wave?” Political insight, 4(2), p.22–25. doi: 10.1111/2041-9066.12021
Nissenbaum, H. (2004) “Privacy as contextual integrity.” Washington Law Review, 79, p.101–139.
Oakley, A. (1998) “Gender, Methodology and People’s Ways of Knowing: Some Problems With Feminism and The Paradigm Debate in Social Science.” Sociology, 32(4), p.707–731. doi: 10.1177/0038038598032004005
Omena, J. J. & Amaral, I. (2019) “Sistema de Leitura de Redes Digitais Multiplataforma.” In: J. J. Omena (Ed.) Métodos Digitais: Teoria-Prática-Crítica (pp. 121–140). Lisboa: ICNova.
Omena, J. J., Rabello, E. T. and Mintz, A. G. (2020) “Digital Methods for Hashtag Engagement Research.” Social Media + Society, 6(3), doi: 10.1177/2056305120940697.
Papacharissi, Z. (2016) “Affective publics and structures of storytelling: sentiment, events and mediality.” Information, Communication & Society, 19(3), p.307–324. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2015.1109697
Pearce, W. et al. (2020) “Visual cross-platform analysis: digital methods to research social media images.” Information, Communication & Society, 23(2), p.161–180. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2018.1486871
Portwood-Stacer, L. and Berridge, S. (2014) “Introduction: The Year in Feminist Hashtags.” Feminist Media Studies, 14(6), p.1090. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2014.975415
Pruchniewska, U. (2019) Everyday feminism in the digital era: Gender, the fourth wave, and social media affordances. Doctoral Thesis in Philosophy: Temple University.
Quan-Haase, A. et al. (2021) “Mapping #MeToo: A synthesis review of digital feminist research across social media platforms.” New Media & Society, 23(6), p.1700–1720. doi: 10.1177/1461444820984457
Ramazano?lu, C. and Holland, J. (2002) Feminist Methodology: Challenges and Choices. London: SAGE Publications.
Rapley, T. (2014) “Sampling Strategies in Qualitative Research" In: Flick, U. (ed.) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis. London: SAGE Publications.
Rivers, N. (2017) Postfeminism(s) and the Arrival of the Fourth Wave: Turning Tides. Palgrave Macmillan.
Rogers, R. (2013) Digital Methods. Cambridge and London: The MIT Press.
Rogers, R. (2017) “Foundations of Digital Methods: Query Design.” In: M. T. Schäfer & K. van Es (Eds.) The Datafied Society: Studying Culture through Data (pp. 75–94). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Rogers, R. (2018) Doing Digital Methods. London: SAGE Publications.
Rogers, R. (2021) “Visual media analysis for Instagram and other online platforms.” Big Data & Society, 8 (1), 1–23. doi: 10.1177/20539517211022370
Roqueta-Fernàndez, M. & Caldeira, S. P. (2023). “Situating #MeToo: a comparative analysis of the movement in Catalonia and Portugal.” Media, Culture & Society, 45(7), 1435–1452. doi: 10.1177/01634437231179351
Ruiz de Castilla, C. (2017) “Close Reading.” In: M. Allen (Ed.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Santos, A. C. & Pieri, M. (2020) My body, my rules? Self-determination and feminist collective action in Southern Europe. In: C. F. Fominaya and R. A. Feenstra (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Contemporary European Social Movements (pp. 196–209). London: Routledge.
Tavares, M. (2008) Feminismos Em Portugal (1947-2007). Doctoral Thesis in Women’s Studies: Universidade Aberta.
van Zoonen, L. (1994) Feminist Media Studies. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.
van Zoonen, L. (2011) “The Rise and Fall of Online Feminism.” In: M. Christensen, A. Jansson and C. Christensen. (Eds.) Online Territories : Globalization, mediated practice, and social space. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 132–146.
Visual Computing. (2018) ImageSorter. Visual Computing Group at the HTW Berlin. Available at: https://visual-computing.com/
WeAreSocial (2023b) DIGITAL 2023: PORTUGAL. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-portugal
WeAreSocial. (2023a) Digital 2023: Global Overview Report. https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2023/01/the-changing-world-of-digital-in-2023/
Zimmer, M. (2018) “Addressing Conceptual Gaps in Big Data Research Ethics: An Application of Contextual Integrity.” Social Media + Society, 4(2), p.1–11. doi: 10.1177/2056305118768300
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Sofia P. Caldeira
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
