Institutional Flows of Communication for Young People on Instagram and the Use of Visual Images


Abstract


Public communication in digital space is entering a phase of profound change due to the redefinition of the forms of production, dissemination and use of content in institutional networks. This article contributes to research carried out on public communication news flows of SNSs, presenting an analysis focusing on the visual content posted on institutional information channels dedicated to young people and managed by youth policy actors. The content of photos was analyzed in relation to 6 categories of public communication topics, 3 categories of communication aims, 6 categories of visual elements and 10 thematic areas. The empirical basis consists of 702 images taken from 15 accounts of Italian and European youth policy Instagram channels. The results show the main features of institutional flows on Instagram and a comparison with what has emerged from previous research projects relating to Facebook and Twitter. The findings focus on institutional topics and promotional aims and on the weaknesses of the flow of images in terms of social and political issues, engagement, public-service information, semantic autonomy and emotional impact. The limits that emerge from the research identify certain critical questions which indicate a need for further investigation with respect to relationships occurring between public news flows, young people, information requirements and social networks in the public sphere.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v13i2p1085

Keywords: Instagram; public communication; social networks; visual communication; youth target

References


Alhabash S., M. Ma (2017), “A Tale of Four Platforms: Motivations and Uses of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat among College Students?”, Social Media+ Society, 3(1): 1-13.

Aziz F. (2015), “Immagini personali sui social networks: Facebook come caso di studio”, in G. Boccia Artieri (eds.), Gli Effetti Sociali del Web. Forme della Comunicazione e Metodologie della Ricerca Online, Milano: FrancoAngeli.

Bakhshi S., D.A. Shamma, and E. Gilbert (2014), Faces engage Us: Photos with faces attract more likes and comments on Instagram, In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 965-974).

Banaji S. (2011), “Disempowering by assumption: How the rhetoric of ‘digital natives’ affects young people and influences civic organisations working with them”, in T.Thomas (ed.), Deconstructing Digital Natives, London and New York, Routledge: 49-66.

Bennet L. (ed. 2008), Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth‘, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Bernardini C., T. Silverston, and O. Festor (2014), A pin is worth a thousand words. Characterization of publications in pinterest. In Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, (pp. 322–327).

Bertot J.C., P.T. Jaeger, and J.M. Grimes (2010), “Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies”, Government information quarterly, 27(3): 264-271.

Blumler J.G., S. Coleman (2015), “Democracy and the media—revisited”, Javnost-The Public, 22(2): 111-128.

Boccia Artieri G. (2012), Stati di Connessione: Pubblici, Cittadini e Consumatori nella (Social) Network Society, Milano: FrancoAngeli.

Boccia Artieri G. (2015), Gli effetti sociali del web. Forme della comunicazione e metodologie della ricerca online, Milano: FrancoAngeli

Bonsón E., S. Royo, and M. Ratkai (2017), “Facebook practices in Western European municipalities: An empirical analysis of activity and citizens’ engagement”, Administration & Society, 49(3): 320-347.

Boyd D.M., N.B. Ellison (2007), “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship”, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 13(1): 210–230.

Brader T. (2005), “Striking a responsive chord: How political ads motivate and persuade voters by appealing to emotions”, American Journal of Political Science, 49(2), 388-405.

Bryer T.A., S.M. Zavattaro (2011), “Social media and public administration: Theoretical dimensions and introduction to the symposium”, Administrative Theory & Praxis, 33(3): 325-340.

Bruns A. (2008), Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and beyond: From production to produsage, New York, Peter Lang Publishing.

Buckingham D. (2008), Youth, identity, and digital media, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Canel M.J., V. Luoma-aho (2018), Public sector communication: Closing gaps between citizens and public organizations, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Castells M. (2008),”The new public sphere: Global civil society, communication networks, and global governance”, The Annals of the american academy of Political and Social Science, 616(1): 78-93.

Childers T., M. Houston (1984), “Conditions for a Picture-Superiority Effect on Consumer Memory”, Journal of Consumer Research, 11: 643–53. doi:10.1086/ 209001

Chun S., S. Shulman, R. Sandoval, and E. Hovy (2010), “Government 2.0: Making connections between citizens, data and government”, Information Polity, 15(1,2): 1-9.

Chung D.S. (2008), “Interactive features of online newspapers: Identifying patterns and predicting use of engaged readers”, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(3): 658-679.

Coleman S. (2008), “Doing it for themselves: management versus autonomy in youth e-citizenship”, in L.W. Bennett (ed.), Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, pp. 189-206.

Coleman S., J.G. Blumler (2009), The Internet and democratic citizenship: Theory, practice and policy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Collin P. (2015), Young citizens and political participation in a digital society: addressing the democratic disconnect, Berlin: Springer.

Criado J.I., R. Sandoval-Almazan, and J.R. Gil-Garcia (2013), “Government innovation through social media”, Government Information Quarterly, 30: 319-326.

De Rosario A.H., A.S. Martín, and M.D.C.C. Pérez (2016), “The Use of Facebook to Promote Engagement with Local Governments in Spain”, in M. Sobaci (ed.), Social Media and Local Governments. Public Administration and Information Technology, vol 15, Cham: Springer.

De Vries H.A., V.J.J.M. Bekkers, and L.G. Tummers (2014). Innovations in the Public Sector: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda. Ottawa: IRSPM conference.

Diana P., P. Montesperelli (2005), Analizzare le Interviste Ermeneutiche, Roma: Carocci.

Ducci G. (2015), “Public communication in the Processes of Transparency and Accountability in the Era of Open Data”, Sociology Study, 5(2): 83-90.

Ducci G., A. Lovari, and L. D’Ambrosi (2019), “Fra Schermi e Schermaglie: le Sfide del Visual nello Storytelling”, Hermes, J. Comm., 15(9): 313 – 352.

Eco U. (2016), Trattato di semiotica generale, Milano: La Nave di Teseo Editore spa.

Faber B.D. (2002), Community action and organizational change: Image, narrative, identity, Carbondale: SIU Press.

Faccioli P., G. Losacco (2010), Nuovo Manuale di Sociologia Visuale: dall’Analogico al Digitale, Milano: FrancoAngeli.

Fountain J.E. (2004), Building the virtual state: Information technology and institutional change, Washington: Brookings Institution Press.

Goffman E. (2001) [1974], Frame Analysis. L’Organizzazione dell’Esperienza, Roma: Armando.

Gil de Zúñiga H., N. Jung, and S. Valenzuela (2012), “Social media use for news and individuals' social capital, civic engagement and political participation”, Journal of computer-mediated communication, 17(3): 319-336.

Gil de Zúñiga H., L. Molyneux, and P. Zheng (2014), “Social media, political expression, and political participation: Panel analysis of lagged and concurrent relationships”, Journal of communication, 64(4): 612-634.

Ginsberg K. (2015), “Instabranding: Shaping the Personalities of the Top Food Brand on Instagram”, Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 6(1).

Haro-de-Rosario A., A. Sáez-Martin, and M. Caba-Pérez (2018), “Using social media to enhance citizens engagement with local government: Twitter or Facebook?”, New Media & Society, 20(1): 29-49.

Hilgers D., C. Ihl (2010), “Citizensourcing: Applying the Concept of Open Innovation to the Public Sector”, International Jounal of Public Participation (IJP2), 4(1): 67-88.

Hootsuite (2020), Digital 2020 (https://wearesocial.com/it/blog/2020/01/report-digital-2020-i-dati-global)

Hu Y, L. Manikonda, S. Kambhampati (2014), What We Instagram: A First Analysis of Instagram Photo Content an Users Types. In Eighth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media.

Innerarity D. (2008), Il Nuovo Spazio Pubblico, Roma: Meltemi.

Jenkins H. (2006), Convergence Culture, New York: New York University Press.

Jenkins H. (2009), Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Jenkins H., S. Shresthova, L. Gamber-Thompson, N. Kligler-Vilenchik, and A. Zimmerman (2018), By any media necessary: The new youth activism (Vol. 3), New York: NYU Press.

Jilke S., J. Lu, C. Xu, and S. Shinohara (2019), “Using Large-Scale Social Media Experiments in Public Administration: Assessing Charitable Consequences of Government Funding of Nonprofits”, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 29(4): 627–639, https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muy021.

Kaplan A.M., M. Haenlein (2010), “Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media”, Business Horizons, 53(1): 59-68.

Kapoor K.K., K. Tamilmani, N.P. Rana, P. Patil, Y.K. Dwivedi, and S. Nerur (2018), “Advances in social media research: Past, present and future”, Information Systems Frontiers, 20(3): 531-558.

Krippendorf K. (1980), Content Analysis: an Introduction to its Methodology, London: Sage.

Lathrop D., L. Ruma (2010), Open Government. Collaboration, Transparency, and Participation in Practice. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media.

Lee E., J.A. Lee, J.H. Moon, and Y. Sung (2015), “Pictures speak louder than words: Motivations for using Instagram”, Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 18(9): 552-556.

Leone S., A. Delli Paoli (2016), “The Social Media Communication Flows of Italian Institutions. A Framework Analysis for Public and Political Communication on Twitter, Comunicazione Politica, 3: 393-424.

Leone S. (2019), Italian Youth Studies. Life Conditions, Partecipation and Public Space, Bogotà: Penguin Random House.

Livingstone S., M. Bober, and E.J. Helsper (2005), “Active participation or just more information? Young people's take-up of opportunities to act and interact on the Internet”, Information, Community & Society, 8(3): 287-314.

Livingstone S., T. Markham (2008), “The contribution of media consumption to civic participation”, The British journal of sociology, 59(2): 351-371.

Loader B.D. (ed 2007), Young citizens in the digital age: Political engagement, young people and new media, London: Routledge.

Lovari A. (2013), Networked citizens. Comunicazione pubblica e amministrazioni digitali, Milano: FrancoAngeli.

Magro M. J. (2012), “A review of social media use in e-government”, Administrative Sciences, 2(2): 148-161.

Mancini P. (2002) [1996], Manuale di Comunicazione Pubblica, Roma-Bari: Laterza.

Marradi A. (1990), “Classification, Typology, Taxonomy”, Quality and Quantity, 24: 129-157.

Mergel I. (2012), “The social media innovation challenge in the public sector”, Information Polity, 17(3-4): 281-292.

Mergel I. (2013), “A framework for interpreting social media interactions in the public sector”, Government information quarterly, 30(4): 327-334.

Milner R. (2013), “Pop polyvocality: Internet memes, public participation, and the Occupy Wall Street movement”, International Journal of Communication, 7: 2357–2390

Munoz C.L., T.L. Towner (2017), “The image is the message: Instagram marketing and the 2016 presidential primary season”, Journal of political marketing, 16(3-4): 290-318, doi:10.1086/ 209001.

Norris P. (2002), Democratic pheonix: Reinventing democratic activism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Noveck B. (2009), Wiki Government: How Technology Can Make Government Better, Democracy Stronger, and Citizens More Powerful, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

Paivio A., T.B. Rogers, and P.C. Smythe (1968), “Why are pictures easier to recall than words?”, Psychonomic Science, 11(4): 137-138.

Pieters R., M. Wedel (2004), “Attention capture and transfer in advertising: Brand, pictorial, and text-size effects” Journal of Marketing, 68(2): 36-50.

Pinotti A., A. Somaini (2017), Cultura Visuale. Immagini, sguardi, media, dispositivi, Segrate: Einaudi.

Prensky M. (2001), “Digital natives, digital immigrants”, On the horizon, 9 (5): 1-6

Raadschelders, J.C., Lee, K.H. (2011), “Trends in the study of public administration: Empirical and qualitative observations from Public Administration Review, 2000–2009”. Public Administration Review, 71(1): 19-33.

Schifanella, R., M. Redi, and L.M. Aiello (2015, April), An image is worth more than a thousand favorites: Surfacing the hidden beauty of flickr pictures. In Ninth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media.

Selwyn N. (2009, July). The digital native–myth and reality. In Aslib proceedings. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Silva T.H., P.O.S.Vd. Melo, J.M. Almeida, J.Salles, and A.A.F. Loureiro (2013), A Picture of Instagram is Worth More Than a Thousand Words: Workload Characterization and Application, In Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems, Cambridge, MA, (pp. 123-132), doi: 10.1109/DCOSS.2013.59.

Skoric M.M, Q. Zhu, D. Goh, and N. Pang (2016), “Social media and citizen engagement: A meta-analytic review”, New Media & Society, 18(9): 1817-1839.

Smith A., M. Anderson (2018), “Social media use in 2018”, Pew research center, 1: 1-4.

Tapscott D. (1998), Growing up Digital. The Rise of the Net Generation, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Van Dijck J. (2009), “Users Like You? Theorizing Agency in User-generated Content”, Media Culture & Society, 31(1): 41-58.

Varnelis K. (2012), Networked publics, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Vittadini N. (2018), Social media studies. I social media alla soglia della maturità: storia, teorie e temi, Milano: FrancoAngeli.

Warren A.M., A. Sulaiman, and N.I. Jaafar(2014), “Social media effects on fostering online civic engagement and building citizen trust and trust in institutions”, Government Information Quarterly, 31(2): 291-301.

Wellman B., M. Gulia (1999), “Net surfers don’t ride alone: Virtual communities as communities”, in B. Wellman (Ed.), Networks in the global village, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 331-366.

Whiting A., D. Williams (2013), “Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach”, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16(4): 362-369.

Zafiropoulos K., K. Antoniadis, and V. Vrana (2014), “Sharing followers in e-government Twitter accounts: the case of Greece”, Future Internet, 6(2): 337–358.

Zavatarro S.M., A.J. Sementelli (2014), “A Critical Examination of Social Media Adoption in Government: Introducing Omnipresence”, Government Information Quarterly, 31 (2): 257-264.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.