Using Instagram in participatory visual methods - limitations of the platform

Interviews where photographs taken by the respondent are used in order to stimulate the conversation and to gain rich empirical material are increasingly employed by researchers. The ubiquitous use of mobile cameras and digital platforms such as Instagram has made it easier for the researcher as well as for the interviewees to take and share photographs. The limitations of participatory visual methods are seldom discussed and in particular the role of the platform has received little attention. The aim of this study is to explore and discuss the role and limitation of Instagram as a platform for visual participatory methods.

The study is based on 30 interviews with participants in two projects where Instagram take-over was used to stimulate the participants to present their view of a place and an organization. Erving Goffman (1959) is used for analyzing the micro practice of taking photographs. Approaching how photographs was produced enable us to understand the role of the technique as well as social conventions and personal competence in performances of photography.

The analysis shows that the participants identified social conventions which guided their participation. Social conventions related to Instagram, a so-called platform logic guided planning, shooting, editing and selecting photographs in the studied projects. Hence, inclusion of Instagram in a study means that gazes govern the practice and photographs taken. It enables the participants to “see” certain things while others are left out. Moreover, it has consequences for what the participant then discusses in an interview situation.