[ecrea] CFP: Instagram Conference 2018 + Special Issue (Social Media+Society)

***********************************************************************
*Special Issue with 'Social Media + Society' + Deadline approaching: 30 
April*

We are happy to announce that a special issue with Social Media + 
Society will be associated with the Instagram Conference 2018!

The deadline for the submission of proposals to the Instagram Conference 
2018: Studying Instagram Beyond Selfies, is approaching (30 April 2018).

The Conference will be hosted by Middlesex University London on 1 June 2018.

The purpose of the conference is to explore new theories and 
methodological approaches capable of unlocking the full 
socio-anthropological potential of Instagram, and better enabling 
researchers to undertake the deep exploration of everyday practices 
through the platform.

Abstract below

Keynote speakers (http://instagramconf.mdx.me.uk/keynote-speakers/):

Richard Rogers, Professor of New Media & Digital Culture, Media Studies, 
University of Amsterdam

Crystal Abidin, Postdoctoral Fellow with the Media Management and 
Transformation Centre (MMTC) at Jönköping University, and Adjunct 
Researcher with the Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) at Curtin 
University

We invite participants to submit an abstract (350 words) or a full panel 
proposal (500 words).

Link to the full call for participation:
http://instagramconf.mdx.me.uk/

Twitter
https://twitter.com/mdxinstaconfer1?lang=en-gb



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*Instagram Conference 2018: Studying Instagram Beyond Selfies*

*Middlesex University London, 1 June 2018*

With as many “users as Twitter (310 million), Snapchat 
(100-million-plus) and Pinterest (100 million) combined”, Instagram has 
become one of the most important social networking sites globally and in 
the process has transformed the role of photographs and photography in 
visual culture. The phenomenal success of Instagram has not gone 
unnoticed by brands and micro-celebrities that increased their 
investments and activities on the platform. Beyond its popularity and 
commercial value, Instagram is an environment but also a device that 
offers rich possibilities for conducting social research. Most notably 
it opens up a number of new pathways for exploring socio-cultural 
processes related to the more mundane, tiny, and unseen aspects of 
people’s ordinary lives. Instagram enables researchers to see through 
the eyes of social actors, and glimpsing into their everyday 
micro-rituals, private moments, and back- as well as front stages – the 
essential material of sociology and anthropology, which were either 
unavailable or prohibitively expensive to explore before at scale.

The conference will explore new theories and methodological approaches 
capable of unlocking the full socio-anthropological potential of 
Instagram, focusing on two major challenges that have arisen in recent 
research. From a theoretical point of view there is a scarcity of 
empirical research conducted through Instagram. In addition, although 
Instagram has been used for exploring a variety of topics, the majority 
of projects have tended to focus on the selfie phenomenon. For all its 
zeitgeisty appeal, the selfie is in fact a niche phenomenon in the 
larger context of Instagram genres. The attention given to selfies is 
more than understandable, given their importance to brands and 
micro-celebrities as promotional tools. However, such users represent 
just a portion of the whole Instagram population. Hence, there is a need 
for new theories and approaches capable of enabling researchers to 
undertake the deep exploration of everyday practices through the 
platform. From the methodological perspective, the major issue 
concerning Instagram relates to that fact that in 2016 the platform 
heavily curtailed access to it feed API for non-commercial partners, 
rendering it particularly difficult for many academics to access it for 
research purposes. This poses serious limitations to the possibility of 
developing sustainable and effective strategies for collecting and 
analysing Instagram data. Again, we see here another major concern that 
is urgent to address and discuss within an International Conference.

We invite participants, both academics and professionals, from various 
disciplines including media studies, sociology, anthropology, consumer 
culture, political science, information and computer science, branding, 
PR and advertising, arts, urban studies. Together, we will address a set 
of recurring questions in current research, from the theoretical and 
methodological perspective. How, for example:

What do ‘ordinary’ users use Instagram for? Subversive uses of selfies 
on Instagram.  Studying every day practices and rituals on Instagram. 
Identity work on Instagram.
Brands on Instagram: how do brands relate to consumers on Instagram? How 
do consumers relate to brands on Instagram?
Which kind of social formations does Instagram afford? Communities? 
Publics? Crowds?
How is affective labour performed on Instagram? Which are the best 
strategies to capture and measure it?
How can we study creative work through Instagram? How does creativity 
work on Instagram? How is arts consumption influenced by Instagram? How 
do artists use Instagram? How is the concept of artistic value affected 
by Instagram?
Is still possible to explore Instagram without public APIs? And if so 
how? Innovative Instagram research methods that have gone beyond the API 
roadblock.
Content analysis on Instagram between traditional and natively digital 
approaches: which works better? Is it possible and advantageous to 
combine the two? How?
Network analysis on Instagram: is network analysis a suitable approach 
for studying Instagram? What are the best strategies?
Automated visual analysis: challenges, possibilities, and limitations
Instagram Algorithms: how do they work? How do they shape the user 
experience? How do they shape the practices of researchers? Which are 
the best strategies for studying and understating Instagram algorithms?
Data visualisation on Instagram: innovative approaches
Big Data analysis on Instagram: challenges, possibilities, and limitations
Studying Instagram via mobile devices
How can we study Instagram via its new features, that is, Instagram 
stories and carousel?
How can we study the urban space using Instagram?
Can we study politics via Instagram?
Is Instagram a good environment for studying the gig economy?
The conference will comprise 2 plenary sessions and 4 breakout panels.

The conference will take place on Friday, 1 June 2018.

Abstract and full panel proposals are due by 30 April 2018.

Please submit your proposal to Alessandro Caliandro, email 
(A.Caliandro /at/ mdx.ac.uk)

Individual abstracts should be 350 words or 500 for a full panel 
proposal. Please also include a short bio of no more than 100 words per 
participant.




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