Digital production on Instagram: Vernacular literacies and challenges to schools

ABSTRACT

Much of the everyday lives of young people happens on social media, mainly those image-centric platforms, like Instagram. Participation in these platforms has increased practices of meaning-making associated with vernacular literacies. Digital production on Instagram articulates traditions from vernacular writing and photography and is characterized by the mass-circulation, hybridized genres and texts, and the centrality of the image. In this article, I examine the role of image as a precursor of meaning and writing on social media, and the functions and patterns of production present in the practices of 2 Chilean young people. The functions of documentary and testimony; self-expression and identity; sociality, audience, and participation are interwoven with each other and with the patterns that organize the knowledge associated with the production. Based on this discussion, I offer some suggestions in order to broaden the understanding and teaching of writing and digital literacies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional Resources

1. Pilon, A. (2019). Integrating traditional art-making processes and new technology in the high school curriculum. In J. C. Castro (Ed.), Mobile media in and outside of the art classroom: Attending to identity, spatiality, and materiality (pp. 151–163). Springer International Publishing.

In this chapter, the author discusses the pedagogical implications, benefits, and challenges of using mobile technology as a tool to create, enhance, and share images—working in collaboration with peers in the art classroom. Pilon offers strategies for incorporating digital tools in art assignments and how students learn digital literacy, responsible digital citizenship, image analysis, and digital documentation through and with mobile devices.

2. Higgin, Taner (2020, January 10). A best-of-the-best collection of resources for teaching and learning about media literacy. In Media Literacy Resources for Classrooms of Common Sense. Retrieved from https://www.commonsense.org/education/articles/media-literacy-resources-for-classrooms#Creating%20Media%20and%20Media%20Production

Guide with hand-picked, regularly updated resources to better understand and practice media literacy. There are featured resources as well as more comprehensive curricula. Then, the guide offers lessons, videos, downloadables, and games organized by a few key topic areas, like interpreting media, media creation, and media manipulation.

3. Digital Citizenship+ Resource Platform (https://dcrp.berkman.harvard.edu/)

Platform developed by Youth and media of Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University. It is an evolving collection of learning experiences, visualizations, and other educational tools, to work with young people (ages 11-18). Resources are organized in 17 topics, such as: Civic and Political Engagement, Content Production, Context, Data, Digital Economy, Identity Exploration and Formation, Information Quality, Privacy, and Reputation, among others.

Notes

1. I use pseudonyms for the young people, whose cases I comment on this paper, to protect their anonymity.

2. Orlowski, J. Director (2020) The social dilemma”. Exposure Labs, Argent Pictures and The Space Program Productions. Available on www.netflix.com.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica [Advanced Human Capital Program].