@article{2023:hugentobler:capturing_,
title = {Capturing a crisis: Exploring individuals’ Instagram use during the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic},
year = {2023},
note = {In the first half of the year 2020, images of the COVID-19 pandemic
dominated frontpages and primetime news: empty streets, overcrowded
hospitals and panic-buying reflected the chaos and great uncertainty
of this global health crisis. Since the advent of the Web 2.0,
however, it has been not only traditional news media that shape the
imagery of such historical events, but also people’s social media
accounts which show what individuals are experiencing at a specific
time and deem shareworthy. To identify prevalent COVID-19 imagery on
Instagram, this digital ethnography assesses the posting behavior of
47 internet users in Switzerland and the United States during the
early stages of the pandemic. This study combines findings from a
qualitative content analysis of 2,698 posts and interviews with 19
creators to address the following research questions: (1) What content
related to the pandemic did Instagram users share with their
followers? And, (2) why did these individuals log on to Instagram
during the COVID-19 pandemic? Overall, we found six COVID-19-related
themes in the Feed and Story posts, which predominantly reflected
changes to participants’ personal lives, including visual changes to
everyday scenery. Furthermore, the individuals in our sample captured
the COVID-19-related themes from an overwhelmingly positive angle.
Answering our second question, we found that logging onto Instagram
helped our participants feel part of “something bigger” during a
time of social isolation. We discuss these findings in the context of
the platform’s affordances and conventions and contribute to the
thus far limited literature on the uses and gratifications of
Instagram and individuals’ use of an image-based social networking
site during a traumatic event.},
journal = {SCM Studies in Communication and Media},
pages = {7--47},
author = {Hugentobler, Larissa and Rüedy, Tanja},
volume = {12},
number = {1}
}