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Preliminary findings of my dissertation research on photographs of self-injury on Flickr, presented at Association of Internet Researchers conference in Seattle, Oct 12 2011
Citation preview
Picturesque wounds:
Narrative
performance of self-
injurers on Flickr
October 12, 2011Yukari Seko (York/Ryerson
Universities)
Photo by Sebastian R
Internet and self-injury (SI)
Internet as a low-risk venue to search info, express themselves, find peers with similar interest, and formulate SI subculture
Rapid increase of user-generated multimedia SI content
Existing studies: predominantly text-oriented Tend to to rely on medical
interpretation Focus mainly on “communities”
Social media “Ego-centered,” relatively centralized
“I” network
Constant identity performance: “write themselves into being” (boyd, 2007)
Variety of social network besides cocooned “community,” through metadata and indexing activity (tagging, friending, linking, commenting etc)
Photo-sharing social media (6 billions photos by Aug 2011)
Folksonomy: user-generated indexing, collective knowledge building
Relative tolerance for content (user-led regulation, flagging)
Multi-layered social space (personal space, p2p network through “contact,” loose interaction via tag, comments, and group)
Flickr’s Multi-layered social
network1. peer-to-peer
contact
2. Via photo (comment/favorite)
Like it!
Thanx
4. Flickr group
Shared
topic
Join
3. Via Tag
boat boat
Modified the figure from Hansen, Shneiderman & Smith (2010)
Method Flickr as symbiotic assemblage of
technocultural entities
1. Identify Semantic Landscape through quantitative tag analysis
2. Interrogate social interactions between photo-uploaders and viewers (discourse analysis)
3. Visual content analysis of individual photographs
Research Subjects photos retrieved through text (keyword)
and tag 1051 photos retrieved via keyword “self-
injury” 864 photos via tag search
All photos are publicly accessible without Flickr account, marked as “Safe”
Textual info & metadata attached to each photo were retrieved via Flickr API
Image generated by www.taggalaxy.de
Flickr photos tagged “selfinjury”
Search style Keyword Tag
Mean # of photo 1051 864
#of unique tags 2161 1971
total# of tags 7949 8234
Average# of tags
8.7 9.5
Photos with no tag
137 N/A
Keyword vs. Tag
* Overlap btw 2 datasets = 508
self
inju
ry
self-
inju
ry
depre
ssio
n
cuttin
glo
ve
twlo
ha
scar
s
(no
tag)
blood
Self h
arm
To W
rite
Lov
e on
her
Arm
sse
lf
arm
s
inju
ry
Suicid
e
write her
arm
self-
harm
cuts
portrai
tcu
t
Addiction 36
5gir
l0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Top 25 tags for photos found via keyword search
cuttin
g
blood
scar
s
depre
ssio
n
self
harm cu
t
Self-har
m
selfh
arm
cuts
girl
self-
muti
lation
scar
skin
anxi
ety
suicid
e
TWLO
HA
self
arm
self
muti
lation
to w
rite
love
on h
er a
rms
cutter
pain
addic
tion
portrai
t
wou
nds0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
Top 25 tags for photos found via tag search
Tag appearance frequency
59%14%
7%
4%
3%
2%4%
Tag Group
1 2 34 5 6
66%12%
6%
3%
2%
2%
4%Keyword Group
_x0001_1_x0001_2
Tag network for “selfinjury” tag generated by Nodexl
Medical interpretation
SI-specific term
Photography
Body Parts
SI-awareness
Photo by inju
Photo by SarahWynne
Photo by Cherry C.
Discussion SI photographs as potential modality for
self-disclosure that facilitates performative social communication
SI as an act to deal with emotional pain in a visible manner may provoke aesthetic impulse of self-injurers to visually narrativize their life
Flickr, as a social site of display, seems to encourage SI photo uploaders to label and share their life freely, not necessarily bound to medical diagnosis
Works cited boyd, d. (2007). Why Youth Social Network
Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life. In D. Buckingham (Ed.). MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume. Pp. 119-142.
Hansen, D., Shneiderman, B. & Smith, M. (2010)Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXLMorgan Kaufmann