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"Express yourself in new ways" - wait, not like that: A semiotic analysis of norm-breaking pictures on Instagram
Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication, HLK, Media and Communication Studies.
Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication, HLK, Media and Communication Studies.
2020 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

Instagram, as one of today’s largest social media platforms, plays a significant part in the maintaining and reproducing of existing stereotypes and role expectations for women. The purpose of the thesis is to study how Instagram interprets violations against its guidelines, and whether decisions to remove certain pictures from the platform are in line with terms of use, or part of human subjectivity. The noticeable pattern among the removed pictures is that they are often norm-breaking. The thesis discusses communication within Instagram to reveal how and why some pictures are removed while others are not, which limits women’s possibilities to express themselves in non-conventional settings. The study applies semiotics to analyse 12 pictures that were banned from the platform without directly violating its guidelines. Role theory and norms are used to supplement semiotics and shed light on the underlying societal structures of female disadvantage. Two major conclusions are presented: 1) Instagram has unclearly communicated its guidelines to women’s disadvantage, and 2) Instagram has therefore been subjective in the decisions to have the pictures removed from the platform, also to women’s disadvantage. Further, the discussion focuses on how Instagram handles issues related to (1) female sexuality, (2) women stereotyping, and (3) female self-representation.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020. , p. 50
Keywords [en]
social media, norms, roles, gender, self-representation, digital activism, censorship, female sexuality, women stereotyping
National Category
Media and Communications
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-51760ISRN: JU-HLK-MKA-1-20210334OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-51760DiVA, id: diva2:1524376
Subject / course
HLK, Media and Communication Studies
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2021-02-05 Created: 2021-02-01 Last updated: 2025-10-13Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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  • apa
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