Theorizing Instagram: Ontology, Epistemology, Aesthetics

In this paper, I theorize Instagram via the lens of film and media theory and examine if Instagram constitutes a radical break with prior media. I remediate the “ontology-epistemology-aesthetic” structure to investigate Instagram. Starting with the ontological section, I add the discussion of medium specificity into the study of Instagram as a new media built upon the strategies of both and new media, including World Wide Web, photography, collage, Snapchat and more. Moreover, the epistemological section bridges a dialogue among the cognition, haptic, and optic of users’ experience of interaction, embodiment, participatory culture with Instagram. It is then followed by the aesthetic section in which I examine Instagram’s styles and conventions regarding each and every individual photos as well as a collection of photos, borrowing core elements of analysis of film art including the framing, color, mise-en-scene, etc. I then wrap up this framework by asserting this paper’s stand as a reading of Instagram from the perspective of film and media theory. In a sense, I am reclaiming media theorists’ rights to study Instagram and other visual-driven social media