Reading the cuts : a novel postman digital visual methodology for examining images of the self on social media

This dissertation presents a novel posthuman digital visual methodology for studying digital self-imaging practices on social media. The method considers digital images, the images they produce, and the audiences to whom the images are shared not as distinct entities but rather as entangles assemblages of material, discursive, and affective forces that intra-act together to create digital imaging phenomena. Reading the Cuts draws on the work of Karen Barad, Don Ihde, and Gayle Salamon as the foundation of the methodology. The dissertation provides an overview of literature written about selfies or digital self-images shared on social media. It then provides a posthuman narrative of the becoming of the paradigms that have come to shape how we think about the relationship between digital images and digital subjectivities. The dissertation then narrates how the Reading the Cuts came to be, theoretically, and positions itself as contributing to both classic qualitative visual methods and post qualitative methodologies. Reading the Cuts as a methodology aims to provide a posthuman approach to visual methods that challenges typical representational modes of analyzing images in social media spaces by studying the becoming of digital self-images.Education, Faculty ofLanguage and Literacy Education (LLED), Department ofGraduat