Microfinance, Digital Media and Social Change: A Visual Analysis of kiva.org

Using theoretical frameworks from Appadurai, (1990); Nakamura, (2008) and Gajjala and Birzescu, (2010), this study employs visual analysis to examined the communication processes employed in acquiring loans for people in developing countries. 26 images and 26 narratives on kiva.org were critically examined. The results for this study suggested that though online microfinance through web 2.0 communication technologies has added a new dimension to global lending, by providing people who otherwise would not have access to loan products, many of the so called poorest of the poor do not have direct access to global communication tools that are used to represent them on sites such as kiva. The study suggests the representation of borrowers from developing countries is riddled with issues