Monday, February 20, 2017

MCS 355, Major Group Assignment: Peller-Stephen, Walsh-Tyler, Bobadilla-Steve

Stephen Peller
Tyler Walsh
Steve Bobadilla
MCS 355, Project #1

2/20/17
In the Eyes of Dijck: Instagram
Instagram is one of the newer social media applications and uses the concept of photos to tell stories instead of text. In the last couple of years Instagram has been able to implement short video as well as photos. In Dijck’s book, “The Culture of Connectivity,” we see how there are six categories that are a part of social media applications. 
The first category is the technology behind the application. This is mainly based upon the type of application behind the creation and updating of the application. Instagram began to share photos to one’s followers. Instagram then allows people to comment on the photos. The next technological update to Instagram was how they began allowing people to post videos under thirty seconds in length. This update was mainly in response to Twitter creating a website/application called Vine allowing users to upload videos under seven seconds in length. 
The second category in Dijck’s book is the Users and Usage. This category is mainly reliant on how many people use Instagram and how they use it. Instagram is available to anyone with a smartphone that can support Instagram. Users can follow anyone they want who has the application and view it on the computer if they want. Users can range from celebrities, athletes, cosplayers, or just the everyday person.
Content is the third category stated by Dijck. In this category, we see how Instagram can have a very wide range of content. The photos and videos posted by users can be based upon what they have for dinner, a party they are going to, or meeting someone and taking a “selfie” with them and then sharing it with the rest of the world. The content also does have to fall into specific guidelines for it to remain on the website.
The fourth category of Dijcks model is ownership. This is mainly based upon the idea of who owns the content and the website. Currently the social media company Facebook owns Instagram. The main issue with posting photos on Instagram is who owns the photos and videos posted. This issue is mainly due to people not realizing that their photos can be used by Instagram to gather profit for advertisements by selling the photos to possible advertisers. The only way to find out who owns the photos is to read the terms of service and decide if it is fine with the person to post photos on Instagram. 
Category number five is the governance of Instagram. This is used to describe who owns the website and is responsible for both maintaining the website and making sure the rules are enforced. The governance of Instagram is mainly done by Facebook and people are hired to make sure the terms of use for posting photos are not broken by users and that they follow all the rules. 
The final category in Dijck’s model is the Business Model. This is mainly based upon the way that Instagram makes money and how they market themselves to advertisers. Instagram mainly makes money from the selling of advertising space on the website and by selling some users photos and information to the companies. This business model is effective in getting the most information the quickest way. We see how Facebook and Twitter rely on similar business models and have been able to make millions of dollars each year this way.

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