Instagram as a narrative platform

Abstract

Even though Instagram has been the subject of numerous studies, none of them have systematically investigated its potential as a narrative medium. This article argues that Instagram’s narrative capabilities are comparable to those of literature and film. To support our claims, we analyze a number of prominent female Instagram creators and demonstrate how they employ the platform’s diverse features, functionalities, and interface to create multi-year biographical narratives. Furthermore, we discuss the applicability of theories developed in literary and film studies in analyzing Instagram’s narrative capabilities. By employing Bakhtin’s influential chronotope concept, we examine in depth how these narratives make specific use of space and time. Additionally, we compare time construction in film and Instagram narratives using the cinema studies’ theory of narrative time in movies.