Captured Moments: Defining a Communicative Framework for Social Photography

As photography takes center stage on today's social media platforms, given the ease of modern capture devices (i.e. mobile phones, point and shoot cameras, tablets, etc.), the ability to produce and publish images occurs at a much quicker rate than the humble Kodak Brownie camera afforded the masses when introduced in January 1900. This enhanced ease has generated an opportunity for the everyday photographer to creatively communicate through the distribution of their images. This paper applies research results from a qualitative visual ethnographic study focusing on the non-verbal posts of a select group of Facebook users. The Dell Hymes' SPEAKING framework was used to structure the visual data; analysis leveraged Gerry Philipsen's Speech Codes Theory and James W. Carey's Ritual Communication Theory contributes to the creation of a communicative framework for the non-verbal social media postings. In conclusion, what emerges through the data is a visual speech code that tacitly leverages traditional photographic genres while at the same time supporting a system of meanings and symbols that enhance the instantaneous posts and communications of the day-to-day ebb and flow of life.