An Investigation of Instagram’s Metonymy: A Multimodal Social Semiotic Approach

Abstract

This paper applied a social semiotic lens toward investigating the metonymic representations repeatedly displayed on the Instagram official account and the Instagram blog. The main source of data were 90 photos gathered from ten “Weekend Hashtag Projects” (WHPs), a weekly photo challenge organized by the Instagram team. The multimodal analyses revealed that the WHP photos shared some common visual properties including medium to low color saturation, medium color modulation, minimal background, unengaged social actors, long distant shots, and unique visual presentations. Thus, the metonymy VISUAL PROPERTY FOR BRAND IMAGE was proposed. These findings suggest that certain visual elements that were repeatedly featured on Instagram has subtly yet persuasively suggested its users what kind of visual aesthetics are highly valued in the community.