Beyond the self: Intersubjectivity and the social semiotic interpretation of the selfie

Abstract

As an iconic image of our time, the selfie has attracted much attention in popular media and scholarly writing. The focus so far has been on the representation of the self or subjectivity. We propose a complementary perspective that foregrounds the intersubjective function of the selfie. We argue that the presence of selfhood is often an assumption. What distinguishes the selfie from other photographic genres is its ability to enact intersubjectivity – the possibility for difference of perspectives to be created and this difference to be shared between the image creator and the viewer. Based on a social semiotic analysis of selfies on Instagram, we identify four subtypes of selfie, each deploying a combination of visual resources to represent a distinct form of intersubjectivity. Our analysis suggests that the potential for empowerment is inherent in the visual structure of the selfie, and that, as a genre, it is open for recontextualisation across contexts and social media platforms.

Group selfies and Snapchat: From sociality to synthetic collectivisation

“…Intersubjectivity is a term which 'appears to express a core component of the social', and has been used in various disciplines, although with different definitions (Reich, 2010: 40). Within the study of selfies, intersubjectivity has been used as the touchstone by which Zhao and Zappavigna (2018) have begun to tackle how interpersonal meaning is construed in selfies. In their recent work, they draw on the psychologist Gillespie's (2009) definition, which conceptualises intersubjectivity as 'the variety of relations between perspectives.…”

“…Selfies are not just produced as images, but are a form of multimodal discourse which can include visual, aural and verbal elements when shared through video clips that can be created on smart phones. This presents a major challenge for discourse analysts, whose earlier work on selfies has been monomodal, concentrating only on photography (as in the work of Zhao and Zappavigna, 2018) or only on the verbal content which accompanies the images (Georgakopoulou, 2016). There has, as yet, been no attempt to analyse systematically the ways in which visual, aural and verbal elements might together contribute to the positioning of people vis-à-vis selfies, and in particular, no attempt to differentiate how this might be constructed for groups as compared with individuals.…”

Self-Portrait, Selfie, Self: Notes on Identity and Documentation in the Digital Age

“…Still, Qiu and colleagues [67] found that certain personality traits, such as agreeableness and neuroticism, can be ascertained through viewing a selfie. Zhao and colleagues [68] offer a differing account, arguing that the most salient aspect of the selfie is not the representation of the self, but rather the image's capacity for evoking different perspectives (i.e., emphasizing intersubjectivity), inviting onlookers to look not at the photographer-subject necessarily, but from the photographer-subject's point of view; this seems consonant with Freeland's [42] (p. 174) assertion that the self-portrait draws attention to the depicted person as an intentional subject, discussed above. Similarly, Donnachie [69] discusses that selfies serve as a way for people to greet each other and thereby serve as a path for encountering the other.…”

Hvorfor og hvordan ’betyder’ nethandel? Om blandingen af teksttyper i Zalandos netbutik

“…Fairclough, 1992) eller politiske diskurser (jf. Wodak, 2015). Den er snarere kommercielt orienteret, idet den angår handel med varer og serviceydelser.…”