Curating a Public Self: Exploring Social Media Images of Women in the Outdoors

Gray, Tonia; Norton, Christine Lynn; Breault-Hood, Joelle; Christie, Beth; Taylor, Nicole

doi:10.18666/jorel-2018-v10-i2-8191

Cited by 7 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 34 publications

(20 reference statements)

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“…In the context of sport, visuality is often studied and seen as an extension of the physical experience. Research shows that recreational sports practitioners use photo-sharing practices to engage in the collective reproduction of style (Woermann 2012), assert their place as part of the sports community (Olive 2015), and curate their athletic self-presentation (Gray et al 2018). Regarding community building among mountain bikers, McCormack (2018) argues that mediated rituals, such as photo sharing, extend and strengthen social relations between practitioners.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I shared the joy’: sport-related social support and communality on Instagram

Ehrlén¹,

Villi²

2020

Visual Studies

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The popularity of sharing photographs on digital platforms has increased significantly due to the communicative affordances of mobile media and the emergence of photosharing applications, such as Instagram. In this paper, we examine how social support and communality can be built and reinforced through digital visual communication. We focus especially on photo sharing in the context of recreational climbing and trail running. In a qualitative study with Finnish climbers and runners, we asked what meanings sports practitioners ascribe to the practice of sharing and observed how they communicate these meanings through photographs. The results indicate that different types of visual content build and reinforce communality in distinct ways. Whereas inspirational photographs drive practitioners to explore, motivational photographs pull practitioners to keep going through goal setting and peer support. We conclude that visual communication on Instagram mediates a stream of momentary encounters between practitioners that merge into communally meaningful experiences. Thus, we assert that in the context of recreational sport subcultures, photo sharing not only facilitates social relationships but can be perceived as a meaningful social practice that is integral to reinforcing physical activity. Veera Ehrlén is a doctoral student in the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research focuses on new media, digital culture, and network-based communication in the context of leisure-time activities. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9790-1865. Mikko Villi is a professor in the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. His work focuses on the contemporary context for distributing and sharing media content, especially on social media platforms. He has also gathered knowledge and expertise on themes related to new communication technology and forms of communication, in particular on visual and mobile media.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I shared the joy’: sport-related social support and communality on Instagram

Ehrlén¹,

Villi²

2020

Visual Studies

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“…These absences continue to maintain social, political and economic inequality within outdoor and adventure spaces (Comrie & McMillan, 2013). Whilst many studies have indicated that lack of representation may limit particular individuals' participation in outdoor activities, recent research demonstrates that individuals are turning to social media to showcase and amplify their own outdoor experiences through self-presentation (Gray, Norton, Breault-Hood, Christie & Taylor 2018;Stanley, 2020;Weatherby & Vidon, 2018). In the last decade, social media sites (SMSs) have enabled people to produce and share knowledge, emotions and experiences far more widely than in the past (Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy & Silvestre, 2011;Thorpe, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In light of media's potential to both reinforce and challenge hegemonic discourses, it is imperative to continue to examine the interplay between media affordances, representations and experiences of the outdoors. However, research investigating outdoor media and, in particular, women's user-generated outdoor social media content and the notion of self-presentation is still in its infancy (Frazer & Anderson, 2018;Gray et al, 2018;Kling, Margaryan & Fuchs, 2018;Lyu, 2015;Stanley, 2020;Weatherby & Vidon, 2018;Zink & Kane, 2015). Calls have been made for further exploration of user-generated content (UGC) on SMSs as well as actual participation behaviours and preferences, particularly through a gendered lens (Frazer & Anderson, 2018;Kling et al, 2018;Weatherby & Vidon, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study analyses a significantly larger data set compared to similar studies (e.g. Lamont & Ross 2019; Gray et al 2018;McKeown & Miller 2019) and unlike previous studies, it examines women's participation in a range of outdoor adventure activities regardless of their geographic location. It also scrutinises both the caption and image posted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Women’s outdoor adventure experiences on Instagram: exploring user-generated content

Low

Miller

Doran

et al. 2020

Annals of Leisure Research

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Little is known about how everyday women self-present their outdoor adventure experiences, and how these compare to mainstream media, which often reinforces narratives of hegemonic masculinity. To better understand how everyday women portray their outdoor adventure experiences, we examine user-generated content on Instagram associated with the hashtags #womenoutdoors, #womeninadventure and #shewentwild. In total, 1154 posts were collected. Analysis revealed that Instagram facilitates a 'DigiPlace' that contributes to new understandings and ways of being outdoors for everyday women. More specifically, our work indicates that the ubiquity of social media helps to reshape the nature of female participation in outdoor adventure activities as well as giving everyday women greater visibility in outdoor landscapes.

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“…Either way, a more explicit focus on identified groups would help to explore these options. Going beyond the above focus on hikers who have set off to explore places outside the city, what about runners-when and in what ways might their smartphones augment experiences with the natural environment(Bamberg et al, 2018)?Turning to other groups,Gray et al (2018), for example, have explored how gender serves to shape the depiction of outdoor experiences on Instagram, which takes us back to some of the important self-presentation issues with which we began. Here,Truong and Clayton (2020), for example, point to the value of speaking with 'content creators' about how they depict the natural world.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%