Picture Taking Tradition after Undergraduate Thesis Examination: A Sociosemiotic Ethnography Study

Abstract

Taking picture/photos with a mobile phone can be perceived as a cultural event. The event selected as object of this study was photo-taking tradition after the students of Faculty of Cultural Studies Universitas Brawijaya passed the undergraduate thesis examination. By employing qualitative research, this study aimed to explain the meaning of the photo-taking tradition. The data in this study included field data, namely information on the tradition gathered from the interviews with the students of Faculty of Cultural Studies Universitas Brawijaya who were selected by purposive sampling and snowball sampling methods, and literary data, namely data related to the tradition taken from articles, journals and research reports. The data were then analyzed by employing Sociosemiotic Ethnography proposed by Phillip Vannini (2006). The results showed that the meaning of photo-taking tradition after undergraduate thesis examination was as a realization of gratitude and continuation of the existing tradition. The attributes worn when taking pictures were considered as special characteristics of the activity and a symbol of success. The steps of rituals of the tradition were situational and spontaneous with an emphasis on the importance of the presence of closest people. The identified semiotic resource were photos with attributes and photos with closest people. The modality could be categorized as sensory, namely visual which served as index of self-existence and success (of being graduated). Semiotic change happened in relation with the meaning of "beauty pageant" attribute.

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“…( 5) Managing data collection by employing the principles of field research (related to interviews with informants) and library research (related to written data, photographs and audio visuals). The implementation of data analysis is as follows: (1) processing the results of interviews obtained from informants; (2) reducing the data, (3) grouping the data, (4) interpreting the data, and (5) concluding the data (Setiawan & Pujiyanti, 2019).…”