Once upon a post: instagram as a medium for storytelling, creative expression and interactivity

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2021
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This study investigates Instagram as a medium for storytelling, creative expression and interactivity. Creative research was conducted by means of the creation of an Instagram account @pusuit4beaut which displayed narratives and content of creative expression which pertain to the desire for physical beauty in modern day society. This was a vehicle to investigate Instagram’s image and video functions to explore the degree of concise narrativity and creative expression in content creation; storytelling aids; narrative structures and the affordances and limitations of interactivity on Instagram. The findings indicate that Instagram’s image and video functions afford creative freedom in content creation and the concise narrativity is mostly informed by the limitations of durations of videos and the limitation of representations of scenes in images. Editing tools and Instagram Story filters aid in presenting narrative elements. The narrative structures are predominantly governed by Instagram’s algorithm and interactive environment. Interactive functions alter the mechanics of content presentation and engagement
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A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts to the Faculty of Humanities, School of Literature, Language and Media, University of the Witwatersrand, 2021
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