Visual chitchat: The use of camera phones in visual interpersonal communication

Abstract

Photography and photo sharing nowadays form an important part of mobile phone communication, as evidenced by the rather ubiquitous camera phone. The purpose of the article is to examine how the practices of mobile phone communication influence the sharing of camera phone photographs. In pursuing this goal, the ritual view of communication, formulated by James W. Carey, is utilized as a theoretical framework. According to the ritual view, communication serves in sustaining contact between communicators, without placing importance on the information that is exchanged. The conclusion in the article is that ritual communication is evident in how camera phone photographs are captured and communicated in order to maintain social cohesion among a group or among individuals. In addition to a theoretically oriented analysis, the article utilizes results from a qualitative study focusing on the mobile photo sharing practices of a group of Finnish camera phone users.

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

“…Studies on online and mobile visual communication highlight that when it comes to creating connections or communality through photographs, the practice of phatic photo sharing is of utmost importance. In his study on visual mobile communication, Villi (2012) shows that mobile phone users share photographs primarily to maintain connections in a ritual manner. He argues that phatic photo sharing stems from the practices of mobile (telephone) communication and is best understood as a habitual act between users.…”

Captured Moments

“…(James W. Carey, 1970) So, Carey "rejected McLuhan's belief that technology trumps human will." (Martin, 2006) Ironically, it is exactly that "human will" Carey frames in ritual communication, those "mutual roots of the commonness, communion, community, and communication" (Villi, 2012) that accurately describe the emerging visual speech codes of social media and today's social worlds of tech-enhanced communication with "almost uncanny accuracy." (Anderson, 2011)…”

“…(Villi, 2012) Equally as important as the opportunity to verbally chat with another via mobile phone, is the ability for individuals to visually chat with one another and as they share their in-the-moment experiences with a photo and a post through Facebook.…”

“…… Publishing is strongly connected to social media platforms on the web (such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter and the growing array of mobile apps." (Villi, 2012) Granted, these social media publishing platforms do have systemic guardrails that impact individual news feeds and streams of visual communication. These include, but are not limited to, the constraints of the format itself, the selfselection of followers/friends, and the display algorithms generated by user engagement.…”

“…Of particular interest, as the analysis took place, was coding the specific "Genre or Category" along with the "Act" being photographed, and then coupled with the norms of interaction. They began to form a "photographic grammar" (Villi, 2012) that eventually evolved into a basic visual communication framework for social media imagery.…”