Hybrid repertoires of photo sharing: exploring the complexities of young adults’ photo-sharing practices

Abstract

Photo sharing has become a routine everyday practice and an object of increasing scholarly interest in visual communication research. Previous studies focused on single photo-sharing practices and on how particular photo-sharing services or devices are used. This article, in contrast, highlights the merits of a repertoire-oriented approach to better understand the complexity and entanglement of photo-sharing practices across various channels in diversified media environments. Based on semi-structured qualitative interviews that are combined with creative visual methods, the present study explores the everyday photo-sharing practices of eight young adults. It examines how they decide and reflect on which pictures are shared with whom and via which communication channel. The analysis shows that photo-sharing repertoires are not just the mere sum of the different platforms used for sending and distributing pictures, but rather a meaningfully structured composition of practices. Sharing repertoires and practices are structured by decisions and considerations based on (1) the imagined affordances of platforms and their expected audiences as well as on (2) interpersonal coordination and matching practices. These decisions require multi-layered media literacy skills that include knowledge of technical aspects of visual media usage, knowledge of platform-specific affordances and norms, as well as knowledge of communication habits, preferences and attitudes of the communication partners. On the methodological level, the study underlines two aspects. First, practices of ‘smartphone photography’ are manifold. They go beyond photo sharing and also include the use of apps as camera tools and photographic software. This needs to be taken into account when examining and discussing the usage of specific apps or platforms. Second, the study highlights that visual creative methods and elicitation techniques can make a fruitful contribution to the methodological repertoire of communication research as they help to explore the complexities of everyday media use.