The labour of visual authenticity on social media: Exploring producers’ and audiences’ perceptions on Instagram

Abstract

Social media have facilitated an environment in which ordinary users can reach large audiences and make money with the content they produce. However, with growing success, their ordinary appeal begins to lack credibility, leading micro-bloggers to invest in authenticity labour, a process where they perform and present genuineness. While authenticity labour has previously been discussed in light of ‘realness’ and covert product placement, visual dimensions of authenticity have been underexplored, despite the fact that many social media have important visual components. To address this gap, this study explores Instagram micro-bloggers’ and users’ views in relation to the various dimensions of authenticity labour. We find considerable congruence between producers’ and audiences’ perceptions of relevant authenticity dimensions. However, we also find incongruence around the evaluation of visual components, where producers view editing as important to perform authenticity, but audiences disagree. Moreover, this study emphasizes the relational character of authenticity, as it is an evaluation of expectations met or disappointed.