Three narrative patterns of the city image visually presented on Instagram under the influence of self-presentation

Abstract

The emerging trend of online self-presentation that cause the selective release of photos and thus create biased city images circulating in social networks deserves greater research attention. As a response to this, the paper investigates the image of Wangfujing Beijing on Instagram, which cements its reputation as a symbol of traditional food culture but limits its potential to be the embodiment of cosmopolitan urban living. After arguing that the exotic images of the food market can better help Instagrammers play an urban adventurer before followers, the paper analyzes over 5500 sets of Instagram data, and then examines three narrative patterns used to describe the place, corresponding to the context description, the connection establishment, and the visual emphasis of the dominant theme. The visual storytelling techniques used in them will assist in understanding the image-based communication between social network users and thereby increase the possibility of managing the online city image.