WhatsApp iconology
Narratives on in-App Photographic Practices in (Transnational) Family Communication
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7313847 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joanna Kędra (0000-0002-0980-2646, University of Jyväskylä, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 17 |
| Pages | 4559-4575 |
| Publication date | 2023-01-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New Community (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1369183x.2023.2171975 |
| OpenAlex | W4318716958 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 26 |
Sharing photographs and photo-chatting are common practices in doing family at a distance. This study looks at the processes of the production and circulation of photographs within the family network, analysing participants’ narratives about their image-based communication in WhatsApp. The data was collected as an ethnographic enquiry into the digitally mediated (transnational) family communication of five Polish women and their children living in Finland. It consists of five auto-driven visual elicitation interviews with an interactive collage, three elicitation interviews, with the participant’s smartphone used for fast reference to their in-app chats, and one semi-structured interview. The in-app photographs are explored as ‘imagetext’, that is, visual and verbal representations that create the WhatsApp ‘iconology’ of family visual communication. In participants’ narratives, photographs are regarded as an obligation (always to be sent to somebody), evidence (of being somewhere or achieving something), or a form of visual co-presence with living-apart relatives. Photo-chatting entertains (images of pets), provides expertise (snaps of medication), or is used to show off (photos taken at competitions). Photo-chatting helps to maintain family relationships by showing affection, comforting, and caring over a distance
Affection · Art · Ethnography · Iconology · Interactivity · Multimedia · Narrative · Photo elicitation · Sociology · Visual arts · Visual Communication · Anthropology · Computer Science · Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Psychology · Social Psychology
Iconology
Image Science
Migration, Aging, and Digital Kinning
Photography
Polymedia
‘They could picture me, or I could picture them’
Photographs as things – photographs of things. A texto-material perspective on photo-sharing practices
WhatsApp as 'technology of life'
Looking at the family photo album
Creation and Control in the Photographic Process
Displaying and performing
Domesticating WhatsApp
Social media, rituals, and long-distance family relationship maintenance
Virtual proximity and transnational familyhood
Connecting Polish families in Europe
Practices and Flows of Digital Photography
Ambient co-presence
ICT-based co-presence in transnational families and communities
Doing family' through ICT-mediatedordinary co-presence
Missing Kin and Longing to be Together
Performing transnational family with the affordances of mobile apps
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |