Research Article
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Strategic Communication and Social Media within the Context of Media Ecology: A Study on Instagram

Year 2022, , 94 - 109, 31.12.2022
https://doi.org/10.31123/akil.1144447

Abstract

This study aims to detect and analyze the changes of social media, which has become one of the most important actors of the media ecology by examining and categorizing the blog contents of Instagram, one of the most popular social media platforms in Turkey. Following a literature review on media ecology, strategic communications, and social media, it investigated the contents of Instagram’s official blog through the research questions based on the target audience and strategic communications. The aim of the study is to analyze Instagram’s strategic communication approach within the context of media ecology, and to analyze its communication strategy to be able to effectively reach its target audience with a special focus on its official blog. To answer the research questions of the study, content analysis was carried out with MAXQDA 2018. Two main chategories are obtained: Trade-oriented and engagement-oriented posts. The results show that to be able to sustain its popularity and success as a socialization and business platform, Instagram aims to addresss a variety of users, and embraces crucial keywords such as up-to-dateness, reciprocity, and inclusivity in its communication strategy, while adapting its communication strategy.

References

  • Agerdal-Hjermind, A., & Valentini, C. (2015). Blogging as a communication strategy for government agencies: A Danish case study. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 9(4), 293-315.
  • Arriagada, A., & Ibáñez, F. (2020). "You need at least one picture daily, if not, you’re dead”: Content creators and platform evolution in the social media ecology. Social Media+ Society, 6(3), 1-12.
  • Baker, S. A., & Walsh, M. J. (2020). You are what you Instagram: Clean eating and the symbolic representation of food. In Digital food cultures. New York: Routledge.
  • Bashir, H., Ngoma, M., Ntayi, J., Balunywa, W., & Nangoli, S. (2018). Measuring strategic communication from the audience’s point of view (evidence from a specific sector in a developing economy). Behaivour, (115), 49718-49731.
  • Blackwood, R. (2019). Language, images, and Paris Orly airport on Instagram: multilingual approaches to identity and self-representation on social media. International Journal of Multilingualism, 16(1), 7-24.
  • Borchers, N. S. (2019). Social media influencers in strategic communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 13(4), 255-260.
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101.
  • Caldeira, S. P., De Ridder, S., & Van Bauwel, S. (2018). Exploring the politics of gender representation on Instagram: Self-representations of femininity. Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, 5(1), 23-42.
  • Cox, J. L., Martinez, E. R., & Quinlan, K. B. (2008). Blogs and the corporation: managing the risk, reaping the benefits. Journal of Business Strategy, 29(3), 4-12
  • Falkheimer, J., & Heide, M. (2014). Strategic communication in participatory culture: From one-and two-way communication to participatory communication through social media. In D. R. Holtzhausen & A. Zerfass (Eds.)The Routledge handbook of strategic communication (pp. 361-374). New York: Routledge.
  • Fisher, E. (2015). Audience Labour on Social Media: Learning from Sponsored Stories. In E. Fisher & C. Fuchs. (Eds.), Reconsidering Value and Labour in the Digital Age. (pp.115-132). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Grunig, J. (2005). Situational theory of publics. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), Encyclopedia of public relations, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
  • Hallahan, K., Holtzhausen, D., Van Ruler, B., Verčič, D., & Sriramesh, K. (2007). Defining strategic communication. International journal of strategic communication, 1(1), 3-35.
  • Hans, S., Maqsad, S., Swami, A. N., & Kumar, A. (2021). A Systematic Review of Blogging: Opportunities and Challenges. International Journal of Scientific Research in Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology, 7(3), 123-129
  • Hutchins, A. L., & Tindall, N. T. (2016). New media, new media relations: Building relationships with bloggers, citizen journalists and engaged publics. In Public relations and participatory culture. New York: Routledge.
  • Jenkins, H. (2014). Participatory culture: From co-creating brand meaning to changing the world. NIM Marketing Intelligence Review, 6 (2), 34-39.
  • Jiang, S., & Ngien, A. (2020). The effects of Instagram use, social comparison, and self-esteem on social anxiety: A survey study in Singapore. Social Media+ Society, 6(2), 1-10.
  • Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), 59-68.
  • Kessler, G. (2013). Collaborative language learning in co-constructed participatory culture. Calico Journal, 30(3), 307-322.
  • Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). An application of hierarchical kappa-type statistics in the assessment of majority agreement among multiple observers. Biometrics, (33), 363-374.
  • Lefebvre, R. C. (2007). The new technology: the consumer as participant rather than target audience. Social Marketing Quarterly, 13(3), 31-42.
  • Locatelli, E. (2017). Images of breastfeeding on Instagram: Self-representation, publicness, and privacy management. Social Media+ Society, 3(2), 1-14.
  • Manovich, L. (2002). The language of new media. Cambridge:MIT press.
  • McLuhan, M. (1994). Understanding media: The extensions of man. Cambridge:MIT press.
  • McLuhan, M. (2003). Understanding me: Lectures and Interviews. Cambridge: MIT Press.
  • Miller, D., Sinanan, J., Wang, X., McDonald, T., Haynes, N., Costa, E.,Venkatraman, S., Spyer, J., & Nicolescu, R. (2016). How the world changed social media. London: UCL press.
  • Neuendorf, K. A. (2017). The content analysis guidebook (2nd ed.). New York: SAGE.
  • Postman, N. (1970). The Reformed English Curriculum. In A.C. Eurich, (Ed.), High School 1980: The Shape of the Future in American Secondary Education (pp. 160 -168). London: Pitman Publication.
  • Rahardjo, W., & Mulyani, I. (2020). Instagram addiction in teenagers: The role of type D personality, self-esteem, and fear of missing out. Psikohumaniora: Jurnal penelitian psikologi, 5(1), 29-44.
  • Roncallo-Dow, S., & Scolari, C. A. (2016). Marshall McLuhan: The possibility of re-reading his notion of medium. Philosophies, 1(2), 141-152.
  • Ross, C., Warwick, C., Terras, M., & Nyhan, J. (2012). Social media for digital humanities and community engagement. Digital humanities in practice, 1, 23-46.
  • Scolari, C. A. (2012). Media ecology: Exploring the metaphor to expand the theory. Communication theory, 22(2), 204-225.
  • Scott, D. M. (2009). The new rules of marketing and PR: how to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers directly. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Syed, M., & Azmitia, M. (2008). A narrative approach to ethnic identity in emerging adulthood: Bringing life to the identity status model. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1012–1027.
  • Syed, M., & Nelson, S. C. (2015). Guidelines for Establishing Reliability When Coding Narrative Data. Emerging Adulthood, 3(6), 375–387.
  • Tombleson, B., & Wolf, K. (2017). Rethinking the circuit of culture: How participatory culture has transformed cross-cultural communication. Public Relations Review, 43(1), 14-25.
  • Williams, D. L., Crittenden, V. L., Keo, T., & McCarty, P. (2012). The use of social media: an exploratory study of usage among digital natives. Journal of Public Affairs, 12(2), 127-136.
  • Wilson, J. L. (2011). Blogging about diversity: the academy sounds off in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, 5(2), 106-115 .
  • Zhao, X., Lampe, C., & Ellison, N. B. (2016, May). The social media ecology: User perceptions, strategies and challenges. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 89-100). May 7-12 2016, San Jose, CA, USA.
  • Cuthbertson, A. (2019, November 14). Instagram's new Reels feature is almost an exact copy of TikTok. Retrieved from Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/instagram-reels-new-feature-stories-update-tiktok-facebook-latest-a9201076.html
  • Hartmans, A. (2020, October 6). The rise of Kevin Systrom, who founded Instagram 10 years ago and built it into one of the most popular apps in the world. Retrieved from Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-systrom-instagram-ceo-life-rise-2018-9
  • Instagram Official Blog. (2016, Agu 2). Introducing Instagram Stories. Retrieved from Instagram Blog: https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/introducing-instagram-stories
  • Instagram Official Blog. (2020, 5 Agu). Introducing Instagram Reels. Retrieved from Instagram Blog: https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/introducing-instagram-reels-announcement
  • McLachlan, S. (2022, February 28). 2022 Instagram Algorithm Explained: How to Get Your Content Seen. Retrieved from Hootsuite: https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-algorithm/
  • O'Dea, S. (2022, Feb 22). Internet user growth worldwide from 2018 to 2023. Retrieved from Statista.com: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1190263/internet-users-worldwide/
  • Statista Research Department. (2022, February 28) (a). Number of social network users worldwide from 2017 to 2025. Retrieved from Statista.com: https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/
  • Statista Research Department. (2022, February 28) (b). Number of monthly active Instagram users from January 2013 to December 2021. Retrieved from Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/

Medya Ekolojisi Bağlamında Stratejik İletişim ve Sosyal Medya: Instagram Üzerine Bir Araştırma

Year 2022, , 94 - 109, 31.12.2022
https://doi.org/10.31123/akil.1144447

Abstract

Bu çalışma, Türkiye'nin en popüler sosyal medya platformlarından biri olan Instagram'ın oluşturduğu blog içeriklerini inceleyip kategorize ederek medya ekolojisinin en önemli aktörlerinden biri haline gelen sosyal medyanın geçirmekte olduğu değişiklikleri tespit etmeyi ve analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Medya ekolojisi, stratejik iletişim ve sosyal medya üzerine gerçekleştirilen literatür taramasının ardından, Instagram'ın resmi blog sayfasında yayımladığı içerikler hedef kitle ve stratejik iletişim odağında oluşturulan araştırma sorularıyla incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın amacı, Instagram'ın stratejik iletişim anlayışını medya ekolojisi bağlamında değerlendirmek ve Instagram'ın hedef kitlesine etkili şekilde ulaşmak için benimsediği iletişim stratejisini resmi bloğu odağında analiz etmektir. Çalışmanın araştırma sorularına cevap aramak üzere MAXQDA 2018 ile içerik analizi gerçekleştirilmiştir. İçerik analizi sonucunda iki ana kategori elde edilmiştir. Bunlar tecimsel ve ilişki kurma odaklı paylaşımlardır. Sonuçlar, Instagram'ın bir sosyalleşme ve iş platformu olarak popülaritesini ve başarısını sürdürebilmek için iletişimini adapte ederken mümkün oldukça çeşitli kullanıcılarla konuşmayı hedeflediğini ve iletişim stratejisinde güncellik, karşılıklılık ve kapsayıcılık gibi önemli kavramları benimsediğini göstermektedir.

References

  • Agerdal-Hjermind, A., & Valentini, C. (2015). Blogging as a communication strategy for government agencies: A Danish case study. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 9(4), 293-315.
  • Arriagada, A., & Ibáñez, F. (2020). "You need at least one picture daily, if not, you’re dead”: Content creators and platform evolution in the social media ecology. Social Media+ Society, 6(3), 1-12.
  • Baker, S. A., & Walsh, M. J. (2020). You are what you Instagram: Clean eating and the symbolic representation of food. In Digital food cultures. New York: Routledge.
  • Bashir, H., Ngoma, M., Ntayi, J., Balunywa, W., & Nangoli, S. (2018). Measuring strategic communication from the audience’s point of view (evidence from a specific sector in a developing economy). Behaivour, (115), 49718-49731.
  • Blackwood, R. (2019). Language, images, and Paris Orly airport on Instagram: multilingual approaches to identity and self-representation on social media. International Journal of Multilingualism, 16(1), 7-24.
  • Borchers, N. S. (2019). Social media influencers in strategic communication. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 13(4), 255-260.
  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101.
  • Caldeira, S. P., De Ridder, S., & Van Bauwel, S. (2018). Exploring the politics of gender representation on Instagram: Self-representations of femininity. Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, 5(1), 23-42.
  • Cox, J. L., Martinez, E. R., & Quinlan, K. B. (2008). Blogs and the corporation: managing the risk, reaping the benefits. Journal of Business Strategy, 29(3), 4-12
  • Falkheimer, J., & Heide, M. (2014). Strategic communication in participatory culture: From one-and two-way communication to participatory communication through social media. In D. R. Holtzhausen & A. Zerfass (Eds.)The Routledge handbook of strategic communication (pp. 361-374). New York: Routledge.
  • Fisher, E. (2015). Audience Labour on Social Media: Learning from Sponsored Stories. In E. Fisher & C. Fuchs. (Eds.), Reconsidering Value and Labour in the Digital Age. (pp.115-132). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Grunig, J. (2005). Situational theory of publics. In R. L. Heath (Ed.), Encyclopedia of public relations, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
  • Hallahan, K., Holtzhausen, D., Van Ruler, B., Verčič, D., & Sriramesh, K. (2007). Defining strategic communication. International journal of strategic communication, 1(1), 3-35.
  • Hans, S., Maqsad, S., Swami, A. N., & Kumar, A. (2021). A Systematic Review of Blogging: Opportunities and Challenges. International Journal of Scientific Research in Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology, 7(3), 123-129
  • Hutchins, A. L., & Tindall, N. T. (2016). New media, new media relations: Building relationships with bloggers, citizen journalists and engaged publics. In Public relations and participatory culture. New York: Routledge.
  • Jenkins, H. (2014). Participatory culture: From co-creating brand meaning to changing the world. NIM Marketing Intelligence Review, 6 (2), 34-39.
  • Jiang, S., & Ngien, A. (2020). The effects of Instagram use, social comparison, and self-esteem on social anxiety: A survey study in Singapore. Social Media+ Society, 6(2), 1-10.
  • Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), 59-68.
  • Kessler, G. (2013). Collaborative language learning in co-constructed participatory culture. Calico Journal, 30(3), 307-322.
  • Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). An application of hierarchical kappa-type statistics in the assessment of majority agreement among multiple observers. Biometrics, (33), 363-374.
  • Lefebvre, R. C. (2007). The new technology: the consumer as participant rather than target audience. Social Marketing Quarterly, 13(3), 31-42.
  • Locatelli, E. (2017). Images of breastfeeding on Instagram: Self-representation, publicness, and privacy management. Social Media+ Society, 3(2), 1-14.
  • Manovich, L. (2002). The language of new media. Cambridge:MIT press.
  • McLuhan, M. (1994). Understanding media: The extensions of man. Cambridge:MIT press.
  • McLuhan, M. (2003). Understanding me: Lectures and Interviews. Cambridge: MIT Press.
  • Miller, D., Sinanan, J., Wang, X., McDonald, T., Haynes, N., Costa, E.,Venkatraman, S., Spyer, J., & Nicolescu, R. (2016). How the world changed social media. London: UCL press.
  • Neuendorf, K. A. (2017). The content analysis guidebook (2nd ed.). New York: SAGE.
  • Postman, N. (1970). The Reformed English Curriculum. In A.C. Eurich, (Ed.), High School 1980: The Shape of the Future in American Secondary Education (pp. 160 -168). London: Pitman Publication.
  • Rahardjo, W., & Mulyani, I. (2020). Instagram addiction in teenagers: The role of type D personality, self-esteem, and fear of missing out. Psikohumaniora: Jurnal penelitian psikologi, 5(1), 29-44.
  • Roncallo-Dow, S., & Scolari, C. A. (2016). Marshall McLuhan: The possibility of re-reading his notion of medium. Philosophies, 1(2), 141-152.
  • Ross, C., Warwick, C., Terras, M., & Nyhan, J. (2012). Social media for digital humanities and community engagement. Digital humanities in practice, 1, 23-46.
  • Scolari, C. A. (2012). Media ecology: Exploring the metaphor to expand the theory. Communication theory, 22(2), 204-225.
  • Scott, D. M. (2009). The new rules of marketing and PR: how to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers directly. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  • Syed, M., & Azmitia, M. (2008). A narrative approach to ethnic identity in emerging adulthood: Bringing life to the identity status model. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1012–1027.
  • Syed, M., & Nelson, S. C. (2015). Guidelines for Establishing Reliability When Coding Narrative Data. Emerging Adulthood, 3(6), 375–387.
  • Tombleson, B., & Wolf, K. (2017). Rethinking the circuit of culture: How participatory culture has transformed cross-cultural communication. Public Relations Review, 43(1), 14-25.
  • Williams, D. L., Crittenden, V. L., Keo, T., & McCarty, P. (2012). The use of social media: an exploratory study of usage among digital natives. Journal of Public Affairs, 12(2), 127-136.
  • Wilson, J. L. (2011). Blogging about diversity: the academy sounds off in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Multicultural Education & Technology Journal, 5(2), 106-115 .
  • Zhao, X., Lampe, C., & Ellison, N. B. (2016, May). The social media ecology: User perceptions, strategies and challenges. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 89-100). May 7-12 2016, San Jose, CA, USA.
  • Cuthbertson, A. (2019, November 14). Instagram's new Reels feature is almost an exact copy of TikTok. Retrieved from Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/instagram-reels-new-feature-stories-update-tiktok-facebook-latest-a9201076.html
  • Hartmans, A. (2020, October 6). The rise of Kevin Systrom, who founded Instagram 10 years ago and built it into one of the most popular apps in the world. Retrieved from Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-systrom-instagram-ceo-life-rise-2018-9
  • Instagram Official Blog. (2016, Agu 2). Introducing Instagram Stories. Retrieved from Instagram Blog: https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/introducing-instagram-stories
  • Instagram Official Blog. (2020, 5 Agu). Introducing Instagram Reels. Retrieved from Instagram Blog: https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/introducing-instagram-reels-announcement
  • McLachlan, S. (2022, February 28). 2022 Instagram Algorithm Explained: How to Get Your Content Seen. Retrieved from Hootsuite: https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-algorithm/
  • O'Dea, S. (2022, Feb 22). Internet user growth worldwide from 2018 to 2023. Retrieved from Statista.com: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1190263/internet-users-worldwide/
  • Statista Research Department. (2022, February 28) (a). Number of social network users worldwide from 2017 to 2025. Retrieved from Statista.com: https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/
  • Statista Research Department. (2022, February 28) (b). Number of monthly active Instagram users from January 2013 to December 2021. Retrieved from Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/253577/number-of-monthly-active-instagram-users/
There are 47 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Communication and Media Studies
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Esra Bozkanat 0000-0002-6050-2550

Pınar Aslan 0000-0002-2500-8055

Publication Date December 31, 2022
Submission Date July 16, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2022

Cite

APA Bozkanat, E., & Aslan, P. (2022). Strategic Communication and Social Media within the Context of Media Ecology: A Study on Instagram. Akdeniz Üniversitesi İletişim Fakültesi Dergisi(39), 94-109. https://doi.org/10.31123/akil.1144447