Instagram presents interesting possibilities for the pairing of text and image. It is traditionally image-heavy, compared to other social media platforms, but many users have expanded its boundaries to include poetry, short essays, and book reviews. The platform is also well-suited to short, captioned informational videos.
Facebook now owns Instagram, which presents ethical and practical considerations. We recommend instructors to consider and integrate into pedagogy the broader media environment – including ownership, privacy, content moderation, etc – and its ramifications for public discourse.
Methods
There are many directions this assignment can take. In terms of medium, it could be an Instagram post—making use of image(s) and caption—or a series of Instagram stories (images or videos with overlaid text and other elements). The genre of the assignment could be a poem, review, essay, reflection, call-to-action argument/op-ed, or other project.
This assignment requires an Instagram account, and a computer and/or smartphone.
Instructors should constrain the post medium and project (“Make an instagram post, with a carousel of 1-5 images, in which you make an argument about a current controversy…” or “Make a series of instagram stories (2-5) to tell a flash-fiction story,” for example) but students may be free to approach the image-making and balance of image and text creatively. Students may format their work on paper and then take a picture to post, or use Instagram’s built-in tools (text overlay, gifs, etc). In projects with multiple images (whether post or stories), students may be instructed to pay attention to the cadence of the series of images, too, using those sequences to tell their story, evoke a feeling, or apply other dramatic techniques.
Instructors may make a shared account to which students can post, or students can post to their own accounts, using a hashtag to enable the instructor to find the posts.
The Smith-supported program Canva is an excellent platform to create Instagram graphics. Additional graphics media are listed on the Digital Media & Software page managed by the Digital Media Hub. ITS (itshelp@smith.edu) can provide initial assistance, or the Educational Media Producers (submit a ticket via this link: Learning, Research & Technology Support) collaborate with faculty in the development, implementation and support of curricular digital media projects and can be contacted for a consultation.
Instagram help center
Examples
everydayafrica, where photographers post their photos of everyday life in Africa, documenting people’s normal lives, rather than the stereotypical safari photos of tourists and the like. Photos are (usually) accompanied by short interviews or essays.
jeffsharlet, Sharlet selects series of his short posts for longform word and image essays, for example, this one in Longreads.
areyouokfai, a children’s book author/illustrator, produced a remarkable biographical series on Richard Scarry that can serve as a model for student work. The first in the series is here.
nativeplantproject produces short videos about land restoration and about native plant care and ecology in natural spaces.
interested_in_plants posts photographs of Western Massachusetts plants and insects with information about their biology and ecology.
There is a giant contingent of “Instagram Poets” who post their work in these ways, operating under different related hashtags: #Instagrampoets, #Instagrampoetry, etc.
Book reviews are all over Instagram, under hashtags #bookreview, #bookreviews, #bookreviewer, etc.
subwaybookreview interviews people reading on subways all over the world, to get their short takes on the books they’re reading.
Learning Goals:
- Practice writing clear, succinct prose.
- Enhanced awareness of audience.
- Close-reading and deliberate deployment of images as part of an argument or other rhetorical project.
- Consideration of ethical ramifications of public reach.
Suggestions for Multimedia Expansion
Instagram can also provide a public showcase for short VIDEO ESSAYS.
Instagram posts can also call attention to long-form writing (see WORDPRESS BLOGS AND WEBSITES, NEWS ARTILES, or OP-EDS.) They can both serve as a teaser and enhance web traffic, or prompt public discussion of longer form pieces.
