Potential scenarios for Instagram-based research

WHY LOOK AT SOCIAL MEDIA APIS?
Potential scenarios for Instagram-based research
Universidade NOVA de Lisboa
NOVA FCSH ˚ iNOVA Media Lab
@jannajoceli ˚ thesocialpla?orms.wordpress.com

Janna Joceli C. de Omena

Digital Culture Meets Data: CriGcal Approaches ˚ ECREA Digital Culture and CommunicaGon SecGon Conference
˚ 6 - 7 November 2017 ˚ University of Brighton ˚ Mithras House

Omena, J.J. 2017 Why look at social media APIs?
Why Look at Social Media APIs?

1.  APIs and social media grammars of action
2. What to look for in Social Media APIs?
3. Potential scenarios for Instagram-based
research. Case: 2017 protests in Brazil.
4. Some preliminary thoughts

Application Programming Interface
[Machine readable interface]
Communication is only possible when
“applications talk to one another”
--à
[front-end interface]
Define varied entry
data points
[back-end interface]
Store, organise and
define the data
availability
[applicaGons]
Afford new apps
(services/business)
or functions
[level 1] API access [level 2] Plug-in API [level 3] Runtime Environment
[Andreessen 2007, September 16]
[Berlind 2015]
--à
[Interoperability]
“The ability of two or more
software to cooperate”,
exchange and make use of
information
[Wegner 1996]
[Modularity]
A form of managing complex
systems; “breaking up a product
into subsystems or modules,
which can be recombined”
[Bucher 2013]
[APIs as digital glue]
-à
[Forrester Research 2014]

Application Programming Interface
APIs’ policies define what we can or
cannot build, use or consume; they are
not neutral systems
[Bucher, 2013; Rieder et al., 2015]
Machine readable interface ˚˚ Interoperability ˚˚ Modularity ˚˚
Programmability ˚˚ “Web as a platform” ˚˚ Dominant infrastructural model
APIs facilitate data exchange between applications, and
allow the creation of new applications, and “form the
foundation for the Web as a platform concept”
[Murugesan 2007]
APIs have a crucial role in “the rise of the platform
as the dominant infrastructural and economic model of
the social web, and in shifting the concept of social
network sites into the one of social media platforms
[Helmond 2015]

Schemas of representation that originate
from computational system’s capture model
“discourse-made-machinery” or
“a linguistic metaphor for human activity”
“Platform data is produced to become multivalent. It is created by
capture infrastructures and engaged with through various predefined
grammars in both front-ends and back-ends, each speaking to distinct
stakeholders”
Pre-structured in form, but flexible in meaning
Grammars of Action [Agre 1994]
Platform data [Gerlitz 2016]
Social Media Grammars of Action
Posts ˚˚ URLs˚˚ Tweet ˚˚ Comments ˚˚ Replies ˚˚ Hashtags ˚˚Location
Memes ˚˚ Links ˚˚ Channels ˚˚ Reactions ˚˚ Share ˚˚ Like
APIs

Front-end Grammatisation
Public or Private Account ˚˚ Stories [photos, videos,
live, boomerang] ˚˚ Mute Stories ˚˚ Direct Messages ˚˚
Upload one or more photos and one minute video ˚˚ Like
˚˚ Comment ˚˚ Save Post ˚˚ Like a comment ˚˚ Reply a
comment ˚˚ Post Notifications ˚˚ Tag people ˚˚ Block
Users ˚˚ Search [people, tags, places]

Back-end Grammatisation
GET/users/user-id ˚˚ GET/users/self/media/recent ˚˚
GET/users/user-id/media/recent ˚˚ GET/users/self/
media/liked ˚˚ GET/users/self/follows ˚˚ GET/users/
self/followed-by ˚˚ GET/users/user-id/relationship ˚˚
GET/media/media-id ˚˚ GET/media/shortcode/shortcode ˚˚
GET/media/search ˚˚ GET/media-id/comments ˚˚ GET/
media-id/likes ˚˚ GET/tags/tag-name ˚˚ GET/tags/tag-
name/media/recent ˚˚ GET/tags/search ˚˚ GET/locations/
location-id ˚˚ GET/locations/location-id/media/recent
˚˚

Social media APIs are inextricably intertwined
with representations of (non) human activity
(or grammars of action)
---à
[form of order]
Winner 1980
[an eﬀec1ve research tool]
Lomborg and Bechmann 2014

Black Mirror (2016), Nosedive
We cannot speak of Social Media APIs without considering their
invisible schemes or obscured aspects.
We cannot think of Social Media Research without considering the
invisible schemes or obscured aspects of APIs.

2. What to look for in Social Media APIs?

Instagram APIs
Instagram Platform API Instagram Ads API

Data Points InformaGon Retrieved Grammars
User Users and their most recent media published and liked username, user_id
RelaGonships
List of: users followers and followed-by; users who have
requested to follow; or, get informaGon about
relaGonship to another user
/user/self/follow,
/user/self/follower
Media
Media object (image and video) or search for recent
media by given geographic coordinates (default is 1km,
max distance is 5km)
/media/media-id,
/media/shortcode/
shortcode, /media/search
Comments List of comments on a media object /media/media-id/comments
Likes List of users who have liked this media /media/media-id/likes
Tags
About a tag object or a list of recent tagged media, search
for tags by name
/tags/tag-names, /tags/tag-
names/media/recent, /tags/
search
LocaGons
A list of media objects from a given locaGon, search for a
locaGon by geographic coordinates (default is 500m, max
distance is 750)
/locations/location-id,
/locations/location-id/
media/recent
Instagram Trackable Grammars
[based on http://developers.instagram.com/]

May-June 2015
Publicly Available
June 2016
Stopped Working
December 2016
Sandbox Mode
Omena, J.J. 2017 Why look at social media APIs?Availability of data points
for data extraction overtime
[DMI Tools]
Instagram Scraper
Retrieves image from a list of
hashtags, locations, or user names
[Erik Borra]
Instagram Network
Gets the follow or follower
network from a set of user
[Erik Borra]
X
X
November 2017
Sandbox Mode
Instagram Hashtag Explorer
Collects media items from a
single hashtag or location
[Bernhard Rieder]
X Visual Tagnet
Explorer
Visual Tagnet
Explorer

Follow Network of Michel Temer and Dilma Rousseff
[Omena, May 31, 2016]
Omena, J.J. 2017 Why look at social media APIs?Unavailable data points
limit perceptions and
analysis of particular
grammars.

Call Frequency Governance
100/hour
Apps generated prior to
17 November 2015
5000/hour
Apps generated prior to
17 November 2015

Omena, J.J. 2017 Why look at social media APIs?How far back in time
can data be retrieved?
Hashtag based extraction goes back years in time
» Results will depend on hashtag’s popularity or form of use
» Instagram is a good source for historical data:
when it comes to the study of specific/event-based tags
= representative sample
when it comes to viral or popular tags
= time consuming activity
media items are ordered according to when
they were tagged ˚˚

#websummit ˚˚ Weekend Hashtag Project ˚˚
Political Polarization in Brazil – March 2017 ˚˚
#foratemer ˚˚ #instagood ˚˚
Par1cular event: #websummit
[The search for websummit tags
was made on 28 September 2017]

#websummit
18.545 media items that were posted
between 2014.09.06 and 2017.09.28
» total per year:
2014: 4 posts
2015: 1.269 posts
2016: 16.104
mar_65
aug_91
sep_354
oct_431
nov_14.468
dec_238
2017: 1.168
#websummit2014
1001 media items that were posted
between 2013.10.09 and 2016.11.21
» total per year:
2013: 2 posts
2014: 989 posts
mar_4
may_1
aug_1
sep_1
oct_18
nov_961
2015: 6 posts
2016: 4 posts
2017: none!
#websummit2015
between 2014-11-04 and 2017-07-15
» total per year:
2014: 1 post
2015: 2.395 posts
jun_1
jul_2
aug_3
sep_10
oct_99
nov_2.256
dec_24
2016: 36 posts
2017: 2 posts
#websummit2016
between 2013-06-30 and 2017-09-22
» total per year:
2013: 16 posts
2014: 25 posts
2015: 35 posts
2016: 7.818
jan_5
feb_9
mar_5
apr_3
may_1
jun_35
jul_39

ago_49
sep_121
oct_290
nov_7.216
dec_48

2017: 99 posts
[Visual Tagnet Explorer]
[1000 iteraGons]
[Data extracGon: 28 September 2017]

[The search for websummit tags
was made on 28 sep 2017]

961 posts retrieved in November 2014
2.256 posts retrieved in November 2015
7.216 posts retrieved in November 2016
Par1cular event: #websummit

Speciﬁc case: Instagram Weekend Hashtag Project
Hashtag campaign: October 2013
#whpemptyspaces (October 2013)
between 2011.02.07 and 2017.08.07
» total per year:
2012: 1017 posts
2013: 14.230 posts
oct_9.376
2014: 722 posts
2015: 117 posts
2016: 78 posts
2017 (unGl Aug. 8): 63

Popular tag: #ForaTemer
Data extracGon: 8 August 2017
#foratemer
between 2014.08.19 and 2017.08.08
»» total per year:
2014: 13 posts
2015: 1 post
2016: 17 posts
2017: 10.865 posts
jul_836
aug_9.986
[only 8 days]

Popular tag: #instagood
Data extracGon: 8 August 2017
#instagood
between 2012.11.23 and 2017.08.08

»» total per year:
2012: 1 post
2013: 1 post
2014: 1 post
2016: 21 posts
2017: 5478
aug_5440
[only 8 days]

Social media APIs introduce a degree of technicity

3. Potential scenarios for Instagram-based
research. Case: 2017 protests in Brazil.

A historical background
THE JUNE JOURNEYS
[or Brazilian Spring]

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
1st wave
of
protests
DILMA ROUSSEFF’S VICTORY
(51.64 percent) over the right wing candidate
Aécio Neves (48.36 percent)
Elections
PRO-IMPEACHMENT PROTESTS
March 15, April 12,
August 16, December 13

2nd wave
of
protests
MARCH 2016 PROTESTS
Pro-impeachment
(13 march)
AnG-coup (18 march)
[On 31 August 2016
Dilma Rousseﬀ was impeached]

3rd wave
of
protests
MARCH 2017 PROTESTS
Workers
(15 March)
ConservaGve
(26 March)

March 2017 Protests in Brazil
15 March 2017
Workers and Left Wing Protests
˚ General Strike [civil servants, public
transportation and education, banks] ˚ Against
President Michel Temer Pension Reform plan ˚
26 March 2017
Conservative and Right Wing Protests
˚ Anti-Corruption ˚ Support to the investigation about
Operation Car Wash ˚ End to legislative immunity ˚
Blame Lula ˚ Support the Federal Judge Sérgio Moro

˚ ˚ VISUALISING HASHTAG
ENGAGEMENT
DIGITAL METHODS SUMMER SCHOOL
2017
DATASET
[INSTAGRAM PLATFORM] -------—> [LIST OF TAGS]
[VISUAL TAGNET EXPLORER]
Workers’ Protests:
General Strike
(15 March 2017)
Conservative Protests:
Anti-corruption
(26 March 2017)
foratemer
(get out Temer)
vemprarua
(come to the street)
diretasjá
(direct elections right now)
lavajato
(operation car wash)
grevegeral
(general strike)
fimdoforoprivilegiado
(end to legislative immunity)
queromeaposentar
(I want to retire)
lulanacadeia
(Lula in jail)
MBL
(Free Brazil Movement)
DATA COLLECTION: the
following day of the protests

WORKERS PROTESTS
TOTAL MEDIA ITEMS: 7.566
UNIQUE USERS: 5.122
AVAILABLE IMAGES: 5.688
ANTI-COUP PROTESTERS
TOTAL MEDIA ITEMS: 466
UNIQUE USERS: 983
AVAILABLE IMAGES: 588

Dataset Visual Protocol Omena, J.J. 2017 Why look at social media APIs?
----—>----—>
VISUALISING HASHTAG
ENGAGEMENT

Generate TAB ﬁles containing a list of
media with meta-informaGon, and GDF
ﬁle to analyse co-tag network

Methodological experiment conducted in
the context of Digital Methods Summer
School at the University of Amsterdam in
2017, lead together with Andre Mintz,
Elaine Rabello and others.

Workers’ Protests: General Strike
midianinja
uneoficial
jeanwyllys_real
br4sileirissimos
samanthaschmutz
dilmabolada
jornalistaslivres
cutbrasil
Tuliparuiz
ofalanteblog
foratemer
sergio_moro_heroi_do_brasil
umaoutraopiniao
artesdepressao
revistaforum
portalg1
foracorruptosoficial
trlacerda
radioguerrilha
filhasdefrida
Conservative Protests: Anti-corruption
direitadaopressao
chegadecorruptos
sergio_moro_heroi_do_brasil
rachelsherazade
vaza.di_u_ma_vez
foracorruptosoficial
sergiomoroironico
vejanoinsta
ronaldocaiado
quadrinsta
radiojovempan
jornal_opopular
vitoriotrevisanneto
fora.corruptos
brtrends
opovoonline
promonarquia
portalne10
acordabrasil__
foi_golpe
ENGAGEMENT
DIGITAL METHODS SUMMER S
CHOOL 2017Media Item Omena, J.J. 2017 Why look at social media APIs?
Four perspectives to visualise Hashtag Engagement˚˚
Metrics of audience engagement per media item combined
with user activity ˚˚
The dominant voice along the day of protests

ENGAGEMENT
CHOOL 2017User Omena, J.J. 2017 Why look at social media APIs?
Chronological Perspective on hashtag adoption per user
26 March 2017 - Instagram most active users by hashtag mention
A chronological perspective from 2016 to March 2017
Total of mentions: 33.856 ˚˚ Data extraction: 27 March 2017
Tools: Visual Tagnet Explorer and RankFlow

ENGAGEMENT
CHOOL 2017Visual Omena, J.J. 2017 Why look at social media APIs?
15 March 2017, Brazil – Exploring the visual patterns of the Workers Protests
Available images: 5.688 ˚˚ Tools: DownThemAll and ImageSorter
Visual patterns ˚˚ Detecting memes ˚˚

ENGAGEMENT
Visual patterns ˚˚ Detecting memes ˚˚
26 March 2017, Brazil – Exploring the visual patterns of the Conservative Protests
Available images: 588 ˚˚ Tools: DownThemAll and ImageSorter

ENGAGEMENT
26 March 2017, Brazil – Exploring the visual patterns of the Conservative Protests
National flag and the yellow uniform of Brazilian football team, Selfies

ENGAGEMENT
15 March 2017 ˚˚ 26 March 2017 ˚˚
The Godfather of Petrolão
(Operation Car Wash)
Everybody in the streets against
The Terminator: Michel Temer

ENGAGEMENT
15 March 2017 ˚˚
No one can deny a cup of
coffee, to say ‘good
morning’, and a ‘get out
Temer’.
NAMASTEMER: The ‘Fora Temer’ that
lives in me, salute the ‘Fora
Temer’ that lives in you.

ENGAGEMENT
15 March 2017 ˚˚
I Want to retire! Pension (presidential) Reform now!

ENGAGEMENT
CHOOL 2017Grammars of Hashtags Omena, J.J. 2017 Why look at social media APIs?
Chronological Network ˚˚ Positioning ˚˚ Alignment
˚˚ The emergence of alt-right debate
e.g. National Anthem terms, support to
Jair Bolsonaro for presidential
elections in 2018
______Correlated tags:
‘bolsonaro president’
‘bolsonaro 2018’
‘our flag will never be red’
‘arm yourself’
‘less Marx, more missiles’
Common patterns in the chronological co-tag network (2016-2017) of
#vemprarua, #lavajato, #fimdoforoprivilegiado, and #lulanacadeia:
[October 2016 – March 2017][December 2016 – March 2017][November 2016 – March 2017][September 2016 – March 2017]

ENGAGEMENT
CHOOL 2017Grammars of Hashtags Omena, J.J. 2017 Why look at social media APIs?
Chronological Network ˚˚ Positioning ˚˚ Alignment
Co-Tag Network of #lavajato
December 2016 – Mach 2017
Main tag removed. Force Atlas 2. Filter: Count (60 -
8.274) I Visible nodes: 431 I Visible edges: 18.869 I
Media items in 2016: 7.989;
and unGl 27 March 2017: 10.508

˚˚ The account direitadaopressão (right
of oppression) holds the majority of
mentions with alt-right terms
___automated (bot) accounts

4. Some preliminary thoughts

Social Media Technicity
--à
[Technical Knowledge]
+
[Method]
+
[Applied Research with digital methods]
Three connected kinds of problems:

Social Media APIs
[a constitutive part of social media platforms]
[a pathway to access, monitor and collect
representations of (non)human activity]
[fleeting characteristics and invisible schemas]
[should take part of the methodological process]
--à
Why Look at Social Media APIs?

THANKS JJ
@jannajoceli ˚ thesocialpla?orms.wordpress.com
Universidade NOVA de Lisboa ˚ NOVA FCSH ˚ iNOVA Media Lab
Janna Joceli C. de Omena

ECREA Digital Culture and CommunicaGon SecGon Conference ˚ 6 - 7 November 2017 ˚ University of Brighton ˚ Mithras House

Potential scenarios for Instagram-based research

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