Towards an Instagram research methodology for geotagged data: Theoretical and qualitative perspectives for multimodality studies

Instagram research has expanded rapidly across sociolinguistics and social semiotics, yet few replicable models exist for conducting robust analyses of its data. In this vein, I propose a qualitative approach to Instagram research that foregrounds the role of platform affordances, infrastructural constraints and ethical decision-making in research design. Drawing on a case study of 404 geotagged Instagram posts, this methods paper applies theoretical perspectives from multimodality studies to four persistent methodological challenges of Instagram research: (1) the absence of best practices, (2) incoherence between research conventions and constraints imposed by the research site, (3) legal concerns and (4) ongoing ethical debates surrounding consent and data privacy. Adopting an iterative, grounded approach to data collection and analysis, I exemplify how platform-specific features can be strategically integrated into research design, rather than construed as ‘hurdles’, a framing now commonplace in academic circles. I then propose a methodology that exploits a wide range of Instagram’s affordances to measure their efficacy in addressing the various constraints that frame this work. In so doing, I argue for a more substantive approach to research design through which methodology would reflect the very attributes of Instagram data that motivate their study.