Week 4: Getting It Done

Hi all,

Back with a belated week 4 post. This week was a lot of college stress and less work than I wanted to be doing. But, I started executing my new methods: I’m glad to say that it has been going (mostly) smoothly!

To start with the good things, the process is a lot smoother. Given the already existing framework, my job now is to categorize each randomized advertisement with the appropriate tag (Removal of negative affect, Recreation, Curiosity, Family approval, Parent use, Sibling use, Peer use, Enhance social capital, Enhance social acceptance, Easy to access, Cost, Discreet, Positive sensory experience, Less harmful, New or novel product, Smoking cessation). My process involves recording the text from the Instagram caption and what I see in the image, to using inductive reasoning from these observations. This method has been better overall as I can make more grounded observations than before where I pulled conclusions out of thin air.

Yet, the same issue of subjectivity remains (though it is less of a risk). It is helpful that I can give images multiple tags, however. Currently I’m through 2 of 5 companies. I’ll keep you updated!