Rhetorical analysis of portrayals of immigration on Instagram

Abstract

This dissertation aims to explore the different ways in which immigrants are portrayed through the work of photojournalists on Instagram, a social media application which many photojournalists make use of to publish their work on various immigration crises across the world. In particular, it will focus on the content of Brandon Stanton (Humans of New York) and his work on the 2015 immigration crisis; Anastasia Taylor-Lind and her work on the Ukrainian immigration crisis; and the content of John Moore and his coverage at the United States of America border immigration. It concentrated on the portrayals of immigration on Instagram by analysing the various descriptive and rhetorical means that the above photojournalists make use of in their work. The study provides an extended discussion of the political and social context of post-truth in which such content appears. It then concludes by discussing some important ethical issues that surround the practices of the portrayal of refugees and immigrants on social media.