Conceptualizing Socially Mediated Visibility

• In Event: Social Media Scholarship and the Affordances Approach

Abstract

Communication researchers are increasingly turning to work on affordances to help predict and explain a variety of interactions on social media platforms. An affordance framework is especially useful for research unpacking the relationship between actors (the users), objects (features), and outcomes of use. In this paper, we extend research on visibility—a root affordance—to account for the unique aspects of social media and masspersonal communication, as well as research being conducted in disciplines outside communication. We synthesize the conceptual trajectory of visibility, then introduce a more focused conceptualization to describe socially mediated visibility (SMV), which we define according to the exposure content receives, the lack of spatiotemporal constraints, and facilitation via masspersonal ties. We conclude by applying three dimensions of visibility (relational, strategic, outcome-based) to SMV and compare SMV to unmediated and mediated conceptualizations of visibility. As explicated, socially mediated visibility can be a useful construct in several domains.

Authors

• Katy Elizabeth Pearce, U of Washington

• Caleb T. Carr, Coffee Hound

• Jessica Vitak, U of Maryland, College Park

• Rebecca A. Hayes, Illinois State U