Captions

Table 16: Photo: Subject Themes

Theme Number % of total

Scenery

(General scenery, sunset, mountain range, etc.)

74 37% elements as subjects, geo and waterformations can been seen on the background. These natural formations are also taken note of. Out of the sample size of 200, 37 codes were generated. This codes are further consolidated into three reoccuring themes: land formations, water formations, and man-made structures. Water formation make up more than half of the sample, while land formation accounted for 30%, and man-made structures mak up the remaining 17%..

Table 17: Photo: Natural Formation Themes

Theme Number % of total

Water formation

(Sea, beach, ocean, deep sea, etc.)

106 53%

Land formation

(Mountain, hills, valley, hillside, etc.)

59 30%

In practice, captions often accompany a post. The caption may or may not be related to the photo that is being used. A caption can also just be a description of the photo used, or a mere narration of the event relating to the photo. The caption can also reflect the feeling of the original poster (or “OP,” the owner of the content and the post). Thus, these captions are analyzed and categorized into two themes: (1) Descriptive/Semantic refers to captions that are mere narration or description of the photo, an event, or memory, while (2) Feeling/Symbolic refers to captions that exude feeling and emotions more than mere descriptions.

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Table 15: Example of Descriptive/Semantic and Feeling/Symbolic captions

Theme Example

Descriptive/Semantic “Deep, deep, deep in the deepest water”

“Palawan is not just all about beaches and island-hopping! It is also known as one of the ultimate hiking frontiers in the Philippines. Check out those mountains, and do some trekking if you’re in the area. 😉” Feeling/Symbolic “I caught myself beaten again; thoughts in shambles and emotions in

disarray. I knew it was all up to me to control this but i let myself go and think about it all, feel it all because i can only take so much. Nothing changed after one or two uneventful evenings.. Just reminded me that:

You can search for peace anywhere you want; but you know it can only be found within”

The sample recorded 181 captions, varying in different lengths. Out of those 181 captions, 97 captions are categorized into the Feeling/Symbolic theme, 66 captions into the Descriptive/Semantic theme, and the remaining 18 deemed as cannot be categorized. The two themes are further dissected by looking at keywords associated with descriptions and feelings.

For Feeling/Symbolic, the words often used were hope (12 times), paradise (5 times), beauty (5 times), and home (5 times). As for descriptives, the keywords often used were beautiful (9 times), blue (8 times), best and natural (4 times). The associated words are listed on Table 20.

Table 16: Captions: Main themes

Theme Total

Feeling/Symbolic 97

Descriptive/Semantic 66

Uncategorized 18

No captions 19

Table 17: Captions: Words associated with Feeling/Symbolic

Theme Associated words

Feeling/Symbolic (106 words)

Affection, again, alive, appreciate, beauty, behold, bellieve, better days, blessed, bliss, calm, cannot wait, carry on, cheers, chill, colorful, control, cool, corona, crying, curiousity, declutter, delight, different perspective, direction, dream, energy, enjoy, euphoria, excitement, fleeting, focused, forever, forget worries, free, fulfillment, fun, good, grateful, happiness, happy, have, hold on, home, hope, imperfect, in the moment, incredible, independence, joy, keep breathing, life, looking forward, love, magical, memorable, missing, nature, need, never give up, new

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

beginnings, opportunity, paradise, patience, peace, perfect, perseverance, pleasant, precious, proud, quitting everything, recommendable, relax, relf-reliance, remember, remind, repeat again, rest, return, right place, safe, satisfaction, scary, self, sensitivity, simple, sleeping, slow, smile, speak, special, sweet, thank you, thankful, therapeutic, thriving, timeless, truth, unique, waiting, wake up, wander, wanted, wild, wonder, youth

Descriptive/Semantic (71 words)

Abundant, activity-based descriptions, aimless, awesome, banger, beautiful, best, blue, bonus, calm, cheesy, clean, color, comfortable, concrete, cool, crystal clear, deep, enjoy, epic, expensive, eye gripping, famous, fantastic, favorite, fresh, friendly, fun, gentle, glowing, golden, good food, green, hazy, healthy, high, hit, ideal, immersive, impressive, incredelous, interesting, jungle, lively, local, location-based description, luminescent, lush, magnificent, natural, not crowded, other offers, overlooking, poor quality, popular, relaxed, slow, sunny, surprising, sustainable, tall, trippy, tropical, vacation, vibrant, want, want to visit, welcoming, well-known, wilderness, wonderful

It is also worth mentioning that captions are written in several languages: English was in 166 captions, Filipino/Tagalog in 6 captions, Italian in 4 captions, Spanish in 3 captions, while Portoguese and French are both used once. It has to be noted though that the language used cannot determine the nationality of the speaker, or whether he/she is a local or foreign traveller, as most Filipinos can speak (and uses) English in the vernacular sense.

Aside from words, expressions and feelings in the posts are often expressed in emojis.

Webster dictionary defines emojis as “any of various small images, symbols, or icons used in text fields in electronic communication to express the emotional attitude of the writer, convey information succinctly, communicate a message playfully without using words, etc.”. The research, upon the design of the methodology, did not anticipate that emojis will be included as subjects of analysis. Upon looking at the samples, it as found out that more than half of the posts have used one or more emoji. A total of 198 emojis were used in the posts. Thematic analysis was also applied on the emojis. Six (6) themes emerged from the sample, with feelings and expressions as the top theme. Nature emojis were also used 64 times. Symbols, activities, food and beverage, and man-made strcutures were also used.

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Table 18: Emoji: Emoji Themes

Themes Total

Hashtags are words, series of words, or phrases that are used on Instagram and other social media websites to identify a certain topic, event, or sentiment. Hashtags are preceded by hash signs (#). From the sample, a total of 3626 hashtags were used. This means that on average, a singular post uses 18 hashtags. Of this 3626, 1602 are unique (codes). From this, a total of nine (9) themes emerged, as presented in Table 21. Philippines emerged as most used theme.

Philippines, however, is utlized in many forms through transalations and abbreviation i.e Philippines, Filipinas, PH, Pinas, PHL, etc. The theme is often also integrated with descriptives, brands, feelings, as seen in the case of #AmazingPhilippines, #choosePhilippines, and

#tuklas_Pilipinas (can be roughly translated to discover (the) Philippines).

Moreover, the third largest thematic group is the location. Aside from the use of Geolocations, as mentioned in the previous section, user also tend to use the hashtag of the place i.e #palawan, #cebu, #davao. Aside from this, the Location theme seemed to be recurring when the relating words are used to describe or associate a certain destination i.e #divePalawan,

#streetsofManila, and #BeholdBohol.

Feelings as a thematic group was also often utilized, but to a limited extent. It was observed that users will opt to portray expressions of feelings in the caption in extent, rather than in the hashtags. Lastly, it can be observed that a large number of hashtags cannot be refined into a specific themes. These hashtags are often too personal or subjective, that it does not denote a public sentiment, event, or topic.