The Role of Photography in Communication Systems and Social Media

This dissertation investigates the pivotal role of photography in the evolution of communication systems and social media platforms. The study utilizes a qualitative methodology, supported by secondary sources, to explore how photography has become a major component of modern communication, enabling individuals and businesses to convey information and messages effectively. It examines how photography facilitates the sharing of memories, raises awareness about social issues, and serves business purposes by keeping customers informed about products and services. The research highlights the significant role of social media in enhancing communication through photography, emphasizing its ability to connect large numbers of people globally. The findings recommend that organizations should carefully consider the message conveyed through their photographs to maintain a positive brand image. The study covers the importance of photography in expressing emotions, promotional purposes, and presenting information, providing insights into how businesses use visuals to engage customers and build brand awareness. The dissertation aims to determine the ways in which photography aids in forming an effective communication system and its impact on the development of social media platforms.

Dissertation
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ABSTRACT
The current report based on determining the role of photography in the development of
communication system and social media platform. The main purpose behind conducting this
study is to present the evidence about the fact that photography constitute a major part of
communication and it can be used to spread information more quickly as compare to other tools
and other mean of communication. From this study it has been found that photography now
become a major part of communication where people use it as a tool to capture memory in a
frame and share with other people to present their information, some use it to spread awareness
about something like social issues and some uses it as per the business purpose where it is used
to keep customers aware or informed about eth changes get adopted by a company or range of
product or services it offers to the customers base. Other than its also depicted within study that
social media platform plays a major role in improving communication system by making use of
photography. This is so because it act as a platform which connect larger number of people
throughout the world which make it easier ro share the pictures and spreading awareness about
things. The study is conducted using qualitative method of investigation to present the theoretical
concepts for supporting the main title of research. In support with this the investigator used
secondary source for gathering the information to achieve the main objective behind study. From
the overall evaluation of study it is recommended that an organisation must remain focused
toward what it actual want to convey through a picture to order to create its positive image in
marketplace any wrong message that get extract it from a photography of a business may take it
into an ethical issue and affect the its brand image as well.
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CONTENTS
ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................2
Contents...........................................................................................................................................3
TOPIC: - How dоеѕ photography help in the development of the соmmunісаtіоn ѕуѕtеm and
ѕосіаl mеdіа platform?.....................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Background of study....................................................................................................................4
Research aims & objectives.........................................................................................................5
Rationale......................................................................................................................................6
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................6
The importance of photography in the growth of communication system..................................6
The ways through which photography promotes social media platform.....................................9
Manner in which photography help in connecting users with social media platform...............12
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................14
DATA ANALYSIS.......................................................................................................................17
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................21
Recommendations......................................................................................................................23
Area for further study................................................................................................................23
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25
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TOPIC: - How dоеѕ photography help in the development of the
соmmunісаtіоn ѕуѕtеm and ѕосіаl mеdіа platform?
INTRODUCTION
Background of study
Imagery become one of the most important tools of communication in todays world where each
and every person want to share their most important moments or feelings to their close ones.
This is the reason the photography has now become a major part of one’s life as it is believed
that phots can say that words might get struggle to represent and vice versa. It is so because
communicating a scene or object within a photography is as similar to communicating it within
writing. But when it is written the jumbling ow words sometimes result into loss of meaning but
the photography represents what the actual thing a person wants to say in more beautiful manner
(ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS. 2019).
Therefore, it can be said that photography is consider to be a most significant medium through
which one can communicate about what they actual want to communicate without being stuck
into the puzzle of words.
The imagery and photography have now become a crucial part of a communication
system in modern time. Communicating a scene or an object in photography is as similar to
communicating by writing about it. But in writing a scene that one want ti represent may lost its
meaning due to jumble of words, but the photography represents clear visual that one wants to
share with other and with photography others also would be able to experience or imagine that
situation which actually words can’t represent (Zappavigna, 2016). This is so because a
photography helps in capturing a moment in time with all the feelings, emotions or messages it
want to communicate with the rest of the people who are going to visualise that picture.
The photography is considered to be a most effective medium through which the
messages are being presented to the people about a particular thing. This benefit is also being
avail by several business in order to present their brand message or promote the products in more
effective manner in order to gain the attention of customer. Ijn today’s world the companies
understand the importance of photography and manner in which it support the brand vision
effectively. Corporate photography is not only limited to the headshots of honchos, assembly line
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of company or spatial shots. Now it is becoming more about the vibe that a company have, its
employees, value they represent and present in picture in best possible way.
With the increasing prominence of online platform people are getting more attracted
toward considering things with the help of photography and businesses take advantage of this. It
can be seen from selling cloth to consumer electronic where people are being presented with
some attracting pictures that help them in determining how the actual product look like when
they use it. This support them in forming up a decision about buy or not to buy a particular
commodity (IMPORTANCE OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN BRAND COMMUNICATION, 2019).
Other than this when it is considering in service sector like hospitality, a brand can present the
picture of physical environment that customer will get when they avail a service from particular
hotel. Hence, it can be said that photography plays a significant role in communicating a
particular message to people without being converting into words and consider to be most
attractive method of communication. In this usually hotel and resorts uses social media sites in
order to promote their services by placing a photographs of configures experiencing services
which depict t the whole picture regarding the kind of services a person will experience when
visiting there.
Research aims & objectives
Aim:
To investigate about the role of photography in the development of communication
system and social media platform.
Research Objective:
 To examine and appreciate the importance of photography in the growth of
communication system
 To determine the ways through which photography promotes social media platform
 To analyse the factor in which photography help in connecting users with social media
platform
Research Questions:
 What is the importance of photography in the growth of communication system?
 What are several ways through which photography promotes social media platform?
 In what manner photography help in connecting users with social media platform?
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Rationale
The main purpose behind conducting this study is to develop an understanding about the
ways in which a photography helps an individual to communicate about their views and feeling
in a visual manner. The study has a wider scope as several things related with the importance of
photography in communicating message of a company to the target group effectively and how it
can be used as a tool to keep customer engaged within it. This is so because earlier not much is
being studied earlier in this regard as several studied are available on some related concept which
put more emphases toward digital content as a whole over the marketing practices of a business
but it doesn’t put much light over how photography help in enhancing the message quality and
clarity to customers and keep them engaged (Brown and Phu, 2014). So, this study will support
in determining the ways in which photography proves to helpful for a business in representing
the message to customers in more attractive and clear manner that remains in their mind and help
in increasing brand awareness. By conducting this study, the research wants to find out the ways
in which photography support in forming up an effective communication system. Additionally, it
also put light over the role of photography toward the development of social media platform as
this is one of the most prominent platforms over which the photographs are beings used and
share among the people with some purpose.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is defined as that section of an investigation which focuses toward
reviewing the information which is already present or being investigated by some another person
before over the current topic. So that an in depth understanding about the topic as well as it
nature can be understood in order to proceed further to investigate more about a particular topic
by taking previously established understanding as a base to move forth. It also supports in
identifying the nature of study to the investigation with the help of which further plan for
investigation can be created (Cruz and Lehmuskallio, 2016). This provide a guidance regarding
the information that must be covered in effective manner to achieve the appropriate answer to the
research questions so that the main aim behind conducting the study get successfully achieved.
The importance of photography in the growth of communication system
As per the view point of Ballenger. H.B., 2014, photography is considered as a universal
tool which is used for communication about something. It is widely use for communication with
limited resources in order to present a message, make people aware about something or brining a
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social change etc. all can be done with the help of photography. The photography has now
become one of the crucial parts of an individual life as they use it as a tool to make their
communication more imagery, visual and making things clearer to the people to whom one
wants to communicate. The importance of a photography in growth of communication system
are mentioned below:
Expressing emotions: - Photography is a tool which support people in communicating
with others regarding what they found attractive or beautiful. It supports a person to
communicate about the small moments in time when they experience a particular emotion or
mood. With the help of this a person can communicate several emotions like sorrow, joy, wonder
or humility.
According to Penney, J., 2015, the photographers have the capability to change the way
people perceive things and promote the change that must be there in the society for its
betterment. There are number of people who photograph about the social issues and with their
message communicated in photography they demand for justice. This help in creating an emotion
of sorrow among people by determining such kind of issues and other people in society get
motivated to take up certain action to resolve such issues. This is so because a photographer with
his/her in pictures try to connect people with a particular situation and they get influence with it.
Promotional purpose: - Peate. S., 2017 said that the photography is also used by several
different organisations as a medium to interact with its customers and present them information
regarding the product or services and represent them with the brand story. The photography for
promotional purpose is very much common among the organisations despite of the industry or
sector to which they belong. Every brand, uses visuals in the form of photography in their brand
story in order to attract people toward it. Beautiful bespoken photography provides a business an
extra layer of trust and appeal which support in maintaining the attention of audience to the
brand and making it constant. This can be understood with the example of a fashion retailer
ASOS that uses evocative and bright photography packed with number of people which provide
customers a hint about the lifestyle material that this brand offers and in categories in which it
actually deals under clothing. These all tactics help in attracting people by representing the type
of clothes and trends they actually get while purchasing from ASOS.
Presenting information: - The photography is considered to a medium for expression
range of emotions, messages or information without writing in just a frame. This plays a
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significant role in capturing the attention of people toward a particular thing which words
actually don’t grab to that extent.
Therefore, it is well said by Sarvas, R. and Frohlich, D.M., 2011, that photography is best
tool for building up an effective communication system. Due to this feature, majority of people,
groups or institutions mainly uses photography as a medium to spread information among
several people. A better example of this is spreading information about a particular event that is
going to be organise at some place within a set time period. This help in grabbing the attention of
people who are interested in such kind of event, as words can only express the schedule, venue
or activities that are going to be performed within a particular event. But with eth help of
photography the organisers can represent the environment or experience that an individual gets
with their visit and attending of that event along with the arrangement that are being made for the
attendees. These all support in expressing more with the picture which further support in
promoting a message widely and ensuring the people connect to this at large.
According to the view point of Balm. J. 2014, photography has arguably become highly
valuable and potent instrument used for aiding communication. It is considered as a medium that
an artist use in order to distort or interpret a particular thing, scene, event or reality with the help
of a focused photography. There is a cliché famous about a photograph that is “a picture tells
thousands of words”. It is true as a photography help in remembering things easily, help in
capturing attention, aid toward explaining the concepts and inspire people to perform action in
particular direction. The human beings are considering as virtual creatures and a large percent of
human brain dedicate it5self to the processing of virtual things. Therefore, it can be said that the
love for image lies with in the cognition and ability to pay attention. This is so because a human
brain process images as the speed of alarm as when an individual came in contact with the
picture, his/her mind analyse it within a short span of time, identify the meaning and scenario
behind it immediately. Therefore, the photography is considered as the most crucial part of an
individual’s life as it helps them in giving a meaning to something, characterise things, share
information and emotions and promoting things. The image is not just important to crucial a
message but it can also be considered as the need of human being as without photography a
communication is incomplete.
As per the view point of Strekalova, Y.A. and Krieger, J.L., 2017, the photography give
meaning to messages or information that are being presented by one person to another. There are
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number of areas where photography i8s used as a essential tool for communication. This mainly
includes a school lecture where teacher tries to make student aware about several things that are
exist within world with the medium of picture in order to give a shape to their imagination and
make them things remembers. Other than this photography is also used by several brands in
order to present their product categories in order to make people form up positive perception
regarding them. Other than this companies also use photography for branding where they present
a special message of a brand in term of value that it provide to its customer base and manner in
which it serve them, so that a unique brand story can be presented in front of customers to keep
them bind. This support in attracting customers toward the offerings of a company and help in
enhancing their interaction.
Despite of this, Geurin-Eagleman, A.N. and Burch, L.M., 2016, state that photography is
also used for share emotions where people usually capture special moment about a place, event
or thing in order to cover that in a frame and share the story with other people to present them
what experience that they have at a particular time. Other than this the photography is also being
used by the people in order to present certain important messages related with the society to
generate awareness and bring changes by making the people aware about the social issues that
are raising at a particular place or location which is affecting the lives of several people. The
main reason behind such kind of photography is to bring changes within the society by creating
more and more awareness and influencing people to voice against things that are getting wrong
within the society and brining negative impact over life of people such as crimes, criticism,
pollution, increasing wastage etc. Therefore, photography is considered to be a crucial part of
communication as it provides meaning to an event, messages or emotions by capturing it within a
frame so that people who watch it get easily get the message that one want to present and remind
it.
The ways through which photography promotes social media platform
According to the view point of Lo and McKercher, 2015 social media is a platform which
provide people with a virtual place to communicate or share their ideas, views or emotions with
one another with being physically present at a particular place. The social media platform has
grown up to a larger extend with the increasing popularity of it due to media exposure that an
individual gets and range of information which one can access and understand easily by
assessing several pictures, videos or web contents that social media sites mainly shares. The
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emergence of image led social media give birth to a totally new realm related with displaying of
photography’s. Unlike to the print or gallery publications, photographs that get published over
these social media platforms reach out to millions of people throughout the world. This is the
reason the growth of social media platform is getting improved.
Gibbs, M., Meese, J., Arnold, M., Nansen, B. and Carter, M., 2015, Stated that the social media
platforms are basically formulated by determining the need of people toward communication,
maintaining relations and for entertainment purpose. In order to fulfil this aim of social media
platform photography plays a significant role, as using social media sites as a network number of
artists share they’re at in the form of photography with other people which in turn help in
attracting people throughout the world to this. Other than this, people also use it to share their
personal moments and emotions with the help of pictures for their personal happiness and to
share it with others. Despite of this, Fox, J. and Vendemia, M.A., 2016, said that social media
platform is also used by several people as a medium of their earning, entering into a career or
promoting a business. For this several people who are seeking for a platform to showcase their
talent in term of fashion or other art share it by capturing it into a frame. This in turn also help
them in getting employment as by sharing their picture it become easier for them to approach the
people who need such kind of talent. Other than this several organisation also make use of social
media platform in order to post pictures about their products or services and circulate them
among larger number of people that help them in getting huge publicity. This is so because it is
being said that photography plays a crucial role within the development of social media platform.
This is so because it is a platform that provide a network to connect people throughout the world
over a single network and share their ideas, view points and arts with the help of photography.
Now these get share again and again among the people which create interest among them which
in turn help in connecting range to people to it which help in expanding the social media sites
access to worldwide.
Addition to this the Míguez-González, M.I. and Huertas, A., 2015 said that it also helps in
diversifying the usage of social media i.e. right from communicating with people, to sharing the
ideas, arts and from connecting people to approach people for job or for expanding the business.
These all come with the help of photography which support the social media platform to get that
much popular that people throughout eth world uses this platform to a great extend and it became
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the essential for the people as their daily life routine. Hence, it can be said that photography
plays a crucial role in expanding as well as development pf the usage of social media sites.
With the extension of this the Power. M., Cousins. M., and Ferguson. A., 2017 presented
the example of Tinder style app that allow the photographers to rate the photography’s of one
another before positing it to the social media sites so that the artists come up with best work over
such platform in order to gain advantage over the competition that is present over this platform.
This is so because the curating social media is considered to be a highly personal process that
offer a space to the photographer in order to discover new things or develop their own visual
voice so that the communicational process over the social media sites can be enhanced to a great
extent. Hence it can be state that from showcasing the new work to reviving the photos from the
archives of an individual, the social media platforms [provide a virtual space where one can
perform a creative experimentation. This is so because when people get a platform to showcase
their talent then it act as a motivation for the other people too and they also post up pictures or
other content in order to communicate with world by presenting tehri virtual words or experience
in the form of pictures. This help in connecting more and more people to this platform which
support in getting a development and growth of social media platform. Further the authors state
several factors that are related with photography which support in growth of social media
platform:
Larger connectivity: - With its imagery led concept, the social media get popular among
the larger number of people by providing more and more connectivity to the people throughout
the world. The photography is consider to be one of the most effective medium of
communication among people without being spoken into the words and this is so because it
attract more and more people to join the social media platform to share their ideas, views and arts
with the help of photography and get connected with people throughout the world.
Business opportunity: - Thomson, T.J. and Greenwood, K., 2017 said that the photography is
the bases of social media platform as people shares a larger number of picture over several social
media sites like Facebook, twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, Pinterest and many more. This
photography are mainly share with a motive sometime it is just to share the feelings with the
closed ones or sometimes it is about the business purpose. Here people usually share their talent
with the help of pictures that are being seeking by the number of organisations around the world
so that they get aware about eth people having certain skills and then they interact with them to
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be a part of company and earn their income. On the other hand, some business started using
social media platform as a place to promote and sell their products or services. This in turn help
in calling larger number of customers to use the social media sites in order to avail; the services
or products that are being Offred by the company through online services in order to provide
personalised services. This help in increasing the use of social media sites to a great extent that
further help in its growth and development.
Spreading awareness: - According to Keib, K. and et. al., 2018., this is also one of the major
feature of photography where people uses the social media platform in order to create awareness
about something by positing a range of pictures regarding that particular concept, message or
event. There are number of things for which photography is used to create awareness where
people are being attracted toward joining social media platform in order to get regular update or
remain connected with a event or some things to which they are interested as using these social
interaction sites people present information about it. this also brings up a new segment to the
social networking sites which further help in growth of the platform to a large extent.
Manner in which photography help in connecting users with social media platform
According to the information presented by Kiaba. J., 2019, there are number of reasons that
individuals have in order to get connected with the social media platform these days, but
generally the use of these sites are being categories into two motive such as personal and
professional. This means that people uses for their own motive whether it is related with personal
interest like to share their emotions, remain connected with friends or family and entertain
themselves, or it is about for the reason of business purpose like to expand business, approach
clients worldwide, offer online services, promote brand or remain connected with the customers
base. Hirota, M., Shirai, M., Ishikawa, H. and Yokoyama, S., 2014, said that the social media
platform is consider to be most effective medium that help one to remain connected with their
customers and improve their perception toward brand by keeping them update with the
everything new that added by the brand in their offering list or something exciting which a brand
is planning for the customers or getting benefit in growth of a business. This mainly perform
with the help of photography, where several different organisations mainly form up tehri social
media pages and post up the pictures of their products or some informative images in order to
present with information to the customers regarding what a company offered and how it will
provide value to the customers.
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