Modebilder på Instagram - En netnografisk studie om modets medialisering och representation av kvinnlighet i bilder på Instagram

Sammanfattning: During recent years social media has become an important part of the fashion industry. This study is about the social platform Instagram and its effects on fashion. The purpose of this bachelor thesis, Fashion images on Instagram: A netnographic study on the mediatization of fashion and representations of femininity in images on Instagram, is to examine the mediatization of fashion and how femininity is represented in fashion images on Instagram. The study aims to answer the following three questions; (1) how does the chosen pictures express the mediatization of fashion on Instagram, (2) in what ways is fashion legitimized through the three chosen pictures and (3) how could femininity be represented on Instagram according to the chosen fashion images. The method chosen for this study is netnography with the empirical examples of three fashion images from different Instagram accounts. The results of the study shows that so called influencers have taken a significant place in the field of fashion media. They have power to influence and make changes in the fashion industry; and with this new group of gatekeepers or players, the fashion industry has become more accessible for the general public. The results also show that the portaing of women in fashion images has not changed that much, even though a more genderblurred approach can be seen in one of the studied images.