The Iconology of Pinterest: Exploring Naming Behavior in Personal Digital Image collections

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2014 in the subject Communications - Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, Social Media, University of North Texas (College of Information), course: Digital User Behavior, language: English, abstract: More than 70 million people worldwide have "pinned" personal image collections since Pinterest's launch in 2010. This book explores the unique sense-making behaviors of independent user-curators actively contributing to an evolving social digital collection. Image naming practices are examined using a matrix including Panofsky's three strata of iconological subject matter and a range of Wittgenstein's language game attributes. The exploratory approach taken in this book is especially helpful for information professionals seeking a springboard for further discussions on emerging user needs in digital image curation as well as for researchers interested in user naming behavior in social media collections.

Tami Sutcliffe, Ph.D. studied Information Science at the University of North Texas, and holds an MA in Art History from California State University and a Masters in Library Science from Texas Woman's University. She is an Instructional Designer at InformationArt.Org in Dallas, Texas.