Face Value

Research background This research draws on Immersive Journalism, centring experience (David Foster Wallace) and the gonzo mode, throwing the author into an unfamiliar situation, (John Jeremiah Sullivan), in order to craft a personal essay which sits within the current mode of post-New Journalism creative non-fiction, blending conventions of popular genres, such as in the work of Leslie Jamieson. The research interrogates whether it is possible to apply methods from these literary forms to social media practices such as Instagram, and narrativise its practice and use? Research contribution Face Value is a work of creative nonfiction that explores the use of Instagram in forming narratives about the self. When undertaking this work that uses blended creative nonfiction methods of describing physical and social space, there was no literal place to 'investigate' as is typical of the literary equivalents of these methods. The essay investigates the construction of stories about the self. Whilst using the tropes of 'reporting' and 'observation', it necessarily must also employ speculation and invention as the author comes up against the limits of getting to know virtual people. The essay demonstrates a method for addressing new uses of technology within creative nonfiction. Through applying the methodology of immersive/gonzo journalism to this virtual space, the research explores the distinction between real encounters (which are experienced and described) and imagined encounters which are furnished with invention and literary technique. Research significance This research endeavour has been significant because in applying methods from immersive/gonzo journalism to virtual space it illuminates the role of invention, imagination and literary technique in encounters that are ‘experienced’ and described. In exploring the degree of fictionalisation that occurs in online space, it shows the appropriateness of fictional technique to write about nonfiction spaces. This project was commissioned by Australia's second-oldest literary journal and cited by Dr Patrick Kelly in the book chapter "Slow media creation and the rise of Instagram" (Mobile Media Creation and the Rise of Smartphones, Springer, 2014). Robyn Annear cited this essay as evincing a ‘zestful kick’ ("Puzzling the purpose of Australian literary magazines", The Monthly October 2013).