Hashtags and Heritage: The use of #italianamerican on Instagram

Using both framing theory and Collier’s cultural identity theory, this paper seeks to study the use of #italianamerican on Instagram by first attempting to determine if it is used exclusively by Italian Americans as a way to demonstrate their own cultural identity. The paper will then examine whether the message frame of posts using #italianamerican demonstrates users’ personal perceptions of Italian American culture. Finally, the paper will examine if there is a relationship between #italianamerican posters’ ethnicity and the message frame of their posts. This paper does not argue that Italian Americans are the only Americans of European ancestry taking part in the hashtag phenomenon; rather, this paper is meant to examine how one ethnic group attempts to define itself by its use of digital and social media. This study provides insight into how ethnicity and cultural view are associated. Results show that message frame and ethnicity are not linked, as anyone can admire and respect a culture and post a positive message about it on social media, even if it is not their culture of origin. Members of a specific ethnic group tend to have a stronger view of their culture of origin, as demonstrated by the posts selected for this study. This study showed that Italian Americans use social media to educate others about their heritage, as well as to celebrate their culture of origin. The methods used in this study could be applied to other European American ethnic groups and their social media usage, including Irish Americans and German Americans, among others.

Keywords: Instagram, Italian American, ethnicity, framing theory, Collier's cultural identity theory, hashtags.

This paper received the first-place award for a debut paper in the Multicultural Division at the 2023 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.