So far, our social media analysis has focused on how Canadians use Twitter to write about Canada Reads, the books it features, and the culture that surrounds the broadcasts. But Canadians—especially younger generations—are increasingly using Instagram to share their thoughts, opinions, and lives.
#CanadaReads on Instagram
In fact, a 2018 report by the Ryerson University Social Media Lab found that 37% of Canadians surveyed reported having an Instagram account, with the highest levels of adoption in 18-to-24 year-olds (67%) and 25-to-34 year-olds (62%).
The first public post on Instagram using the hashtag #CanadaReads was posted on November 23, 2011. Since then, the hashtag has become increasingly popular with over 5,500 posts using the hashtag in 2019 alone. At the time of writing, there are over 12,000 posts on Instagram using the hashtag #CanadaReads.
The top nine posts[i]—the most liked and commented on public posts using #CanadaReads—offer some insights into how Canadians are using #CanadaReads on Instagram.
The top posts tend to be highly stylized and focused on showcasing books. The posts use bright colours and photography techniques to attract the viewer’s attention, including centered composition, the rule of thirds, and flat lay composition. Many of the posts use additional hashtags like #bookstagram, #amreading and #bookworm, which further signify their participation in the Canadian reading community on Instagram.
The fifth photo (in the middle of the nine) stands out from the others. This post comes from @lauriegrassi, Senior editor of Simon & Schuster Canada. Although the photo features books, Laurie is also fully visible, standing next to a bookcase at a Canada Reads event hosted at an Indigo bookstore. The photo doesn’t use any of the photography techniques used in the other posts and is not as visually appealing as the other top nine.
This is also the only photo in the top nine that uses #CanadaReads to talk specifically about the Canada Reads program—all the others use the hashtag to connect with a broader community of readers across Canada and, for some, to position themselves as influencers within this community.
For example, the users @dreamingofbookpages and @literary_liv each have two posts in the top nine. According to her profile, @dreamingofbookpages is an “avid reader, occasional writer, constant dreamer” from Toronto with over 1600 followers. She primarily uses #CanadaReads to share book reviews, photos in bookstores, and books on her “to read” list.
User @literary_liv’s profile describes her as a “#BookShark with BookSparks,” a community of readers, book lovers and influencers. For her, using the hashtag #CanadaReads helps extend her position as an influencer to the #CanadaReads community.
The posts themselves also offer insights into the #CanadaReads community. All of the top nine photos are posted by female-presenting users. The female body is present in many of the photos, with four posts displaying hands and/or feet that are (likely) female and one showing a woman (Laurie Grassi) posing beside a shelf. The gendered nature of the posts may reflect the gendered use of Instagram: of those surveyed by Ryerson University Social Media Lab, women (46%) were on Instagram at a much higher rate than men (28%).
The books in the posts are also gendered. Three posts show collections of books that are about women and include the words girl, wife or handmaid in the title (photos six, seven and eight), one is a book of essays about being a daughter (photo four), and one is a book about a group of female friends (photos three and nine). Only the first, second and fifth photos show books that aren’t specifically marketed towards women—although these photos are still featured in a gendered way.
Beyond providing insights into the gendered nature of the posts, the books can also help us understand how Instagram users make use of #CanadaReads. For example, the first photo (Harry Potter books) and the seventh photo (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) feature books that are not Canadian. Here, the use of #CanadaReads doesn’t indicate that the books are Canadian but rather that the user is a Canadian who reads—a significant distinction from the use of the hashtag on Twitter. The third and ninth photos display a book that’s set in South Africa and written by a South African author who now lives in Canada (Bianca Marais), which opens up broader questions of what makes a book Canadian or what counts as #CanadaReads.
On Instagram, then, there are varied uses of the hashtag #CanadaReads—many of which are not specific to the Canada Reads program but instead are focused on connecting with broader communities and identifying as a Canadian who reads. By using the hashtag in such a way, Instagram users are not only able to connect to broader communities of readers in Canada but are also able to insert themselves into discussions of reading in Canada, engage with literature, and interact with other Canadian readers online.
[i] The top nine posts update daily. The posts presented above were pulled on February 25, 2020.
Further Reading
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On 2 March 2021, the Canada Reads 2021 authors and panellists joined host Ali Hassan in a virtual conversation in advance of the competition.
Jael Richardson spills the Canada Reads 2020 tea on Instagram
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