Digital photography: influence of smartphone usage in relation to visual communication.

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Date
November 2015
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Abstract
This study describes the results of a phenomenological research aimed at enquiring on the influence of smartphone photography activities on the mainstream digital photography in relation to visual communication. New knowledge and new frontiers have emerged from the results. Previous studies revealed that smartphone photography being a newly emerged visual communication practice is reuniting families and friends through the act of mobile photography. Fifteen participants were purposefully selected and interviewed for their experiences in smartphone photography within three major cities in Ghana namely: Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi. The responses were integrated into a body of data out of which three themes were developed: Technological Convergence, User- applications and Improvement in image resolution to deal with the three research objectives respectively. The results show that professionals and non-professionals alike will continue to experience the practice of smartphone photography because the practice is seen as a new medium of social interconnectivity. However, on the issue of whether the DSLRs could be replaced by the emergence of the smartphone, results suggest the contrary. The study also revealed increased human rights infringements like “voyeurism” and “secret filming” of victims as part of the activities due to dramatic improvement in the image quality. The study therefore elicits promulgation of governmental policy or some regulations on the use of smartphone photography especially in public spaces to reduce the incidence of human rights abuses
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Communication Design in the Faculty of Art, College of Art and Built Environment in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree Master of Philosophy (Communication Design),
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