Highfield and Leaver propose this method, which looks at a particular collection of Instagram posts (hashtags) to gain more insight into its content or activity.

This approach to visual analysis emerges from a poststructuralist perspective. Poststructuralists believe that images have no accurate meaning, there are numerous interpretations of an image.

Sobande (2021) discusses one example of appropriating Blackness with virtual/digital influencers.

The privilege White people have of opting out of discussions surrounding race and other politics, and engaging with (read: coopting) them uncritically.

Sharenting: when parents share intimate or sensitive moments of their children’s lives on social media without their consent. This isn't unique to influencers alone, regular parent do it, but the problem arises when the child is exploited.

Post Feminism and Post Queer: These sensations are past the point of labeling non-conforming subjects, instead, there is a widespread affordance of gay males to be feminine within the spaces where identity is formed. This affordance given to gay males stems from their relation to femineity

Gay Men and Feminity: Queer culture revokes labels that ground an individual with one social construct (for example, gender). It also breaks the links that connect gender and sexuality. Gay male's relation to femininity is held up by the ideals of neoliberal sensibilities (they are successful solely because of the work they've put in to be more feminine).

This extends to other spaces with creator and influencer cultures, not just the queer space. Jeffree Star, male drag queens, etc can pose explicitly, but female Twitch streamers can't afford such because it is seen as delegitimizing or using one's body for attention in a masculine space.

Twitch's Legitimacy: "titty streamer" is used to describe a style that females use to present themselves on Twitch. Using their bodies as props, the games they play, and their setup, all these work to make the woman excel in the attention economy. (Ruberg, Collen, and Brewster 2019)

In a media text, certain questions persists. What discourses are implied? What is produced from these implied discourses? What power relations does the given knowledge uphold?

This is so because of Susan Sontag's 1970s theory that photography was a key device in experiencing something, for giving an experience once of participation" according to Highfield and Leaver

Visual social media is most commonly associated with approaches of studying images.

Labour and Meritocracy: The attention economy exists based on a merit system, where some are more desirable than others. Gaming has been revered by men and has been seen as delegitimate, so when "titty streamers" take attention, it further delegitimizes this profession dear to men. If the hardest-working streamers should be the most successful, then females shouldn't be the most successful. The author makes us understand that that belief also undermines the work of "titty streaming." This trend of undermining responsibility continues when the men who pay the streamers are not blamed for empowering women. Men knowingly or not, contribute to "delegitimizing" Twitch as a place for men alone.

Calibrated Amateurism: Abidin explains that family influencer use "filler" content that depicts their kids everyday lives as a form of calibrated amateurism. This practice and aesthetic depicts the children as authentic everyday children despite being exploited

Justifying: The labor produced by these children is presented as fun and not work. The kids are also presented as being fully in control or awareness of their "consent".

Legal Protection exists for children in the entertainment industry i.e Coogan's Law, but social media and influencing is not traditional entertainment. This causes influencer kids to remain unprotected despite the hours of work they put in at a young, unconsenting age.