1 Visuality in Social Media: researching images, circulations and practices Martin Hand, Queen’s University, Canada. Draft for publication in Sloan, L. Quan-Haase, A. (eds.) (2017) The Sage Handbook of Social Media Research Methods, London: Sage. Abstract This chapter identifies key issues in social media research related to broader concerns in visual culture. Visuality in social media is conceptualized as comprising three broad elements, each of which requires methodological negotiation. First, images in social media take many forms, and need careful consideration of established approaches in visual culture studies while acknowledging the specific qualities of social media. Second, the circulation of visual data in social media destabilizes research objects in ways that challenge visual analyses of textual meaning. Third, while the visualization of social practices through social media appears to offer unprecedented access to social life, the detail of such practices often remain obscure if we focus solely on images, however many. Social media researchers need to ask how visual objects are generated and used, and how people make sense of the visual in using social media. Pulling these dimensions apart and then together is difficult. This is the current predicament of visual studies of social media. The example of selfies is used to illustrate these points. Several approaches being used to address these issues are identified, highlighting some continuities of method in social media research, while pointing to some novelties in social media that offer novel challenges. Keywords Visual culture, digital images, circulation, social media photography, media practices