Exploring identity- Zoella vs Tanya

Zoella's Website 

UX= The user experience 

• plain white back ground connotes fresh, clean feel
• san-serif font
• bright and attractive colours aimed at younger audience 
• clearly layed out

classic middle class depiction of a picnic with the cheese board, abundance of food and lack of cigarettes and alcohol 

-cultivated into the idea that this is what a picnic should look like 

multimodality- media product that uses different modes of media (eg. magazines)
hypermodality- goes beyond traditional forms of modality (eg. internet) 



Every image on the website is heavily post processed with filters making them look constantly tanned and the locations sunny 

Zoella is aspirational but almost attainable 






Tanya Burr Website

• Super similar layout 
• less perfectionist- images taken on phone, less posed and edited 
• wider range of content
• feels more adult eg. images of alcohol and adult parties and events
• more sexualised with more revealing pictures and a pout  

1. How can we apply the male gaze theory to Zoella?
2. What issues are presented with Zoellas representation online?
3. To what extent does Zoella subvert representation of gender? (Judith Butler theory of gender) 
4. How does Zoella promote interactivity through her identity?
5. How does she create a hyper real character?
6. To what extent does she represent young women online? 

FUCK ZOELLA TWEET

Lack of moderation on Zoellas website 




Tweets from 2009 posted by Zoella (aged 18/19)

-totally goes against her image and ideology
-or is it actually fake news or just edits
-she realised apology statements


Why is Zoella fading out and losing momentum and popularity 

The audience that she originally catered to have grown up and young people are attracted to different trends and styles (eg. Kylie Jenner) 

With her somewhat innocent and sexless personer and lack of LGBTQ represenattion she is losing out to other more current influencers and you tubers 

TO WHAT EXTENT DOES ZOELLA USE STEREOTYPICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN?

including Poppy in the video and treating her like some sort of 'special guest' -proairetic code  
including a mistake "i'm out of focus" serves as a transition and symbolic code for her being normal, quirky and making mistakes 


The high key lighting emphasise the range of pastel colours and shades of pink in the room.


The product themselves (candles, and scented items) are aimed at women 
(example of commodity fetishism- lusting after the brand rather than the product)  


The fact that the focus is on the packaging not the product its self fetishise her brand therefore herself 

STANDISISED DIFFERENTAION-
every scented candle is only slightly different yet serves the same purpose 



Extreme close up on face enforces hegemonic norm as of women wearing a whole face of makup 

reality and post modernism

CONSTRUCTION OF ZOELLA

Simulation is no longer that of substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: Hyperreality 

Zoella, much like many other vloggers is based on a mode of constant hyperrreferentiality and it is impossible to understand without an intimate knowlege of Barthesian referential codes 

Inferred knowledge: Mark the gay best friend 

UNTIMATE PIZZA TEST TASTE:

• non diegetic music in the background (simple guitar upbeat)
• between the age of 26-28 Zoella has changed her voice to sound more mature (example of rebranding)  
• both appear sexless and innocent
• a deliberate blooper/outtakes at the beginning of each video 
• the mid shot/ two shot infeers that we're sitting across from them like in a restranut or at her house 
• mistakes are left in to make it look less real to make it more real
• the video is 13 minutes of pure bordom
• provides audiences with strange form of escapism 

Zoella reinforces dominate hedmonic views of skinny girls are prettier 

This creates unrealistic expectations more the young impressionable audnice 

consumerist ideology

Reinforces how girls HAVE to wear makeup and the Gay best friend HAS to be camp

ZOELLA

ZOELLA

• world number 1 fashion/beauty blogger 
• 12 mil subscribers
• started doing videos from 2009
• 1 billion video views

Steve Neal- genre theories 

June favoiutes 2016- Set text

Editing:

jump cuts

hard cuts

bloopers left in

close up of face 

profential clean bright lighting                       

blurred plain background 

extreme close up of product

Mise-en-scene:                                                              2 years ago, 1.8M views 

holds product while talking about it

Wearing face of makeup

Simple black chocker, no earrings

hair in bun

shallow depth of field

She has a hyper expressive face

(viewer has to watch 30sec to count as a view)

feminine yet not sexual

very expressive uses her hands 

direct gaze

intentionally fucks up words and leaves them in eg. Smashbox 

Overly friendly 

informal mode of address 

neutral southern accent 

well spoken without being posh, dies not swear or use slang 

Online Media starter- Bloggs and Vloggs

What even is online media? The digital products, services and texts that involve the internet.

Digital Convergence - The coming together of previous separated industries digitally

E.G 

• a newspaper app. 
• Netflix and streaming
• Box office online
• Spotify

-Media Language

-Representation

-Audience

-Industry

Blog is short for Web-log. Practically an online diary. Vlogging is the activity or practice of posting short videos for social medias, or your own personal desire.

Micro-blogging sites exist such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Blogging and Vlogging are an example of Clay Shirky's End of Audience theory, where the audience make the product.

Stereotypically Vlogs and their producers target a younger demographic like around 11 to 18 year olds.

Youtube was founded in 2005, where they had cheap servers and horrible storage. With the massive improvement of internet and storage, YouTube as a platform grew massively.

Web 2.0 = currrent look of the internet 

eg. google icon with white background 

• Vlogs can be aspirational and give the audience something to aspire to
• they offer the pleasure of personal and social identity 
• pleasure of an unscripted narrative (still constructed but gives illusion of real life) 
• direct mode of address (breaking 4th wall) 
• Audience interaction- like, subscribe and comment 

Example: Jackson cat man 

Cover work

Assassins Creed Liberation 3

REGULATION

Who regulates this text?

Regulated by PEGI

What legal and ethical issues does this text bring up?

-racism

-false history 

-misogyny 

Does this text offer it's audiences a plurality of experiences? Give examples
-Genre: action, adventure, stealth

-interactive game play 

-narrative and story element

-black, female protagonist (different to previous games in series) 

DISTRIBUTION

Who distributes this product?

Published by Ubisoft

How many copies are/were sold?
Over 12mil

What is the circulation of this product?
Digital
Online
In store 

Can the product be distributed digitally?
Plateforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows via the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam

POWER AND ORGANISATION

Who owns this product? 
Ubisoft as part of the Assassins creed series franchise 

Is the owner a major or indie?
Major

What else do they produce/publish?
Rainbow six titles, Watch Dogs1/2, Farcry5 ect

Are they vertically and/or horizontally integrated? 

Do they operate as a subsiduary? 

What is the dominant ideology of this organisation?

Ubisoft: Entertainment is a French computer and videogame developer and publisher with headquarters in Montreuil-sous-Bois, France. It was founded in 1986 by five brothers, of which Yves Guillemot serves as chairman and CEO. Thecompany consists of 26 studios spread across 18 countries.

Audience- Radio

Audience- Radio


Slow TV/Radio

Reception theory: audience can use them for different reasons
-destress
-drug consumption
-background noise 
-subverting conventions 

The slow tv movement= very long shows where nothing happens: 
access on netflicks, youtube

 



TROLLING: the twitter page has minimal trolling 


proffered- enjoyable and gental conversation, reflecting the shred views of middle class woman, the femisint mode of address and relating to the panel 

negotiated- may disgree with the subject dicussed but likes the atmopshere, not approve of the all female pannel but enjoys the conversation and tone of show ect

oppositional- exclusionary by lack of diversity in female paniest and middle class overtones  

aberrant- disgusting and extreme views





Enthusiast media  

Exam marking

REVISION:


Woman magazine 1964- IPC Media (conglomerate- bought out serval other women magazines) 


Assasin Creed Liberation- UBISOFT 

The Times- News Uk/Corp (owned by Rupert Murdoch who owns NEWS INC)

Late Night Woman's Hour- BBC 

Industry- Radio

Industry- Radio 

The BBC

• Founded 95 years ago (October 18, 1922)
• Founder: John Reith
• BBC stands for ‘The British Corporation’
• The BBC is watched/listened by 96% of UK population
• Radio, TV and online programmes are available in 28 languages other than English
• It is Europe’s biggest provider of media and creative skills training
• 1 in 16 adults (worldwide) use BBC news
• The BBC license fee costs £145.50 a year (40p a day). It includes 4 TV channels, 10 national radio stations, network of local radio stations, internationally-acclaimed website, BBC parliament, world service, S4C, BBC monitoring and 5 orchestras and choirs.
• The broadcaster receives £3.7 billion a year
• Spends 76% of its fee income on TV content (more than any other broadcaster) (SKY only spends 34%)
• Headquarters are in London

Late night Womans hour

• spin off from the long running BBC radio 4 daily magazine program (wide variety of subjects of human interests) woman hour 
• broadcast once a month, presented by Lauren Laverne features a number of female panellists
• each episodes focuses on a particular theme relevant to its female audiences
• broadcast on radio 4 (aimed at a middle aged audience)  at 11pm 

CATCH UP - DIGITAL ENCODED RECORDING 

 first broadcast on 7 October 1946 on the BBC's Light Programme (now called Radio 2)

Friday 28th October 2016 HOME

four panelists, all female, all academics/ artists, multi cultural 

discussing a single topic- going on mini tangens 

set up being one leader askes question while the others jump in on the conversation 

Lexis is professional and complex meaning audience needs to be educated 

It is assumed audience is up to date on current issues 

auindce age rand maybe 20-60

making cultural references eg. Game of Thrones, Instagram  

discusses slightly more taboo and honest subjects for the older female generation (divorce, children, international relations, marriage, war) 

always focus on WOMEN!

"i only have 20 books" shocker 

a friendly voice for a female listenership 

aiming for styetypival 'house wives' or female pursuits eg. crafts and child care

gives the audience comfort and relatable material 

aspirational 

challenging piratical hegenemy during the war period- femeisum references 

adopts an informal mode of address 

egalitarian (equality) 

femenetic moments- learned experience- no greater expect on women but women 

targets a very specific audience (niche) 

Pluraily (range of diffrent ideologies)

middle class as fuck talking about mugs

show is sexless 

• when first started was presented by too men 
• 2013 the show was accused of being sexist against men 
• been criticised as being too middle class 
• 3.7 mil listeners 
• quater of viewers are under 35 

HOW HAVE SOCIOHISTORICAL FACTORS LEAD TO A DIVERSICATION OF MEDIA OUTPUT? 

DIVERSICATION- presents lots of diffrent things eg BBC presents many types and genre of shows 

TO WHAT EXTENT IS THIS INFLUNCED BY ECONOMIC FACTORS?

late night womans hour exists because the BBC have to put on a range of programs to met the needs of the people 

DIGITAL CONVERGENCE!!!!!!!

It is still possible to listen to radio the old fashioned way (live through radio waves) 

IPlayer offers audiences an immersive experience eg. going straight to the next episode

You can access IPlayer on any device eg. you can buy TVs with it installed

-this makes TV practically computers and not used for live streaming as much (terrestrial)  

IPlayer has an attractive UI (thumb nail, layeout of pictures on website) 

Advantage of digital plateform allows audiences to share eg. the hashtag LNWH 

There is a democratisation of the media

Audio streaming (traditional)  

Digital Audio Broadcast 

Podcast 

Cross platform (appealing to a modern audience) 

REGULATION

TV/ film- BBFC

news papers- IPSO

under OFCOM

broadcast after the 9pm watershed 

regulation of tv and radio in the UK is ineffective 

programs can be accessed by anyone, any time 

LOCALNESS 

Legistartion requires ofcom to secure that local commercial radio stations provide us an appropriate amount of: programs including local material, locally made programs 

(not appropriate for woman hour) 

relevant with tv eg. news

How could we talk about regulation with woman hour?

mention of brands- cannot advertise 'a popular bookstore' does not state name of company (Amazon) 

The BBC has a remit of a range of shows giving the audience an experince of plurality and a wide range of viewpoints/perspectives 

BBC = public service broadcast 

we expect it to be there just as much as the Police, hospitals ect

has its urself imposed remit = to inform, educate and entertain

does womans hour offer plurality?

yes it is one single show that has all woman hosts 

40% of the listenership is men 
over 3mil a month listeners 

Female mode of address for female audiences 

does not harm or offend the audience in any way 

Curran and Seaton argue the media industries are owned by minimal companies driven by profit and power therefore limiting variety and creativity 

(LNWH only broadcast once a month)

LNWH demonstrates a clear left wing bias 

Radio

RADIO

Digital convergence 


Meeting the need of the audience:
The BBC is keen to advertise the ethnic diversity of there broad casters and to attract a diverse audience 

John Peel- BBC radio presenter (huge in the 70s/80s)  very extreme in his approach  

Main steam sites don't offer the extreme binary there was back in the day 

Majority of people don't use radio waves = listen live 
Everything is streamed or accessed digitally  


The BBC sign in/ register page 
Image of David Attenbourgh symbolises and embodies the BBC aesthetic 

BBC SOUNDS - rebranded to sound cooler and more new 

Audience prompts

• How are audience grouped and categorised for this show? Think age, gender, class, lifestyle, cultural capital…
• How does this show attract/target it’s audiences? 
• How can audiences interpret this show in different ways?
• How does this show use technology to target a specialised/niche/cult audience?
• In what ways can audiences use this show, and how does this reflect their identity and cultural capital?
• Reception, fandom and the end of audience: theoretical approaches

Industry prompts

• How is this show produced, distributed and circulated, and by who?
• In what ways does radio use specialised forms of production, distribution and circulation?
• How have recent technological changes in radio changed production, distribution and circulation?
• What economic factors may have affected this show? How financially successful do you think it was? Was it made commercially or not for profit?
• How have new digital technologies affected how this show is regulated?
• Power and regulation: theoretical approaches

PLUGGING= repeating the same track