Attitude online

-The orange text 'ENTERTAINMENT' is a folio 
-san serif font connotes importance reinforced with capital letters 
-'Related stories' not nessicarily linked to the article 
-anchoring image of middle aged east Asian/American director 
-Image is anchored with title as it includes him surrounded by film equipment
-making gay themed films from the early 90s
-normalised and candid image of him at work 
-complex representation (bisexual) 
-initial formal mode of address
-mentioning 'sexual fludity' and 'LGBTQ' before talking about him shows that this is more important to get across than his new show 
-'for anyone out of the loop' could come across as patronising for straight people
-assumption of audience knowledge about gay culture 
-article itself is informal 
-name of his films as a reference point
-examples of hyper modality (tweet, instagram and fb) 


Forerunner of the new QUEER cinema  - reappropration of the derogatory term queer 

How are gay men represented in Attitude online?

HYPERSEXULISEED 

mostly topless and in provocative poses 

Article critical to lack of represenation of different boy types 

Heavy emphasise on appearance which reinforces a gay stereotype 

Articles featuring prejudice and attacks on gay men reinforce the ideology that to be gay are in the minority 

Even straight actors are represented and codified to appeal to a gay male audience

-For example the voyeristic shots of Cristiano Ronaldo emphasising his body (tight fitting underwear and hyper masculine) provides audience with fantasy

Why do groups sometimes deliberately live up to stereotypes

• Visibility- a way of demonstrating pride and lack of fear 
• To fit into a community
• being young and impressionable- following structure and advice 
• To find a partner 
• as a way of seeking attention and to stand out 

Attitude onlines primary purpose is to promote the magazine 

has a dedicated regular readership 

• What representations of masculinity are constructed in this front cover? Make explicit reference to the toolkit for textual analysis.

subversive representation of masculinity with the nail varnish and makeup with conflicts of hegomoically held views of masculinity however that is a contrast to the alfa male army jacket. over all a subversive and complex representation that does not show a stereotype.

• To what extent does this cover subvert hegemonic representations of masculinity?

The hand on the hip comes across as camp and feminine pose however which contrasts with his outfit. On the other hand the angry and accusatory facial expression connotes violence which fits with the outfit and mis-en-scene. 

• How is anchorage provided by the cover lines of the magazine cover?

Sharing a relatable 'gay' experience with the cover story therefore aimed at a gay cult audience 

• How does the print version of Attitude demonstrate digital convergence?

BINARY OPPOSITIONS IN THE COVER

CLICKBAIT

CLICKBAIT

hashtag= a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign (#), used on social media websites and applications, especially Twitter, to identify messages on a specific topic.

"spammers often broadcast tweets with popular hashtags even if the tweet has nothing to do with them"

eg. #photography 

algorithms and there purpose:

for example Netflix does NOT know your race however through algorithms they can market content to specific audience like more diverse casted films for a black audience.

The same is done through thumbnails and hashtags  

ZOELLA IS NOT TARGETTIMG AN AUDINCE BUT IS USING ALGERITHIC PRACTISE TO GET AS MANY CLICKS AS POSSIBLE 

examples of Clickbait 

Lacking in branding and logo, directly address the target audience. This is the horrifying hyper real situation that we live in today. Machine generated over time backed by its millions of clicks. This algorithm has picked up the crude tendencies and habits of viewers and are using it against them.

By asking questions, challenges and presenting a cliff hanger it tempts the audience to click on the link 

Is clickbait morally wrong?????

Is Zoella doing the same???

In short she is an advert to her own brand therefore treats fans like customers 

To what extent does online media have a duty of care for vulnerable users?

Youtube works by making people spend as much time on it as possible

Therefore can affect vunrable people or with people with mental health issues 

THE INTERNET IS HIGHLY UNETHICAL 


regulation- yes or no

https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/news-parliament-2017/impact-of-social-media-young-people-report-published-17-19/

Parental regulation- most parents are behind the times with the internet therefore children that have grown up in this age have an in grown advantage and are ahead of their parents knowedge eg. can hack vpns and locks 

Micheal: 'internet regulation is like a patchwork quilt'

Companies do not share there stats with academics because ...

• they are purely concerned by profit 
• knowledge is power
• copies would be made

China= massive national proxy

Cuba= minimal wifi

in the ew world of smart phones and socail media brands have found a new way to entere our lives thats not always explicit 

hyper reality- 'social media makes products more real' so representation from a 'real' person is more trust worthy 

GLEAM FUTURES- SET UP TO MANAGE INFLUNCERS

Demonetisation = process where the ad company or hosting company will retract their funding towards the social media site/page 

WATCH BBC PANORAMA 

The Internet/ Online media

Online Media

Roland Barthes - Semiotics

Steve Neale - Difference in Genre

Jean Braudrillard - Postmodernism

Lisbet Van Zoonen - Feminism

bell hooks - feminism

David Gauntlet - Pick and Mix - identity 

Judith Butler - Gender performativity 

Stuart Hall - Representation

Paul Gilroy - Ethnicity and postcolonial theory

Henry Jenkins- Fandom
Clay Shirky- end of audience 

With dumbed videos the producer is not just taking the piss but showing their fandom and interactivity through reapropiating the product and making it there own   

Curran and Seaton- power and industry 

The internet is totally unregulated 

propaganda on its own doesn't change anybodies mind however what it does do is cultivate ideas and slowly with enough exposure has the intended effect in 'brain washing' a persons views

• Alex Jones videos targets people with mental health issues/ the paraoind  
• By banning him from youtube he was turned into a 'martyr' and made him more popular

MOMO= hyper real situation 

machine written youtube vidoes 

TED TALK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9EKV2nSU8w

James Bridle's excellent video on creepy, pseudo-machine generated children's videos on Youtube makes some excellent (and disturbing) points about how artificial intelligence and machine learning is influencing our society at large. Most successful websites work by fabricating an endless flow of 'content' (which is marketing shorthand for... stuff...).  This content is selected based on who you are, your search history, your level of 'engagement' with certain images, your interests, your social status, your demographic, your ethnicity, your cultural capital. If at this stage you are wondering 'how do they know all this?" ('they' being tellingly vague here), the answer is that 'they' do not. A variety of assumptions, shortcuts and conclusions have been made by an increasingly sophisticated, and increasingly successful artificial intelligence.

Brindle documents how this algorithmically created content is essentially used to exploit and upset young children left alone and unsupervised on the internet for financial gain. Yet while this is creepy enough, even more worrying is that because this works, we, as humans are beginning to emulate the way in which A.I thinks and acts. 

More Zoella

Zoella is a prime example of targeted narrowcasting 

Zoe is very 'chased' (Unsexulised)

It can be argued that Zoella promotes sexist, singular view of women: 

-Constant 'accidental' mistakes in her videos
-having the perfect supportive typically good looking boyfriend
-Colour theme of brand mainly pastel and soft colours
-Close up of her face emphasise large bright eyes and makeup 
-silly comments and tangents show a 'comedy'/human side to her 
-intersexual reference to friends (Poppy and Mark) assumes audience knows them

Counterpoint: how does Zoella subvert stereotypical representations of gender?

Zoella is entrepreneurial. She owns her own business, and takes an active role in promoting her own products

Zoella is in no way sexualised at all, and remains chaste and virginal in terms of her own self-representation

Zoella takes an active role throughout her videos, driving herself and talking directly to the camera

Zoella commands a range of servants and supporting characters, demonstrating her authority

Zoella actively takes the role of cinematographer, once more demonstrating her role as an active media producer

Zoella remains active and autonomous throughout her videos. Her importance is reinforced through consistent close-ups, which male supporting characters (eg. Alfie, Mark etc) often shown briefly in the background

Cheers to U block for these excellent responses! Remember, if you're reading this and disagreeing with these analytical perspectives, then that's OK! Your answer in media is pretty much always right as long as you can back up your argument with media language and theoretical perspectives!

• To what extent does Zoella use Youtube algorithms in order to manipulate her audiences?
• In what ways does Zoella's content differ from 'old' media products, for example TV shows and films?
• What are some positive aspects of online media in general and digital convergence in particular? How can marginalised groups, such as those with mental health issues use online media in positive ways?
• You have the the option to push a button and to irreversibly destroy all digital media. Would you push it? Why?

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.