Skip to main content

Zoella & Attitude

 

What techniques do your chosen texts use to effectively target and maximize their online audiences (30 marks) Refer to Zoella and Attitude.

 

Zoe Sugg (better known as Zoella), is a young influencer who has had a rather interesting journey during her career which is still ongoing, surprising her fans with new paths at every turn. She began posting videos on her YouTube account in 2009 when she was 19 years old with make-up videos. Perhaps it was her luck (or a very well-planned investment) that lead her to post these videos, YouTube was still relatively new at the start of her career (YouTube started in 2005) and such content was never posted before. This is called a ‘gap in the market’, this helps people understand what type of products / entertainment the public has never seen and open up ventures to new ideas.

Because Zoella began her online career at such a young age, her fanbase was largely made up of people her age, specifically those between the ages of 16 and 20. Her content felt generic and fit the image of what young adolescent females enjoyed at the time when they didn't have an actual influencer to look up to. She used a range of techniques to engage her audience, these vary from using interesting use so thumbnails, vlogs, and bringing her friends and family into videos as a special appearance. This may seem like quite a normal thing to do now, however, back then these cameos and video styles were not common at all. Vlogging (video blogging) was where YouTubers would film events occurring throughout their daily life and compile short clips together to make a YouTube video. This allowed Zoella’s audience to help understand her beyond her make-up videos and challenge videos and gave them an insight into her life in a role that felt more than passive.

The 2016 film THE ZOELLA APARTMENT, for example, uses a montage of close-up views and a direct form of communication to inspire the spectator to empathize with her. Zoella uses a cheerful, welcoming, and working-class lexis, which is common of internet vloggers, to allow her followers to empathize with her even more. A planned ‘mistake,' generally around the beginning of each of Zoella's films, where a (minor) swear word is bleeped, or a rapid jump cut reveals undesirable footage being erased, is one of her favorite techniques. These things reflect Zoella's standard definition of stereotyped gender depiction, a reductive and particularly old-fashioned idea of women cooking, cleaning, and doing housework. Instead of making significant decisions regarding attitudes, causes, and events, Zoella encourages her target audience to build their identity by purchasing items. As a result, the only option for the audience to use Zoella to express themselves is to contribute to her profit.

 

Attitude Online is an online magazine for gay men's lifestyle. Unlike its print counterpart, Attitude is largely targeted at a working-class the audience, as evidenced by the casual lexis and emphasis on a clean, tabloid-style layout, which contrasts with the print magazine's more professional and middle-class tone. However, in this wonderful example of digital convergence, online and print function together. Attitude provides its readers with a variety of information tailored to their interests, such as gay lifestyle articles, LGBT news pieces, and the highly sexualized "boys" section, which celebrates the male body's beauty. The audience will be able to identify with images of proud, out, and confident gay men in a variety of scenarios, according to the desired reading of attitude. Audiences can also show their support for the publication by subscribing to various social media profiles linked with it. Professional 30-somethings may prefer Twitter, older teenagers Instagram, and middle-aged viewers, of course, Facebook. Beyond the surface representations, however, Attitude gives its viewers similarly limited means to derive identity from it.

 One of the most significant flaw in Attitude is its stereotypical, singular, and reductive representation of male attractiveness. The men featured in the ‘boys’ section (itself a needlessly dismissive ad even off-putting term) present a singular representation of attractive men as being toned, groomed, young, and (almost) exclusively white. These hypersexualized images may challenge society's patriarchal ideological ideas, and they are undoubtedly a reflection of the UK's years of LGBT oppression. However, it provides an all-too-familiar sense of unreachable beauty standards for the young, homosexual target audience who do not suit these norms.

Stuart looked at how stereotypes not only define society, but also serve a variety of vital tasks, and how this can help us explain why Attitude provides such reductive depictions. When we study the magazine's social and historical backdrop, we see that homosexuality has only recently been recognized as an equal and protected characteristic in the United Kingdom. Stereotypes, according to Hall, on the other hand, serve a vital function by allowing marginalized groups to feel included and giving them a sense of identity. Links to ticket sales sites for musicals, a traditional gay pastime that allows spectators to associate with like-minded individuals, emphasize the image of a stereotyped gay culture even further. In this way, Attitude may be claimed to provide audiences with the joy of audience involvement as well as a forceful opportunity to convey their ideology, although stereotypically.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Black Panther Research

GENRE: Black Panther fits into the genre of SciFi / Afrofuturism. Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that fuses the origins of African traditions and culture with SciFi to create a genre of its own. Its philosophy of history and philosophy of science was first coined by Mark Dery in 1993 and explored its a way through the late 1990s and still continues to rise amongst today's generation. Black Panther was perhaps the first movie to properly put the idea of Afrofuturism on the map as, after the high success of the movie, more people started to look into this genre and understand it. Many have perhaps never even imaging a Marvel movie on the sets in Africa to be released.  NARRATIVE:  The narrative of Black Panther is what plays a big of it fitting into the Marvel universe. Black Panther was actually first mentioned way back in July 1996 when the fictional character made his first appearance in the Fantastic Four series in issue number 52 and joined the Avengers in 1968. Many ...

Production Making (SOA)

STATEMENT OF AIMS: For my project, I will be focusing on entertainment magazines that will cover a section of the mainstream media relating to crime dramas in the world of entertainment. When designing my front cover and double-page spread, I will include a variety of celebrities that may appeal to the target audience, this will satisfy their preferences when it comes to the entertainment industry and will meet the requirements. As people age, their activities and interests change in preference, this is why I will be looking into entertainment topics that modern day adults will find interesting so that I can put together a magazine and show which feels tailor made for the audience reading. Research has shown that crime and action shows are popular among this demographic, hence why my project will be based around this genre to satisfy their needs. My show will consist of crime investigation, violence (since it's 18+), and misuse of illegal substances. In order to fit the background ...

WaterAid - Claudia Sings 'Sunshine On A Rainy Day'

URFANA ALAM The 'WaterAid' advert is a well known charity advert that shines light on the lack of basic facilities some people have around the world. The advert starts off with cold colours showing a radio and plant pot by the window seal where you can see the rainy weather outside, there also seems to be murmuring of the weather lady on the news to notifies the person listening to the radio of the upcoming forecast. The ad then very quickly changes scenes into a land field of crops that look to be dry, however not completely dry and dying. The colour here is now warmer and minimal however as the time passes by in the advert more and more vibrant colours are added. The very first time we see Claudia, the camera is already close to her face almost as if it's trying to create that "up close and personal" type of feeling with the audience which does definitely work. It's important to get the target audience to feel a sense of connection with the people in the a...