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.