A-Level Media Studies: Applying theory: concluding Zoella

The proairetic code created by the pizza thumbnail informs the target audience that the video will focus on pizza, a fast food popular with Zoella's young, female, working class target audience
Zoella's apartment tour video, the symbolic code of the mise en scene of her branded scented candles constructs a hyperreal representation of a home, and a giant advertisement for her brand

A binary opposition between genders is created in the Zoella apartment video, where zoella is represented as small, petite and vulnerable, while alfie is masculine, large and confident. This reinforces notions of patriarchal hegemonic values
The Mise en scene of the Primark haul: the setting creates a diametric opposition between high end and low end fashion, allowing her to target a range of audiences

Therepresention of pancakes in the pancake blog constructs a hyperreal representation of Zoella as a hegemonically perfect and flawless woman
The setting of the 'Zoella apartment ;, a showhome to promote her brand, is a perfect example of hyperreality. By constructing this perfect representation, Zoella reinforces her own representation as both an average girl, and a cut-throat entrepreneur

Zoella presents herself as stereotypically hegemonically attractive woman. Petite and girlish, she reinforces certain expectations of how women should look
Zoella's carefully constructed mise-en-scene, for example her long flowing hair, and her muscular boyfriend emphasises his status as a hegemonically attractive woman,reinforcing societal expectations of women

The 'fuckzoella' account demonstrates an opportunity for the audience to to present their own specific ideological perspective, and to engage with Zoella in an oppositional manner
Audiences ca utilise Zoella's videos to construct their own identities. Primark is constructed as a desirable fashion choice for her young target audience
Audiences may take inspiration from Zoella and Alfie's perfect hyperreal existence

Zoella continually self-represents as a sexless, virginal hypperreal construct. This in turn influences and manipulates her young and impressionable target audience to follow certain hegemonically constructed expectations of women
Zoella and Alfie's performance on the bed is sexless and almost childish. This constructs a representation of male female relationships for the young target audience, possibly further cultivating dominant hegemonic ideologies.

Gilroy's theory of postcolonial identity assumes that there is a definite hierarchy that exists with the representation of ethnicity. Zoella presents a hegemonically perfect construction of beauty that assumes the audience is white. By presenting only white ideals of beauty in her videos, Zoella is effectively symbolically annihilated any representation of black and ethnic minority voices

Zoella uses algorithmically appropriate and effective titles in her videos in order to ensure that she attracts a much larger audience and maximizes advertising revenue
Utilises 'clickbait' titles such as 'hge Primark Haul' and 'YouTube Secrets' in order to manipulate and target her target audience

Zoella was threatened with court action, after not announcing that she was sponsored by a brand on an Instagram post. However, this example underlines how totally ineffective the regulation of online media is
Self-regulation: no political leanings, no references to strong themes, and absolutely no sexualition allows her to maximise her audience

Zoella works indepently in a small group. Ultimately her business endeavors are vertically integrated, with all forms of production and distribution under her control
Zoella additionally works synergistically with conglomerates, such as Hodder & Stoughton, who published her book 'cordially invited'.

Zoella's standard and stereotypical makeup reinforces certain hegemonic standards of female beauty, and the ideological exception that in order to be successful, a woman should wear makeup
The clothes in her blogs cultivate certain brands as being desirable, mainly fast fashion brands like ASOS, Primark and H&M

Jenkins suggests that audiences can now interact with media products in increasingly complicated ways. Zoella primarily facilitates this through her hypermodal mode of address, allowing audiences to click around her expertly created site, and to be given many opportunities to directly interact with her
A range of Zoella fan videos exist, allowing audiences the opportunity to express their love for their idol, with the small chance that Zoella herself will communicate

Response videos, such as 'Zoella Causing Eating Disorders on YouTube!?' posted by 'lighttwins' constructs a response through re-editing previous zoella videos, allowing this audience to effectively take the role of producer

A-Level Media Studies