Here you will find feedback, the mark scheme and a few potentially excellent example answers for the March 2019 online media mock. Online media is an industry that will definitely come up in component two (along with TV and magazines) and therefore it's absolutely essential you know both the case studies inside and out, INCLUDING CONTEXTUAL INFORMATION.
The questions
How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media? Discuss, with reference to Zoella and Attitude. [30]
or
To what extent do Zoella and Attitude reflect the social and historical context of the time when they were made? [30]
The mark scheme
Feedback legend
i - Media language - you are not using enough key media language! Make sure to revise the textual analysis toolkit. Remember, without media language, you are giving a common sense response!
ii- Knowledge and understanding - you are not familiar enough with the set texts... or you are simply not getting this knowledge across in the response. Re-read/watch the media products we have studied in class!
iii - The big concepts- you are not making enough considered reference to concepts such as ideology, cultivation, patriarchal hegemony, polysemic readings and so on. Revise and apply advanced media concepts for a better result.
iv- Theorists - You are not referring to theories and theorists by name. Or you are not using theory appropriately.Remember there is such a thing as too much theory...
v- you must answer the question. If the question asks you to consider representation, then this is what you must write about!
Indicative content - This is the kind of thing you could have written about...
How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media? Discuss, with reference to Zoella and Attitude. [30]
- The use of the word 'identity' could be a trigger point here: you can use the pick & mix theory!
- For this question, you could make reference to the following theories: Gauntlett’s theory of identity, Shirky’s ‘end of audience’ theory, Hall’s reception theory and Jenkins’ theory of fandom
- You could also make reference to uses and gratifications, for example the sexual gratification provided by Attitude and the social interaction that Zoella provides
- You may wish to consider demographic factors, and how audiences of different ages and social classes and ethnicities can interact and identify with the products
- You could explore active audience theories, like Shirky and Jenkins, and consider how fans can interact with the sites using comments and social media
- Attitude and Attitude Online have a markedly different mode of address, targeting middle class and working class audiences respectively
- While Attitude and it's related digital products may include stories about body positivity, ultimately a singular and reductive representation and highly sexualised men is presented to the audience, reinforcing a commonly held stereotype of gay men to the gay audience
To what extent do Zoella and Attitude reflect the social and historical context of the time when they were made? [30]
- Zoella can be negotiated as a powerful and autonomous woman by her predominantly female and young target audience. Generally shot in close up, directly addressing the camera
- Zoella is largely non-sexualised, a potentially subversive representation, yet provides a set of hyperreal expectations to her target audience
- Both products are highly monetised and function primarily to make money. Zoella arguably does so in unethical and manipulative ways
- Attitude reflects a normalised representation of homosexuality, ad is resolutely positive throughout. However, it is still a niche, specialised product, aimed purely at gay audiences
Example answers
Michael's example - How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media? Discuss, with reference to Zoella and Attitude
Plan:
Gauntlett
Shirky
Jenkins
Hall
Singular and stereotypical representations
Hyperreality – picnic
The Zoella house: offers audiences a range of pleasures
Fuck Zoella unmoderated comment
Hypersexualisation
Heteronormativity
David Gauntlett argues that audiences are not passive, but instead construct their identities through ‘picking and mixing’ the ideologies of the producer in whatever way they choose. Identity is an essential concept in media studies, as it leads to vastly different interpretations from different audiences. However, there is much potential for the producer to manipulate their target audiences through ideology. In order to explore identity, I shall use the examples of Zoella, a once popular online fashion and lifestyle vlogger who primarily shares her videos via YouTube, and Attitude Online, the online version of the long established gay lifestyle magazine. I shall conclude that both Attitude and Zoella manipulate their target audience using reductive and simple representations for the sole purpose of making a profit.
Zoella, a now 28 year old woman with a substantial following of tweenage heterosexual girls, allows her audiences many ways to reflect and to demonstrate their identity. An excellent example is the 2016 video THE ZOELLA APARTMENT, which invites the audience to identify with her in a montage of close up shots and a direct mode of address. Zoella adopts the direct mode of address typical for online vloggers, and uses a friendly, welcoming and working class lexis to allow her audiences to identify with her further. One specific technique that Zoella often incorporates is a deliberate ‘mistake’ usually towards the start of each of her videos, where a (mild) swear word is bleeped, or a sudden jump cut announces unwanted footage being removed. Audiences in this particular video are invited, through hyperbolic lexis to be excited by the range of products that she has endorsed, including joss sticks, scented candles, furnishings, and other branded items. These items reflect the hegemonically stereotypical representation of gender that Zoella typifies, a reductive and particularly old fashioned stereotype of women cooking, cleaning and completing the housework. The preferred reading of this promotional video is to apparently completely ignore that it is a promotional video. Zoella shamelessly draws attention to the box of a scented candle, describing how it’s her ‘favourite’ and s particularly ‘exciting’. This is an explicit example of commodity fetishism, and raises an important ethical dilemma considering the very young ages of Zoella’s target audience. Zoella invites the target audience to construct their identity through purchasing products, as opposed to making meaningful decisions about attitudes, issues and events. Therefore the only way that the audience can use Zoella to reflect their identity is through contributing to her profit.
This simplistic idea of identity is further reinforced in Zoellas blog, accessible at Zoella.co.uk. The blog utilises a clean and sleek web 2.0 interface with a range of functions to improve the UX (user experience). In particular, the choice of thumbnail image often demonstrates an ideological perspective, celebrating messages of clean living, female stereotypes and consumerism. Many commonly held female stereotypes are reinforced through the mise-en-scene and layout of the website, including the cute, animated fairy lights functioning at a border, and the sickly use of pastels and pinks. By reinforcing hegemonic stereotypes of female identity, Zoella presents to the audience a simplistic way of interacting with the website and her brand identity at large.
There are more explicit examples of how audiences can interact with Zoella, and to ‘pick and mix’ their own ideological perspective. An article of ‘cult beauty products’ contains much clearly sponsored content, paid for by cosmetics companies in order to have their product associated with Zoella. The article brushes off the high price of the ‘haul’, and instead focuses on a series of fetishistic close up shots, demonstrating the power of each of the products. The preferred reading of this is, of course to accept Zoella’s dominant ideological perspective and to purchase the products based on Zoella’s recommendation. However, in the comments section, which appears to be entirely unregulated, audiences are given the opportunity to express their identity by adopting an oppositional viewpoint. An account charmingly labelled ‘Fuck Zoella’ uses a barrage of extreme gendered insults against her, criticising the high cost of these products. The tone of the comment is abusive, yet it also demonstrates a clear oppositional response, and an entire audience identity that has been created through the hatred of Zoella’s ideology. Zoella’s shameless profiteering has frequently been called out, and her recent involvement in unannounced product placement on Instagram has lost her many fans who previously may have used her as a way of identifying themselves.
The hyperreal experience offered by Zoella reaches a ridiculous end-point in an article on her blog featuring a picnic. Not resembling any real picnic that has ever existed, the highly organised mise-en-scene, the use of highly saturated colour grading and, once more, the inclusion of easily purchasable luxury products (with links to easily buy them online thanks to the hypermodal construction of the website) present an almost creepily hyperreal representation of a perfect teenager’s life. Tellingly, this life is also free from sex, drugs and alcohol. Zoella offers audiences a blank and facile approximation of life constructed from hegemonically outdated stereotypes to allow her audiences to feel they are constructing an identity.
Attitude online is a gay men’s lifestyle online magazine. Unlike it’s print big brother, Attitude primarily caters to a working class audience, a fact reinforced through the causal lexis and emphasis on a clean and tabloid style layout, which contrasts with the print magazine’s more professional and middle class mode of address. However, Online and print here work together in an excellent example of digital convergence. Attitude offers its audience a variety of content applicable to their specific audience, including gay lifestyle articles, news stories with an LGBT focus, and the highly sexualised ‘boys’ section, that celebrates the beauty of the male body. The preferred reading of attitude is clearly to offer the audience the chance to identify with images of proud, out, and confident gay men in a variety of situations. Audiences also have the opportunity to demonstrate their allegiance to the magazine by subscribing to various associated social media accounts. Professional 30-somethings may choose Twitter, older teenagers Instagram, and of course Facebook is ever-popular with middle-aged audiences. However, beyond the surface representations, Attitude offers its audiences similarly narrow ways of drawing identity from it.
One of the biggest issues with Attitude is its fiercely stereotypical, singular and reductive representation of male attractiveness. The men featured in the ‘boys’ section (itself a needlessly dismissive ad even off-putting term) presents a singular representation of attractive men as being toned, groomed, young and (almost) exclusively white. These hypersexualised images may challenge heteronormative ideological perspectives of society, and are certainly a symptom of years of gay oppression in the UK. But for the young, gay target audience who do not fit these beauty standards, it offers an all too familiar experience of unattainable beauty standards. Shirky argues that the boundaries between producer and audience have been broken down, but in Attitude, the audience have no real way in interacting with the magazine other than to accept the dominant ideological perspective that to be gay is to look and behave in an extremely restrictive way.
Stuart all explored how stereotypes not only define society, but also serve several important functions, and his thereby can help us to understand why Attitude offers such reductive representations. When we consider the social and historical context of the magazine, we realise that homosexuality has only been regarded as an equal and protected characteristic in the UK in the very recent past. Hall argues that stereotypes serve an important function, by allowing marginalised groups to feel a sense of inclusion, and to give them a sense of identity. The frequent style articles in Attitude Online allow for this, presenting the gay audience with a toolkit of how to ‘be gay’ including stereotypically flamboyant shirts, and ridiculously expensive trousers. Additionally, the idea of a stereotypical gay culture is emphasised further by hyperlinks leading to ticket sales sites to buy tickets to musicals, a stereotypical gay pursuit that allows audiences to identify with like minded individuals. In this sense, it can be argued that Attitude gives audiences the gratification of audience interaction, and a powerful way to express their ideology, albeit in a stereotypical manner.
However, while the website is largely stereotypical, perhaps owing to its focus on approachable working class language and tabloid style gossip, the magazine, linked to the site through digital convergence offers a far more diverse and complicated representation of masculinity to identify with. For example, a 2017 front cover featuring the Scissor Sisters Jake Shears provides the target audience with a range of contradictory and even confusing gender stereotypes. Shear’s moustache forms a binary opposition with his pink nail varnish, challenging typical representations and gender binary, and allowing the audience the opportunity to challenge their own gender identity. The pull quote offers a direct mode of address for a male gay audience: “we all want to be the jock who kicked our ass”, demonstrating a sense of togetherness and unity. The cover reminds the reader that gender identity is never straightforward, and provides the audience the opportunity to pick and mix their own ideological perspective.
To conclude, both Zoella and Attitude Online broadly offer the audience highly stereotypical representations of gender, primarily to construct a straightforward and typical audience for the purpose of profit. Additionally, in each instance, the audience can only take straightforward identities of gender, and can only react to the texts in straightforward ways. However, as we have seen in Attitude, there are also powerful reasons for using stereotypes, particularly for allowing audiences the pleasure and use of deriving important lessons about community and a shared gay lifestyle. Finally, Attitude the magazine conversely offers the audience many ways of expressing their own identity through highly advanced and complex representations of masculinity.
Notes: THIS WAS REALLY HARD! I was way too critical of both texts to the point I probably came across as unpleasant. There are lots of explicit examples of how audiences can construct their identity through these media products, for example Zoella is clear and honest about her mental health issues, and Attitude Online features many examples of challenging gender stereotypes. There were quite a few classic pacing issues, and I should have spent longer on Attitude. Finally, I used very little industrial context, like publisher, distributor, and how this could link in with the ideological perspective of the media products!
Student example 1 - How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media? Discuss with reference to zoella and attitude.
Both Zoella and Attitude present hyperreal worlds for each of their target audiences. They do this through layout, the content they produce and their ideologies.
Zoe Sugg, known on the internet as Zoella became an internet sensation when her lifestyle related videos on Youtube started picking up millions of views. Zoella presents a hyperreal version of life, everything that she wears and does is aspirational, and audiences watch her in order to place themselves in her life. In one specific video we see Zoella and her best friend Mark sitting down to film a video based around tasting different kinds of pizza. When looking at the video we see a high-key lit, mid-shot of the two stars, both with perfect outfits, hair and make up. Throughout the video Zoella and Mark are constantly laughing and making jokes, however in editing she purposefully leaves in bloopers to give the effect that she is in fact 'real'. Zoella's target audience who is primarily teenage girls would watch this video and see Zoella as a role model, someone who they should aspire to be. They think that they are watching Zoe Sugg - the 28 year old female but instead they are watching 'Zoella' a facade created to manipulate easily influenced teenagers into clicking on her videos. Audiences can watch her videos and get the impression that this is what life should be like and its what life will be like when they are older, they get trapped in an endless loop of watching her videos which all start with the same catchphrase 'hello everybody', this is helped by youtube's introduction of the autoplay button which must be disabled manually. On Zoella's website where she posts blogs regarding different themes of her life, one account left a comment under the name 'FuckZoella' claiming that she exploits her viewers etc. This is a complete oppositional response to what Zoella would want people to take from seeing her videos, luckily for Zoella a large number of her viewers are too young and therefore naive to realise that they are being manipulated, that 'Zoella' is not a real person and that by looking up to her as an inspiration they are slowly breaking down their own self image and esteem.
Throughout Zoella's youtube page she subverts stereotypes in that she is not sexualised at all. In videos such as 'Primark Haul' and 'Brother does my make up' she presents a very innocent personality, one that could be seen as rather childlike and it would be an oppositional reading for someone to watch her videos be primarily sexually attracted to her. Although Zoella's outfit choices aren't particularly 'prudish' its her voice, body language and personality that make her seem a lot younger than what she actually is. This subverts Lisbet Van Zoonens 'male gaze theory' which suggests that females are placed in the media primarily for the satisfaction of straight men, this is clearly not what Zoella is trying to achieve. For her young audience this does perhaps present Zoella as someone they should look up to, young girls will watch her - see her sweet nature and perhaps adapt this into their own personalities. For a teenage girl to watch Zoella's videos and start swearing and acting out would be a completely oppositional response. Instead, Zoella's attitude of never swearing, speaking in a high pitched voice has the intent of promoting a positive outlook for her viewers - this paired with her perfect face and boyfriend gives her audience the impression that this is also how they should be acting, because if they do they can be and look like her. Zoella's audience, as they are so young means that they are easily impressionable, and if they are seeing the same persona displayed over and over means that they are more than likely to pick up some of her characteristics in order to be able to relate to her. In recent years, Zoella came under extreme fire for posting an image of her showing the lining of her underwear - something that was in no way meant to come across as sexual but just to show that she was in bed in her pyjamas. The fact that Zoella was targeted so extremely for something that celebrities such as Kylie Jenner could get away with so easily shows us just how much her childlike persona has been emphasised throughout the years, when the image was posted to snapchat Zoella was in her mid 20s yet due to the fact that her audience has this very specific impression of her meant that she came under extreme fire for something so normal.
In Attitude, one very specific stereotype of gay men is displayed. As soon as you click on the link to access the attitude website you are bound to be hit by at least one photo of a muscular, shirtless, conventionally attractive man. All throughout Attitudes website we see this representation of not only gay men - but also of straight. One specific article discussing a shoot that Nick Jonas took part in describes the images as 'bicep-busting' this use of alliteration assumes that this is all the audience cares about, not about who the celebrity is or what he does but instead just his body which is being displayed hyper-sexually all over the article. When gay men access the attitude website and see this representation continuously shown they will begin to believe that this is what they should aspire to be through reception theory. Stuart Hall in his representation theory discusses how stereotypes happen because of imbalance in society and present simplified down versions of people in order to reach a mass audience. When we click on the 'boys' section of the Attitude website we are hit by multiple thumbnails showing men usually in very limited clothing, they are all muscular, attractive and for the most part white. The fact that there is very limited diversity on the Attitude website means that the target audience will see these images and think that this is what being gay is, if they are not attractive and muscular then they must not be gay because Attitude - the leading gay magazine says so. The men who access this website who are perhaps insecure with themselves will also get lost in numerous articles - looking at countless photos of men and wondering why they don't look like them - this is enhanced by the related articles section on the Attitude website which makes it increasingly easy for the audience to get caught up in clicking multiple different things - leading to Attitude making more money. The stereotype of gay men that Attitude presents is potentially very harmful and perhaps not as beneficial as they may think.
On the Attitude website the menu bar has a lot to say about what gay people should and would be interested in. One category 'style' produces an article almost every week summing up the latest fashion trends. In one of these articles we can see displayed a pair of £830 trackpants, and a £1300 bag. The fact that these two items are priced so highly shows us that on Attitude gay people are represented as almost above society, they should be the ones wearing the high end expensive clothing items. For the users of Attitude online who can afford these items, this representation is fine but for those who could in no way justify spending over £1000 on a bag this representation is potentially very harmful as they may see this and think that if they can't have this bag then they cannot possibly be a gay man. Attitude are presenting the ideology that if you do not own the items shown in their weekly fashion articles then you cannot be a gay man because these are the things that people of the lgbtq+ community should own. This idea has been shown in movies such as Love, Simon where in the scene where Simon has finally been 'outed' as gay he starts to put up posters and wear clothes that a stereotypical gay man would own. This idea that there are certain rules that you have to follow to be a gay man is completely ridiculous, but its an idea that attitude is reinforcing. Attitude assumes that its 20-30 year old male audience has a lot of expendable income, partly due to the fact that they are less likely to have children and this money is known as the 'pink pound'. However this idea is completely not at all true for the majority of gay men and the prices of the items displayed on the Attitude website would be far too high for a large number of Attitude users. For those who have perhaps recently 'come out' and are looking for somewhere to see what being a gay man is Attitude can potentially be very harmful as its exploiting the easily influenced into buying items that they definitely do not need, under the idea that this is what will make you gay.
Student example 2 -How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media? Discuss, with reference to Zoella and Attitude. [30]
Identity is the way in which the audiences are constructed and relatable too. Zoella is an online influencer from her YouTube channel and blog, along with her other social media accounts that have audience interactions. Her content consists of fashion, beauty, lifestyle and baking etc. for her young female teen audience. Attitude is a gay male magazine and website that explores celebrities, appearances, fashion and lifestyle also top their gay male audience. I will be exploring how Zoella and Attitude both exploit identity to their audiences to make profit for their profiles.
Zoella’s online blog has mise-en-scene of pinks, whites and golds with fairy lights and other pastel colours. The background to her website is plain block white to suggest the purity and cleanliness, fresh atmosphere of her and her content. The pastel colours and fairy lights connote that her audience are younger and evidently feminine and innocent. The audience therefore identify as being simplistic and sweet as her blogs mise-en-scene suggests her young hetrosexual female audience are all into pastel colours, pinks, and further interested in the content of her blog. The thumbails for not only her blog, but her youtube videos also are very smiley, happy, bright and perfect. This suggests that she lives in a “perfect’ world and lifestyle which is creating a hyperreal utopia for her audience in which she displays to vulnerable audience to stereotype. This is formed from Jean Bruidillards theory of post modernism (hyper reality) as she constructs this quite innocent, fantasy like atmosphere that her audience will be drawn too to be apart off and identify within. The mise-en-scene of her online media platforms suggest that she is similar to her intended target audience of young teenagers and as herself as a 26 year old woman, we know this is not how she should be identifying in the real world however online and in her utopia that is hyperreal, she is allowing herself to fit in and allow her audience to identify with her so she is also apart of that which draws them in to her and attracts them too her style, content and other platforms in order to boost her profile and to make profit.
Zoellas content on her blog and youtube videos also go down the same ordeal as they are less age relatable to her and more suitable too her audience which she has done to be tactical so her audience are pulled in by this and feel that they are like her and can be like her in the hyper real world she presents online. Her youtube videos often consist of beauty and fashion items and products which suggests that girls and women should be interested in the same things and she also shops in high street shops such as Primark to appeal to her young audience whom would not be in employment and therefore wouldn’t be able to afford bigger brands. She shows the items in each video and when she talks about them and the products often have nice detailed and “cute” packaging that she often picks up on and emphasises. This suggests that she knows her audience would be into buying those products too due to their aesthetic. She does close-ups and wide shots of these items and products to encourage and entice her young vulnerable audience into being attracted too them and buying them so they can identify with her as she presents them. This is also evident from her own merchandise which consists of beauty products with heavy basis of aesthetic too them which supports the argument that she uses her audience and identity to profit herself. Additionally, a blog post of hers was based on this summer picnic that was represented more like an advert for the items she displayed and a photoshoot to promote them too. It was again a hyperreal representation that was attractive and cute, innocent, sweet, fun and engaging for her young teenage female heterosexual audience to see and want to replicate and be like too which is where they can discover their same likes and interests. This also suggest that women should be staying home, being creative and having fun doing womanly things instead of actually have a profession – this is an idea from the housewife stereotype.
Lastly, Zoella presents herself to always be wearing a full face of rather heavy makeup often un-natural and to be wearing the latest trends and styles, colours etc to be a stereotype that is appealing, especially to once again, her intended target audience. She often will either wear simplistic nude colours that are neutral and tonal so are basic for her younger audience to attempt and re-create or pinks and shimmers which relates to the mise-en-scene of her blog, social medias and Youtube channel. Her hair is often curled or perfectly straightened and she suggests that her appearance is something rather important and a main focus of attention for her as she evidently spends time and effort in her appearance. Additionally, she wears quite simple, basic and child-like clothing, even when she goes to events etc she comes across as very innocent and sweet to her audience in a way that they aspire to be like as young vulnerable and easily manipulated teenagers in their efforts to fit in and find their styles etc. She provides an easy stereotype of girls and women for audience to connect with and spire to be like through her online media use and portrayal. Her age and the way she presents herself etc is an example of binary opposition as she is never seen to be wearing provocative clothing, drinking or smoking or being rebellious and this would be more expected from someone her age. Her appearance etc and style is an example of how she created her online profile to create her fandom. Henry Jenkins theory of fandom correlates with this and suggests that audiences make what they want of media products and that audiences can get heavily involved and interactive and this will attract and appeal to more people, creating a fandom. This also enlightens the argument that she uses identity to allowed her audience to connect with her and to appeal to her so much she makes a profit from this.
Looking at Attitude the website and magazine, it is evident that they portray identity in a very different way. They heavily stereotype gay males to be very engaging with their appearances, especially their bodies to be super buff, toned and structured like underwear models. The images mainly displayed on the website consist of model like poses of these males (not all gay – celebs like Ronaldo etc) to be in their underwear or lack of clothing, smoldering and posing at the camera, breaking the fourth wall with the intended younger gay male audience. The images range mainly due to poses but are often mid shots, wide shots etc to establish and focus on their sculpted bodies. The audience then gather that gay males are involved a lot with their appearances, predominantly their bodies being model like. This allows gay males to focus on their appearance and believe they can and should identify like this as they can fit in, relate and understand these stereotypes identified. Additionally with appearance, their was a front cover of the attitude magazine that showed Jake Shears posing with an army jacket on, makeup and nail varnish whilst looking feminine so this challenged the previously mentioned stereotype above as that identifies more masculinity etc whereas the magazine looks into the feminine “camp” side of gay males through appearances again but not by bodies to be sexually attractive but to be attractive and another stereotype of camp through makeup etc. audiences can therefore identify with this too as it gives them another constructed stereotype to relate with or to fit in with and they can therefore take ideas from this construction and re-inforce their ideas. These stereotypes of gay males either masculine on the website or more feminine and camp in the magazine, suggests that through the use of production and platforms the producers can appeal to their different audiences and be able to allow them form this to identify with that specific stereotype to then enhance their profits.
Finally, Attitudes press pack stated that their intended target audience was gay males aged 20-30 that are financially prosperous and earning above the national average. This is because they are implying the idea that these males won't have children, or mortgages etc so no big blocks in the way of their expenditure so they can therefore promote items and products that are more expensive as their audience can identify with this and fit within this bracket. For example, one article on their website suggested the purchase of ecstatic printed Versace pants at a cost of £830 which would allegedly be appealing to the audience reading. There was a image of the pants and they stood out with their drastic print and colours which also suggests that gay men are more open to bold prints, colours etc as being gay is seen to be “colourful” from the representation of the LGBTQ+ campaign. The website also used italic writing to suggest the more expense within their taste hence the pricey suggestion of Versace pants within the appearance article of fashion. This all shows that Attitude uses heavily enforced stereotypes to attar, appeal and to entice their audience into identifying with them and making them more involved with their site and magazine.
Overall, it is evident that Zoella and Attitude use appearance methods and representations to promote themselves and profiles to gain them profit but too also give their audiences an identity to relate too and to stereotype.
Student response 3 - How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media? Discuss, with reference to Zoella and Attitude. [30]
Identity, the idea of being one's self, is essential within media as it gives the opportunity for not only an audience to help construct their own audience with the influence of the media but for producers to maximize their profits by manipulating this idea.
Zoe Sugg, a video blogger ('vlogger') who has over 10 million subscribers arguably uses the idea of hyperreality in order for her audience to aspire to identify with her and therefore uses this to sell the image of herself and her products that are under her online persona of 'Zoella'. Attitude online, a gay men's website also uses the influence of media on identity to cultivate a stereotypical and sexist gay ideology in order to sell a certain lifestyle.
Zoella is nearly 30 years old but still constructs herself in an almost childlike manner, she has a heightened pitch of speech with an excited undertone with the repeated phrase of 'hello everybody' on each video. She presents herself in an almost pure way, the way in which she speaks doesn't resemble that of an average 30-year-old woman but rather of a teenager. She does this in order to help her audience identify with her, being the 'online best friend'. She does this as her childlike presentation of herself gives the audience, who is a primarily working-class young female audience, not only someone to identify with her but also aspire to be. Because Zoella has a very well constructed presentation of herself, she has become hyperreal as she is no longer a random girl talking to her camera for fun but a business, an idea, a concept that is incredibly profitable. She shows a very middle class and almost perfect life, on her website Zoella.co.uk, she shows images of picnics she has and instructing her audience of how they can make theirs as good as hers. On the 'shop' tab on her website, you are taken to a selection of products that aren't from her own brand but a variety of clothes and cosmetics in which she will earn a percentage of money by promoting. The audience will see a hyper-real character such as 'Zoella' will then decide what they would like to take from her as a person to help construct their own identity, for example, buying a certain piece of clothing she wears as it will help them try and construct a similar identity to the person they aspire to be, meaning Zoella makes money from her audience viewing her life as better than their own and trying to reach the goal of becoming something not real.
Attitude similarly uses affiliated products that construct an audience in which they will pick and choose what they want from the website and construct an identity that has been manipulated by the website's use to create profit. On the fashion tab on the website, the audience is met with a list of various high-end fashion brands and products that they advertise. The use of the high-end brand is the belief that gay men have more disposable income (the pink pound) due to their usual lack of children, this means the website is able to form an ideology of wearing high-end fashion brands is something to aspire to and the purchasing of these will expand your cultural capital.
However, Zoella, who constructs herself as a middle class, rich woman with a childlike aesthetic is used to become an aspirational figure in which girls will want to create their identity around, because her audience will understand mostly that they won't become rich or famous, instead of blindly following her implanted advertising of not just her products but of herself will instead pick and choose what parts of her character are achievable and wanted to construct their new identity influenced by the media they are watching. This is an example of the pick and mix theory, in which audiences are able to take what they want from a product and warp it to fit their own identity. Attitude is similar, with its suggestions of what men find 'attractive' in their boy's tab or their theatre tab placing an idea of what they should be interested, the audience will instead view the whole website and construct an identity of their own.
Zoella's hyperreality also influences the way in which audiences use media when it comes to identity by the presentation of how she interacts with her audience. The new form media of Youtube has meant that it feels less like a production but rather an 'average' person filming in their own home. She places herself in a bedroom, which gives the idea of inclusion and comfort, that she is just like everyone else in the world and the audience is able to be so intimate with her that they can view her bedroom as if they were hanging out. What this means is that she further able to present her brand as something that is able to be bought, that they are so close that she is helping the audience by recommending things that improve her life, she is in itself an advertisement that sells an identity. She, therefore, profits from the audience being manipulated into believing that she is almost consumable by selling products from her own brand and others affiliated with her as she convinces an audience that these will help them be like her and live the life she is able to.
Attitude uses the idea of the pink pound and the hypersexualized men to sell an ideology of a certain gay identity to maximise profit. The boys' tab on the Attitude website has collections of young, very athletically built men that are wearing little clothing and within in the competition tab, there are things to win in which they are advertised by the same looking men. Using the same type of man to sell products and the website itself creates a hyper-real presentation of the gay lifestyle, that to be like them you have to look a certain way and dress a certain way. This maximizes their profits as the idea of reaching this hyper-real state is so unlikely and almost unachievable to some there will be an attempt to fit into their ideology as much as possible by buying their products and entering their competitions.