Music videos

This post features a variety of music video recommendations, made by teachers and students. These have been compiled to encourage and inspire you to construct your own music video. There is no one right way to make a music video, but it is very easy to make one that does not look like a music video. 

Please note that several of these videos include adult themes. Be careful!

Dio - Holy Diver

JPEGMAFIA - 1539 N. Calvert

Mount Kimbie - Blue Train Lines

IDLES - POP POP POP

Pissed Jeans - Moving On

Aphex Twin - Donkey Rhubarb

The Body - The Myth Arc

Xiu Xiu - Scisssssssors

Perfume - Spending all my time

my bloody valentine – you made me realise

Pulp - Babies

SOFT PLAY - Act Violently

The Chats - Pub Feed

BaBe - 「Get a Chance!」

Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)

Pet Shop Boys - Suburbia

Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind

WINK - 淋しい熱帯魚

Bananarama - Love In The First Degree

Rebecca - Vanity Angel

Isabelle Adjani - Pull marine

Isabelle Adjani - D'un taxiphone

Full of Hell - Doors To Mental Agony

Thou - The Changeling Prince

Zoella - how is identity mediated through digitally convergent media in a postmodern world? BONUS - Postmodern sentences

To use theory at the highest level and to achieve the highest marks possible, a student must explore how theories interact and support each other. This post, built from student responses, explores the following theories and how they all synergistically combine. This is top level stuff! however, since postmodern theory is much of a headache to actually talk about, we also came up with a bunch of snappy one-liners to dump in your exam, which you can find at the end of this post. More and more information but less and less meaning?  It's a Baudrillardian nightmare! 

The three theories that this analysis ends up combining are Stuart Hall's theory that representations re-construct realities, John Baudrillard's theory that reality and meaning is fractured, and Gauntlet's theory that we can take these fractured re-presentations to construct our own identity. 

Before jumping in to things, let's start off with a reminder about what representation is: 

Representation is how a person, issue or event is shown again by the producer of a media product. Representations are always constructed through media language to demonstrate the ideology of the producer. Stuart Hall argued that representations are controlled and constructed by those in power, and that representations construct reality. In this essay, I shall argue that Zoella uses her power and privilege to construct a simple and stereotypical representation of women to minimise risk and maximise profit

Mediation - the process of moderation or control. We can also call this negotiation, or simply picking and mixing.

HUGE Summer Primark Haul | Zoella

• The video consists of a single continuous long take that goes on for a full 25 minutes. A single close up represents Sugg to her target audience. This mundane mode of address constructs a relatable ideology for Sugg’s target audience
• Zoella pulls fashion items out of three huge bags, and presents them directly to the camera. Once this thus mundanity serves a function, not only to promote a relatable ideology, but to allow the active target audience to pick and mix their own identity from this video. By buying these consumer products, her audience aspire to be like her…
• The video makes heavy use of commodity fetishism. Constant close ups of products emphasis their price as opposed to their value as a fashion item. This reinforces a consumerist lifestyle 
• Zoella smiles frequently, constructing a stereotypical and hegemonic representation of a young white woman 
• The lighting is artificial yet resembles natural light. In this sense, we see Sugg using the hyperreal MES of artificial light to construct a representation that is more real that reality itself
• The video encourages a passive audience interaction, and may well be watched in the background.
• Sugg is wearing a low cut, tight fitting black top, constructing a modern and straightforward style. Liesbet Van Zoonen argued that women’s bodies function as spectacle for a heterosexual male audience. However, in Sugg’s videos, the intended audience is clearly young, heterosexual women . Here the function of Sugg’s body is aspirational as opposed to erotic 
• The setting also constructs and anchors a stereotypical representation of women. The nig spongey cushions encode a cosy and comfortable ideology, and suggest the ultimate goal for her target audience, is to live a life of comfort.
• This video lacks any notable binary opposition or form of conflict at all. This constructs a stereotypical representation of women as peaceful, without any conflict, and without any noticeable trace of personality. From this video, all we learn is her materialistic ideology, and complete refusal to engage in conflict.
• The format of the video is under stimulating, yet engaging to the target audience. The target audience is encouraged to position themselves with Sugg, yet the audience is also encouraged to passively consume this video, perhaps leaving it on in the background. In this sense, the video functions as escapism for the target audience. However the brand Primark is affordable for much of the producer’s target audience, making this escapist fantasy very realistic and relatable. 
• Sugg is wearing makeup. The makeup is natural, apart from her eyes, which is conventional for Zoella. Her smile is a key part of her ideology, and constructs a hyperreal representation that she is always happy, reinforcing the hegemonic ideological perspective that in order to be desirable, a woman must smile constantly
• Sugg explicitly and actively shows fashion objects to the camera to form an active relationship with her female target audience
• The MES of Sugg’s costume in this video is revealing. However, it can be argued that the address is not for a heterosexual make audience. Here her body is presented as an aspirational mode of address for her target audience. Sugg is clearly very skinny and therefore reinforces hegemonic values of women’s bodies to her target audience
• Sugg is rich and famous, which conflicts notably with her brand identity of her as a relatable and normal woman. 
• Stuart Hall’s theory of representation argues that only the rich and powerful and privileged own the means of representation

How is Zoella a hyperreal simulacrum of a woman? What aspects of media language re-present her? How is her face, body, hair etc utilised as part of her brand identity?

This is not Zoe Sugg. This is a representation of Zoe Sugg...

Note - in this exercise, we analysed Zoe Sugg's body itself. Which is a little strange. However, Zoe Sugg's appearance is a key facet of her brand identity, and is clearly instrumental in her massive success as a vlogger. 

• Sugg is clearly very hegemonically attractive. Her face and her body are particularly appealing to her increasingly older female target audience. 
• Her features are soft and appealing. Her voice is generally soft and stereotypically feminine which reinforces a hegemonic stereotype of women in general 
• Sugg generally wears a significant amount of makeup. The makeup itself is somewhat natural yet clearly visible, which would appeal to her younger audience demographic. This provides audiences with the aspirational opportunity to emulate her makeup and be like their idol
• Her style at public events is casual and stereotypically feminine. Adopting a conservative style, Sugg is likely to appeal to a conservative and less adventurous target audience (Sugg typically avoids political discussion to avoid alienating her audience)
• Sugg is noticeably very skinny, and therefore potentially is not relatable to her target audience, although she does construct a representation of hegemonic beauty standards. 
• Finally, Sugg constructs a hyperreal representation of white hegemonic beauty and lifestyle standards. She presents a singular and straightforward representation to her predominantly white target audience
• Zoella is famous. She is notable among a certain group of people 
• The MES of Sugg’s hair is straightforward, relatable and yet attainable for her target audience. This is a key aspect of her brand identity 
• Her style is casual ,straightforward and yet classically feminine, and suggests a relatable and conservative mode of address.
• The gesture code of the way in which she stands at official event is confident and assertive. Yet she lacks the sophistication and aggressive assertiveness of certain celebrities. The MES of her smile is welcoming and practiced. This conflict between the fakeness of her smile and the connotations of relatability is highly hyperreal 
• Her appearance is completely lacking in any risk or friction, constructing a highly stereotypical representation of young women 
• Sugg is clearly highly hegemonically attractive. She has long hair and wears make up, yet her smile, which involves her eyes becoming smaller and dimples forming at the side of her mouth constructs a classic, traditional and straightforward femininity 

Nice

Postmodern phrases to drop in to exam responses 

• In a postmodern world, nothing is real, but everything is a representation of reality
• Hyperreality is representation is more real than the real itself 
• We live in a postmodern world, that means that meaning has collapsed
• Watching Zoella’s videos only breeds discontent and reminds us we can never live up to her hyperreal standard. This is a symptom of the postmodern condition
• “Online media has completely shifted our perception of what is real and what is not…”
• “The videos of Zoe Sugg reflect the postmodern condition…”
• “Jean Baudrillard argued that we are exposed to more and more information, yet now have less and less meaning….”
• “With the postmodern condition, we lose our sense of authenticity….”
• In a postmodern world, the idea of reality has been replaced with the hyperreal…”
• “Zoe Sugg’s perfectly imperfect house is a hyperreal construction…”

Slavoj Žižek, fetishistic disavowal and the irrevocable perpetuity of capitalism

Slavoj Žižek is a fascinating and controversial theorist. As close to a celebrity on the media studies and philosophy circuit as you are likely to get, he is notorious for the difficulty of his prose, and his tendency to use hardcore psychoanalytical theory to analyse popular culture. At times, it can seem that Žižek is being controversial for the sake of it (he's a radical Marxist who has come out in support of Trump...). He has also been accused of being difficult on purpose. But there are a few concepts that Žižek discusses that are particularly useful in media studies. 

Fetishistic disavowal 

Fetishistic disavowal is a term first used by Sigmund Freud. To understand fetishistic disavowal, we must first understand fetishism. Fetishism is an intense and all consuming interesting in a niche and specific element. Fetishes are often sexual in nature, but they are also often related to products. Commodity fetishism is

“...the process of ascribing magic “phantom-like” qualities to an object, whereby the human labour required to make that object is lost once the object is associated with a monetary value for exchange.”  (Patricia Louie)

So basically, it is the brand, the money that's the most important aspect of the product, and not the product itself. A good example of this is Christian Louboutin shoes. These eye-wateringly expensive shoes are differentiated with red soles: an impractical and trademarked feature that essentially indicates to passers by that yes, you are rich, and yes, you live a carefree life of luxury...

For Žižek, Fetishistic disavowal refers to the mental gymnastics that we must engage in every time we engage in capitalistic exchange. New phones are a desirable luxury that have been recontextualised as a necessity. Yet buying a new phone involves a subjugation and exploitation of countless people. From the exploited Chinese assembly line workers who put iPhones together to the numerous human rights abuses in and around coltan mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, even buying a phone makes us complicit in murder, torture and exploitation. What is more fascinating is that we know this, and we do this anyway. How does this happen? For Žižek, the commodity fetish is simply so powerful that we are able to shrug it off. 

Slavoj Zizek eating two hotdogs at once while walking down the street

The perpetuity of capitalism 

Žižek argues that it is easier to envisage the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. A really good example of this can be seen in mainstream, Hollywood cinema. A quick google gets me this:

And this is just the beginning. You want videogame apocalypse? Play Fallout. Arthouse apocalypse? Watch The Time Of The Wolf. Literary apocalypse? Read The Road. Manga apocalypse? Read Fist Of The North Star. Soviet era Polish apocalypse? Check out O-BI O-BA: The End Of Civilisation. Even my three year old daughter's favourite videogame, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is set in a (very cute) post-apocalyptic world. You could spend years consuming nothing but apocalypse media and still get a reasonably diverse experience. 

But to imagine the end of capitalism is far more difficult. Can we think of media that convincingly describes a world without the exchange of capital? Lots of post-apocalyptic films see impoverished people barter with rocks, bottlecaps and chickens. But this is just capitalism under a different brand. Some people, crust punks for example may drop out of society and live in squats, but even then they survive through bin diving and donations and so on, essentially living off of the detritus of capitalism. Even radical Marxists seek to recontextualise and reshape capitalism rather than abolish it altogether. 

Christian Louboutin presents Loubiairways - considering brand identity, ideology and the mechanisms of fetishistic disavowal in high end fashion advertising

The above advert is typically of how high end fashion advertising 'smooths over' the issues and problems that exist with the purchase and promotion of luxury goods in an unequal planet. In short, this advert constructs a cheeky and playful world where issues such as homophobia, exploitation and global collapse in the face of an upcoming climate catastrophe simply do not exist, as long as you have the money and lifestyle to purchase luxury products!

• The use of the colour read is highly symbolic of luxury, love, romance, confidence
• An upper middle class and aspirational audience is targeted through the MES of the luxurious and stylish outfits 
• The advert is set in the departure lounge of a stylish international airport. Utterly perfect and spotless…
• And this is anchored through the casting of beautiful, stylish, hegemonically attractive models walking with confidence and purpose, strutting through the concourse
• The handbags are ostentatious and loud. They are not subtle, emphasising the themes of confidence. 
• The purpose of an advert is to sell a lifestyle. Louboutin is a luxurious, confident ad sexy lifestyle 
• A big emphasis on sexuality, with a symbolic and fetishistic focus
• A character is stereotypically camp and queer coded, suggesting that to be gay is completely fine 
• Louboutin shoes have red soles, a unique selling point that is fiercely protected through copyright law. Louboutin shoes are obscenely expensive. Furthermore, the red soles will be worn down quickly, making this product even more fleeting. It is a declaration of wealth and status, and a perfect example of commodity fetishism
• A carless, selfish lifestyle is constructed where the carefree models strut glamorously through the departure lounge of an international airport
• An upbeat and luxurious address is constructed through the confident body language and the soundtrack, a fast, futuristic high BPM pop song. The language is French , which has connotations of love, romance, art and intelligence 
• The advert is dominated through the colour red, connoting romance, passion, lust…
• The advert takes a highly voyeuristic and fetishistic mode of address, constructing a sense of sexuality and sex implicitly 
• A heavily queer coded representation of a gay man constructs a world where gay people are accepted and seen as positive 

Adbusters 125: initial discussion and front cover analysis

Adbusters 125 initial discussion

• Image of Elon Musk clearly makes fun of him. Other public figures, e.g. Donald Trump are also criticised 
• Highly critical and highly controversial 
• Highly anti-capitalist mode of address and ideology. However, the magazine itself is a consumer product… pretty ironic!!
• Covers a range of non-typical topics 
• Highly artistic with a big focus on images. Not much copy
• Complete disrespect to certain people and to societal values
• Features adverts, but no paid for adverts … so high cover price

Brand identity - how a brand presents itself to the consumer

• Minimalist design 
• Bold design and high contrast
• Inconsistent design 
• Masthead changes every issue - challenges the potential for a consistent reader base, challenges capitalist ideologies by refusing to have a brand identity 
• …however, the brand identity is clearly that Adbusters is NOT consistent..
• Highly political, clearly left wing, socialist and anti-capitalist 
• Blunt, to the point, telling it like it is
• Discussion of issues and current events around the world
• Graphic and unpleasant images and concepts
• Unconventional layouts
• A complete lack of adverts… or at least paid adverts!
• Dubious legality, highly controversial 
• Graphic and postmodern
• Graphic arts and design
• Super pessimistic, existential, and nihilistic 
• Each issue has a COMPLETELY style and aesthetic. Typically magazines will repeat certain aesthetic elements to construct a brand identity. Yet Adbusters uses a completely different masthead for each edition, subverting the idea of commercialism and brand identity. 
• BUT… is Adbusters brand identity a LACK of brand identity????

Genre 

• Unclear!
• Alternative (not conventional) 
• Political 
• Activism 
• Abstract
• Art and design 
• Anti-consumerist ideology, critique of how we use fast food to satisfy our desires
• A consumer product… that challenges consumerism???
• Extreme and controversial, likens Donald Trump to Hitler 
• Genre: politics. Yet completely unfiltered and even aggressive 
• Extreme left wing 

Adbusters 125 - ‘Post -West aka The Year of living Dangerously part 2’ front cover analysis 2025

• The front cover lacks any form of anchorage or context, which potentially makes audiences confused and upset. Highly atypical and controversial 
• The bold, sans-serif, capitalised typography connotes a strongly impactful tone that is direct and visible. The producers are demanding that we take action, although the action that we should take is not immediately clear
• The MES of the grainy, messy, muddy print partly obscures the masthead, covering the brand identity, and potentially limiting readers and therefore profit. This connotes that not only is Adbusters non-conventional , they also do not care about brand identity or profit
• The apparently badly printed cover looks not only grainy, reflecting connotations of battle and war, it also has notably low production values… or appears to have low production values. It looks bad on purpose!!
• Non-profit - no money made as a private company with all profit instead used to pay employees. For profit companies are measured through their surplus revenue, that is usually used to pay inflated CEO salaries and shareholders
• The model’s army vest is connotative of way and the military. However, his costume suggests an independent fighter, a mercenary or a paramilitary force
• The model stereotypically resembles a terrorist. The middle eastern ethnicity, the beard, the scream, the camo all construct a typical representation of a hyperbolic terrorist. Reaching this conclusion makes the target audience uncomfortable, as we are forced to stereotype through lack of anchorage.
• The clenched fist functions as an action code, connoting violence, scaring and upsetting target audiences. Compared to Woman magazine, which has a calm and friendly mode of address, this magazine is clearly adopting a different strategy
• Post - West - after west. The term west refers to a few choice countries, for example the UK, the US and Europe. There is an assumption that Western countries are dominant, in terms of cultural hegemonic dominance. Hollywood movies have more global cultural resonance than Bollywood or Nollywood films have. Additionally, there is an assumption that the western world is more developed, suggesting that some countries are more developed, wealthier and desirable. The idea that success can be measured through GDP is a highly western ,capitalistic ideology. The lexis ‘post west’ suggests that ‘western’ values have collapsed into war and instability. 
• The masthead is run down, gritty, with the MES of the grit connoting a warzone. However, the ‘mud’ is actually ink. The image seems badly printed, like the printer itself has run out of ink. Poorly constructed and with low production values, the magazine subverts converts conventions of mainstream magazines, challenging the idea that magazines a a luxury product, challenging a consumerist lifestyle. 
• The model’s fist is a symbolic code, connoting anger. This anger is anchored through the facial expression of the model, with furrowed eyebrows and a screaming mouth. A warlike address is connoted through the military costume. With the symbolism of the camo print representing violence. He represents the opposing side of the ‘western world’ 
• The model resembles a stereotypical terrorist. His beard, his middle eastern ethnicity, the camo print and the aggressive facial expression all construct a highly stereotypical mode of address. By presenting us with this unanchored stereotype, the audience are forced to feel uncomfortable. This cover is a complete binary opposition to the front cover of Woman magazine. 
• However, Adbusters lacks context and anchorage. Some audiences may be intrigued and may wish to find out more, yet other audiences may be shocked by the implicit violence, or simply confused!
• The lexis of the coverline, POST - WEST is highly enigmatic. On speculating, we may deduce that WEST is connotative of Western culture and capitalism and this is a challenge to this. However, this ideological perspective is vague. It could be nihilistic, it could be balanced and political, yet without anchorage, we simply do not know! Yet the audience are assumed to have a certain amount of contextual knowledge, that West is symbolic of countries like the UK, America, Europe.
• The Year Of Living Dangerously Pt 2 - suggests that the potential audience is already missing a range of information that was included in part one. This dangerous living could connote a dangerous
• Adbusters suggests that the world in which we live in is dangerous, violent and unstable. We are at a point of collapse. The idea that the Western world is better, more developed and with a better economy cultivates a capitalist ideology. Does Adbusters challenge this? His magazine clearly assumes a high level of political understanding. 

How does Zoella utilise vlog conventions to ensure minimum risk and maximum profit?

Engagement - The ways in which an audience interacts with an online media product. Engagement can be quantified through view counts, likes, and most importantly, total time spent watching or viewing something 

Engagement, as in encouraging the audience to watch the entire video, is maximised through:

• Zoella has a pre-existing target audience that she has cultivated over 16 years
• Sugg’s persona is natural, relatable and highly compelling to her target audience of younger women. She is an aspirational role model
• Uses commercially available equipment to produce her video. High production values are not a prerequisite of the lifestyle vlog, and additionally, this keeps her production cost
• Zoella intentionally cuts out aspects of the video which may harm or limit her earnings, for example copyrighted music. The music used in her vlogs is typically copyright free…
• Engaging with the video, as in watching at least minutes results in money for the producer. Adverts too. Affiliate links, sponsorship and associated adverts all provide a range of revenue streams. 
• Discussion of stereotypical aspects such as housekeeping, homeware and looking after children 
• Sugg’s costume engages the audience through its aesthetically pleasing and relatable qualities for a younger female audience. However, using digitally convergent technologies, we are encouraged to explore and even purchase items of her clothing, allowing the target audience to truly aspire to be her. This voyeuristic mode of address relies on digitally convergent technology 
• Direct address is maintained almost throughout the video, encouraging to audience to continue engaging with the video
• A relationship, to be precise a one-sided, parasocial relationship is formed between the youtuber and the target audience. This helps audience engagement and future 
• Audiences can comment on the video, directly interacting with Zoella 
• “Long time watcher here! It is so crazy to see you just casually taking the train to London and spending a day out there, something which would have been so difficult for you anxiety-wise not so long ago! Just in case you have anxiety wobbles and need a reminder of how far you’ve come, we’re all so proud of you!” - Zoella’s videos are constructed in such a way to encourage positive and supportive comments. This in turn encourages audience response and engagement. 
• Relatable topics for a middle class, homeowner target audience, or an aspirational working class target audience
• Video is passive and ‘cold’, encouraging audiences to engage with it in a variety of different ways, for example, playing the video in the background while doing work
• Use of brand deals and advertising. Utilising digitally convergent media, this video uses hyperlinks to gain paid revenue from other products. Utilising affiliate links allows Sugg to sell fashion and lifestyle products to her target audience, and allow them to aspire to her lifestyle. However, for each click through or verified purchase, Sugg and her team would receive some revenue. 
• The discussion of relatable content, for example the highly heteronormative ideology that one’s function is to produce children and raise them in a nuclear family, is highly relatable to other mothers, and those who relate to Sugg herself
• The use of repetitive conventions constructs a deliberate brand identity for her target audience
• Sugg’s number of subscribers (5.1 million!) suggests high audience engagement
• Sugg directly the addresses the audience and provides updates on her life, providing further engagement
• “You guys know that I really love Christmas” - a direct address, a nostalgic mode of address that targets her long term fans that forms a complex and engrossing parasocial relationship. A parasocial relationship is one sided and deeply emotional. This may provide for an unhealthy outlet. We as an audience let ourselves believe that we have this relationship. This allows for an escapist mode of address. Audiences suspend their disbelief 
• Audiences must also suspend their disbelief and accept that Sugg is not perfect but has constructed a hyperreal world that is more real than reality
• Audiences may use Sugg for escapist purposes, and may also negotiate this product as a comfy and relaxing experience. 

The introduction - What is ‘online media’?

Online media refers to the distribution, production and post production of media using the internet and digitally convergent media. The internet is a series of interconnected computers, servers, and other ways of storing data. 

ANOTHER GROUP'S TAKE

Online media refers to media that can be accessed using the digitally convergent medium of the internet. The internet is a series of networked computers which allow for the intense exchange of data across the world. Hosted on a variety of networks, server farms and other hosting solutions, the internet is everywhere.

What is a ‘vlog’? What are the conventions of the ‘vlog’?

A vlog is a video blog. It can take many forms, but 

Blog is short for web log

A blog is a series of posts on the same topic, taking a variety of different forms.

• Often fairly long, for example longer than half an hour
• Low production values
• Direct mode of address, talking to the camera
• Shakycam
• A ‘normal’, relatable, realistic setting…
• Unscripted, authenticity
• Lack of professionally hired actors
• A fun, funny or noteworthy persona
• Regional accents 
• Limited editing
• ‘A day in the life’, a voyeuristic mode of address
• An attractive thumbnail image
• An authentic, relatable host
• A direct mode of address
• Highly personable, for example through the use of regional accents
• Unscripted and chaotic, provides a sense of authenticity
• Encourages audience participation through hypermodality

What advantages does digitally convergent technology provide its audiences and producers?

• Convenience  - we can access digitally technology from anywhere, with no issues with geography
• Anyone can be a producer (Clay Shirky’s end of audience theory). . Using minimal equipment, audiences can produce their own work, and digitally distribute it as well.
• Cost - there are fewer financial barriers to entry. Distribution of media is now essentially free, as long as we are willing to abide by terms of service
• Possibility to reach a MUCH wider audience…
• ….but simultaneously a niche audience. Models of broadcasting have been replaced by narrowcasting, appealing to hyper specific audiences 
• Mass information. All human knowledge can now be accessed…
• Audiences can now engage with producers directly with producers using comments, allowing for positive interactions
• Ease of access for producers. There is no barrier of entry 
• Audiences are able to access a vast amount of information 
• Allows for many niche audiences to be targeted (narrowcasting)
• Producers have few restrictions 
• Cost effective - production and distribution all unified under one product 
• Hyper specific audience targeting utilising algorithms, Google adwords and other specific practices 
• Greater access to a wider variety of audiences 
• Audience interaction and participation: audiences can leave reviews, mean comments…
• Replying to comments

Cultivating active audience responses

Hypermodality - the idea that online media allows us to switch from mode to mode. Exploiting hypermodality can be used by media producers to encourage audiences to fall into rabbit holes or roach motels

How does ‘Zoella’ use algorithmically inspired techniques in order to engage her audience to maximise profit?

Highly conventional use of audience position is constructed through a carefully selected array of media language

• Use of saturation on the thumbnails makes the images ‘pop’ and become more exciting and engaging
• Consistent use of direct address connecting her target audience with her
• The MES of the thumbnails is directly related to the video description in the caption, making it clear to the audience what the video is about even before clicking
• Hermeneutic codes encourage the audience to click the thumbnail and engage 
• Her smile is distinctive, inviting and wholesome relating to her target
• The white outline explicitly draws attention to Sugg as the centre of attention, yet also constructs and reinforces her playful brand identity 
• In every thumbnail Sugg is smiling in an apparently genuine way. He welcoming eyes and her dimpled cheeks connote a welcoming mode of address 
• The use of a curvy, cursive serif font on her thumbnails connotes a direct, personable and girly mode of address, providing a relatable experience for their target audience
• Her face fills the shot, and is positioned towards the centre, inferring her importance. This encourages engagement through using a well used YouTube motif 
• The highly saturated creates an enticing mode of address, encouraging the audience to click the bright and attractive
• In each image, the producer has highlighted Sugg and guest stars with a white outline which makes her stand out 

How can online media cultivate active audience responses? 

Fandom - Henry Jenkins - fans actively participate in media products. 

End of audience - Clay Shirky - with digitally convergent media, there is no distinction between audience and producer. Even professional media is now using the language of the amateur  

Christmas Gift Giving With Mark & Ultimate Nostalgia | Vlogmas Day 19

Zoe Sugg, as a postmodern subject, constructs her life and brand identity through a series of highly fetishised consumer products

This video uses a range of amateurish elements in order to engage her target audience and construct a sense of authenticity…

Audiences are encouraged to engage with the video in a variety of different ways…

• We cut from a professional, animated introduction with high production values. Yet we instantly cut to a blurry, out of focus, handheld and badly lit shot of Sugg climbing down the stairs with no makeup. However, this unprofessional and amateurish mode of address cultivates the ideology that Sugg is authentic and relatable. However this conflict between amateur and professional production values constructs a complicated and confusing mode of address. This reinforces the idea we live in a postmodern world, and we are all situated as postmodern subjects
• The unscripted narrative constructs an authentic mode of address. Characters talk over each other, presenting a normal and relatable conversation. 
• Sugg chooses to involve her very young children in the narratives of her videos, and chooses not to blur out their faces. This is intended to construct an intense parasocial relationship.

Novie's  WOW  has literally made my Christmas. 😊

I am on my own this year, but I'm ok with it. I'm an old lady, and have so many happy memories to wallow in . BUT I want you all to know how much your lovely family has enriched my December. Thankyou.

Merry Christmas all 

Janice xx 1.4k likes

• Here we see a YouTube user using the comments format to share their personal experiences, and thus engage with the audience of the video in a participatory model that is typical of fans. Henry Jenkins argues that fans are no longer passive, yet can engage with and participate in media products. Here digital technology has allowed this complex and confusing reaction to happen. 
• At one stage, Sugg starts to sing the song Heaven Is A Halfpipe, a song about smoking drugs, changing the lyrics to be about the North Pole. This process of mediation requires an intense, complicated intertextual knowledge for the increasingly middle aged target audience, relying on the mechanisms of nostalgia
• A nostalgic mode of address is cultivated through Mark and Zoe Sugg digging through an Argos catalogue and mocking the quality of the products. This consumerist ideology may provoke an oppositional response in order to encourage active engagement. 
• A highly personal and intimate mode of address is constructed, encouraging the target audience to engage with this video in an intense and participatory manner. The out of focus cinematography and the appalling lighting here construct an amateurish mode of address that in turn reinforces a sense of authenticity. Fans may use this intimate and voyeuristic address as a replacement for real life social interactions, indicative of the postmodern condition. 
• The producer uses common stereotypical Christmas conventions to engage the audience, and constructs a hyperreal representation of Christmas. Even the heartwarming moment of baby Novi laughing at an elf on toilet paper is a representation, constructing a sense of reality more real than real.
• Sugg makes explicit reference to the song Heaven Is A Halfpipe, constructing a nostalgic mode of address. Using digitally convergent technology, audience members are able to engage with this video by listening to the original song
• Hypermodality allows audiences to click and buy the items of clothing that Sugg is wearing in this video. By allowing the opportunity to dress like Zoella, it allows the audience to directly participate by aspiring to be like Zoella. 
• The MES of Sugg lacking makeup in the first half of the video constructs a sense of realism and relatability. The highly visible spot on Sugg’s chin also constructs Sugg as real, imperfect and relatable. 
• There are surprisingly few comments on this vlog, indicating a relatively low audience engagement. One comment; 

@hols2897

2 months ago

ottie sitting and doing makeup with zoe is something 2014 Zoella would dieeee to see🥺

• Makes explicit reference to ‘old Zoella’, and constructs a narrative that not only is Sugg’s life better now, but Ottie, her oldest child, has taken on the role of her mother. This form of fan interaction has clearly been cultivated by the video 

Harm and offense - what online content exists that may harm or offend an audience?

This is not a nice post. It comes from discussions with two separate classes on the potential harmful content that can be disseminated through digitally convergent technology, and the mechanisms that exist to allow profit and manipulation through such content. It is important to note that the outlined content is absolutely NOT related to Zoella or Attitude. However, it exists as a fantastic example of the ineffectiveness of regulatory bodies in the United Kingdom in the face of hyperconvergent media.

Example one - Gore

For example, Mexican cartel violence is often documented and distributed in order to obtain ransoms, and primarily to create fear, confusion and ambiguity in Mexico. However, this intimidating footage spreads to other countries, and is shared to obtain engagement, likes and clicks. This footage now takes the purpose of entertainment and is commodified. This easy sharing is thanks to digitally convergent technology. Viewing extreme violence normalises and desensitises audiences to extreme violence, and has been directly implicated in several recent high profile murder cases. Therefore these videos can be used to effectively radicalise audiences.  This footage, recorded in real life, for example candid street footage, footage of actual murder, dashcam footage of road accidents, and execution footage. Much of this footage is recorded to intimate and to terrorise. This footage is then shared using digitally convergent technology, and then uploaded and reuploaded in order to encourage engagement. This in turn produces desensitisation that cases real harm and offence to those not even implicated in the original context.

Online agitator Alex Jones was once famous for his rants and raves on his website and media portal Info Wars, that promoted conspiracy theories to a highly receptive audience

Example two - Conspiracy theories - an idea or theory that an alternative ideology exists in direct opposition to the official ideological perspective

Just a few examples...

• Flat earth theory
• Ancient aliens 
• Vaccines cause autism 
• The great replacement theory 
• Area 51
• Covid Vaccine truthers
• Moon landing is fake
• Covid was planted 
• The illuminati 
• Lizard people
• Princess Diana was murdered
• Birds are cameras 
• Q-annon
• Pizzagate
• False flag attacks

• Conspiracy theories are popular as they can explain the world in a simple and straightforward way. 
• Conspiracy theories are comorbid and synergistic They have a high degree of convergence, and people who believe one of them are more likely to research more. This encourages audiences to fall down an internet rabbit hole, watching more and more, for example YouTube videos, and becoming slowly manipulated by this confusing set of ideologies and then becoming even more radicalised.. When an audience believes one, they are more likely to believe another. Audiences who are engaged with conspiracy theories are likely to watch videos for an excessive time. 

Who benefits from the proliferation of conspiracy theories, and how?

One way in which online content can be so effectively shared and monetised tis through the process of algorithmic convergence. An algorithm is a set of code and rules. The ways in which we interact with online media is collected and shared and analysed in complex ways that even the people who put these systems together do not understand. It can be used to maximise audience engagement. Yet such maximising of engagement comes at a real cost to the audience member who essentially becomes an unwitting vector within an infinitely perpetuating feedback loop of dubious ideological perspectives. 

Lots of Zoella facts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• When she started her vlog, she was working as an apprentice interior designer! OMG!!!!
• She was criticised for releasing a 12 door £50 advent calendar! LOL!
• She was removed from the EDUQAS GCSE media specification for writing about sex toys on her vlog! Wow!!!!!!
• Girl Online, her first book, was written by a ghostwriter, despite what her fans said!!!!!
• She is a psychic and can foretell the future (precognition) Amazing!!!!!!!
• Won a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for Favourite UK Vlogger! Go girl!!!!?!
• Her novel sold more copies than Harry Potter (in the first week). Damn!
• Criticised for making old tweets with homophobic and classist language! OMG!!!!!
• Her first vlog was uploaded in 2009! Old!

Regulatory factors: how does Zoella.co.uk conform to and conflict with UK regulatory guidelines?

Check out this article :O

Ummmmm OK

• The article is written by ‘Team Zoella’, a group of freelance journalists employed by ‘Zoella’ to create content.
• The article “How to Squirt: A Beginner’s Guide” describes explicit sexual content in a frank and non-pornographic manner. It is encourage it’s female target audience to explore their bodies and to be open about their own sexuality. This highly sex positive mode will appeal to the target female audience who are in their late 20s and early 30s. The article is blunt, straightforward and even scientific in it’s mode of address. It is unlikely to be used for erotic purposes by a wider audience. 
• However, the article is highly polysemic and fulfils many functions. It takes a deliberately shocking mode of address, and functions as clickbait, encouraging a variety of audiences to click on it. It’s popularity and clickability will then allow the video to feature at the top of google search results, and then allow Team Zoella to minimise risk and to maximise profit. 
• The internet in the UK is regulated by OFCOM, who also regulate TV, radio, the post service and UK broadband provider. The regulation of the internet is extremely extremely hard due to it’s immense size and complexity. 
• However, there is nothing the content of this article that is illegal or anything that requires regulation. It is unlikely that a young person would find this article, as this website has a defined target audience. Additionally, there is nothing particularly traumatic about this article. 
• Zoe Sugg and team are essentially self-regulating. They are deliberately staying within the boundaries of taste and decency to not alien their fans. In doing so, the y minimise risk and maximise profit. 
• Online media in the UK is regulated by OFCOM. OFCOM also regulate radio, television, the Royal Mail, and broadband providers. This extremely generalised approach to regulation is highly ineffective, with massive holes and issues in this regulation. For example, the extremely popular website Pornhub is hosted in Canada, out of OFCOM’s restrictions and remits. Initiatives to implement online age verification have all completely failed due to issues of civil liberty. The regulation of many sites is completely ineffective and requires the user to announce that they are the correct age to access material. This is a form of soft regulation, with absolutely no recourse.
• None of this applies to the Zoella blog. The post “How to Squirt: A Beginner’s Guide” may be embarrassing to read for some people, yet it is educational and clearly not pornographic in content. For example, there is a single image of a cross section of female genitalia that serves the purpose of educating her audience about an extremely specific phenomenon. Female masturbation and female ejaculation are topics that are often shied away from, yet this website takes a sex positive approach, and educates it’s target. 
• Furthermore, there is another element of soft regulation in that the website clearly does not cater to a very young audience.
• However, the article is extremely effective at minimising risk and maximising profit
• The lexis “How to Squirt: A Beginner’s Guide” functions as clickbait by using a scandalous mode of address. By using such words and writing about a sexually scandalous topic, the producer is attempting to game the algorithm and to provide as much engagement as possible to her target audience

Adbusters DPS analyses

 Red soles double page spread analysis

• Slavoj Žižek argued that fetishistic disavowal is where the desire for the commodity and it’s fetishistic quality is so strange, that we completely ignore all the issues and exploitation that may occur during its manufacture. We know processed food makes us unhealthy, we know that iPhones are constructed through slavery, and we know that certain video game studios exploit their workers… but we do it anyway.
• The image on the left shows a high angle shot of a black person’s feet placed in the MES of milk bottles. Anchored through the MES of red sand, a stereotypical representation of Africa is constructed, constructing a stereotype of ‘Africa’ as a single, straightforward, less developed ‘country’. It reinforces a binary between ‘us’ and ‘them’. The assumptions that we must make here make us complicit in stereotyping, due to a lack of anchorage. 
• The use of photomontage on the right image combines an image of a refugee camp with an image of a catwalk model. This binary opposition constructs a satirical mode of address, constructing a dark and ironic form of humour. 
• Adbuster engages in culture jamming and detournement. Taking a real advert and placing an actual image of complete material deprivation, a sense of verisimilitude positions the audience in a guilty and bleak mode of address. The low resolution of the image emphasises the graininess of the pixels, heightening the discomfort of the address. The image looks like it was taken from an ancient phone camera, further emphasising themes of inequality.
• This spoof advert constructs a binary opposition of inequality, between high end fashion and ‘African’ poverty, of luxurious fashion and terrified refugees. 
• The advert requires a specialised knowledge of high end fashion, perhaps indicating the audience are wealthy and middle class. This irony is further anchored through the high price of the magazine, and the level of education required to understand.
• The advert perpetuates a racist and cliched stereotype of poor, vulnerable black africans. While the preferred reading is to criticise luxury fashion, the advert may just use shocking stereotypical images for the sake of it. 
• Is this a criticism of the ways fashion works? Often even high end fashion is made in developing countries, reinforcing and perpetuating subjugation on an international scale. The photomontage on the right draws attention to the human cost of high fashion.
• The lexis of the slogan, ‘red soles are always in season’, taken without permission from a Christian Loubiton advert constructs a detournement, rerouting the message. The slogan with connotations of luxury and fashion now becomes a comment on the bleeding painful feet of a poor person somewhere in Africa, forced to walk on milk bottles. Through this act of culture jamming, we are positioned to feel empathy for the individual, and realise the unfair inequality that is systemic in our world.  
• The close up of the feet constructs an uncomfortable stereotype of African poverty and subjugation. This stereotype is constructed through the MES of the race of the model, and the reddish yellow yellow sand of the setting. The MES of the milk bottles connote extreme poverty and depression. The product values are low, with a straightforward image, and a low quality, low resolution digital image, presumably taken on a cheap phone. The MES of grainy pixels is a binary opposition of the luxury of the brand identity of Christian Loutitons adverts. 
• This spoof advert assumes a great deal of contextual knowledge of luxury brands. This ultimately assumes that the target audience of Adbusters are also the target audience of luxury fashion brands, and are therefore middle class and potentially wealthy.  The message ios clear, do not buy luxury brands. Clearly this raises awareness of inequality and their issues that exist under capitalism . However, the mode of address of the advert clearly targets a privileged audience, presenting a hypocritical mode of address. 
• Adbusters take a mocking and even offensive mode of address with this spoof advert. There is even an oppositional reading that the advert is racist, utilising cultural stereotypes of a poor and vulnerable ‘Africa’ cultivates the message that reaffirms racist stereotypes. The advert utilises an extremely ironic and dark humour to make a political and anticapitalist point. This advert lacks any form of anchorage, and forces the audience to come up with their own interpretation. 
• On the right, an image of a stereotypical crowd of refugees with distressed facial expressions lunges against a barbed wire fence. The black and white image is presented in high contrast, and symbolises struggles that exist in this world. However, we lack anchorage, and have knowledge and understanding of who these people are. 
• Yet a binary opposition is formed between these refugees and the fashion model directly beneath. The MES of the fashion image utilises vibrant colours that symbolise luxury and confidence. This confidence is reinforced through the walk and performance of the model, strongly striding, her hegemonically attractive legs constructing a beautiful mode of address. 
• This blunt binary opposition creates a narrative where the audience are selfish and pathetic for allowing these things to happen.

Water double page spread

• On the right, an advert for a Zuchetti tap is presented completely unaltered, drawing attention to how ridiculous this product is. Zechetti exists to brand tap water, an essential product we need to use to not die. This example of commodity fetishism ascribes a bizarre quality to water itself, making it fashionable and beautiful like a high end perfume. When the target audience buy a ZAechetti tap, they buy a luxurious lifestyle, and reinforces and cultivates a capitalist and consumerist ideology
• However, an assumption is made about the target audience, that they are aware of Zucchetti as a brand… presumably making them very middle class!
• On the facing page, a quote about water deprivation in Brazil suggests that certain people live in absolute poverty and cannot access clean water. The placement of this quote forms a binary opposition between absolute poverty and ridiculous luxury, where some live lives free from challenge, and others struggle to exist. 
• The image in the top left features a fully nude woman in a bath. However, this image is in no way sexualised. This completely contradicts Van Zoonen’s assertion that the sole function of women is to be eroticised for a heterosexual male gaze. The nudity is contextualised, and not sexualised. The emphasis is on her knees as opposed to breasts , and constructs a sad, negative and depressing connotation.
• The woman has tattoos which is stereotypically less feminine, and subverts hegemonic beauty standards
• The setting is regular, and even connotes poverty. The model is curled up, indicating the bath is sma, which constructs a representation of a vulnerable person. Her hands are wrinkled, suggesting they have absorbed water, suggesting an excess. However, it is not a luxurious image. Yet she clearly has enough water to bathe in, unlike the Brazilian villagers who have no water at all.
• The composition of this double page spread constructs a hierarchy, where even those in relative poverty are significantly better off than those in absolute poverty. This suggests that the world that we live in is hierarchical, unfair and unequal. 
• The Zucchetti tap advert is presented with no additions, suggesting that it is already ridiculous. It plays with the audience's expectations. We believe it is a parody, yet researching it proves it proves it to be just as ridiculous as it looks. The activist audience will be angry by the absolute lack of compassion and consumerism
• Themes of inequality are constructed through an anchoring binary opposition between the article drawing attention to water poverty, and the obscene Zucheti advert. People are so obsessed by consumerism that they will spend  a grand on a tap, while fetishistically disavowing the problems faced by those in absolute poverty 
• A high angle, close up shot of a fully naked woman in the bath appears above the article on water shortage. Somewhat shockingly, this image is in no way sexualised. While the mode of address is voyeuristic, it is anchored through the positioning of the text beneath her. Around the image itself is a blurry mist that resembles steam or water damage. 
• This representation is unconventional in many ways. Firstly, it is not sexualised, conflicting with Van Zoonen’s theory that women are used as spectacle for power and profit. Additionally, the model herself is unconventional. She has tattoos, and her hands are wrinkly from being in the bath, symbolic of water damage and therefore an excess of water. 
• However, the image is not glamorous at all. The setting is dull and even cheap looking. Her hunched knees suggest she is either cold, or her bath is small.
• Her nudity connotes vulnerability, and invites the audience to emotively empathise with her. 
• Bricolage - the combination of different forms and media to construct a new meaning 

Homeless DPS

• Fetishistic disavowal - The binary opposition between the model and the homeless person reminds the audience of the radically different ways that people live. 
• Atypical constructions of gender - The model looks perfectly symmetrical, fascinating and cool. The model’s contoured face has masculine connotations, connoting power and confidence. Yet the woman on the right is androgynous through being messy, dirty, scruffy, and her clothing is unisex and worn solely for function. 
• Bricolage - the combination of different forms of media to construct a new meaning. A binary opposition is constructed between the glamorous model on the left of the spread, and the homeless person on the right. Clearly this opposition constructs a gulf between the rich and poor. However, both individuals are somewhat androgynous, and subvert gender expectations. 
• Detournement - taking something and changing the meaning
• Active audience responses - The audience are expected to either already have detailed knowledge, or be expected to research it for themselves. This indicates an educated target audience who are willing to actively engage with the material. In fact, the 350 ppm, a reference to the safe limit of CO2 molecules in the atmosphere, functions as a hermeneutic puzzle for the target audience.
• Fetishistic disavowal - the double page spread encourages us to engage in ignoring reality. The three awful and potentially issues represented here are homelessness, the collapse of food production due to climate change, and the levels of CO2 in the air exceeding safe amounts to breathe
• Atypical constructions of gender - unconventional representation of a woman. Matted, dirty, messy hair, unwashed hair, unclean, dirty shoesnot hegemonically attractive. We are positioned as a passer byer, choosing whether or not to donate money… uncomfortable! By loosing her cleanliness and her dignity, she has lost her femininity
• Bricolage - The image of the model present is a beautiful, challenging, exciting, striking and androgynous model. Yet the pitiable homeless woman is also androgynous… This constructs a binary opposition between wealth and poverty
• Detournement - by combining these two images, a double standard is enforced, as well as a brutal critique on beauty standards… 
• Active audience responses - the audience are actively encouraged to do their own research. Hermeneutic clues are suggested through lexis and MES, and ultimately the audience are assumed to be completing research. This not only assumes that the target audience will align with the anticapitalist messages and also have a high level of intelligence and education… Yet active audiences may reject any political reading and instead see it as satirical humour, or even purely as a fashionable aesthetic. 

Exploring the implications of digital convergent media in two recent lifestyle vlogs from Zoe Sugg

 “Valentines Day, Wedding Plans, Home Makeover & Baby 3?”

• A positive representation of family life is cultivated through the use of highly selective editing. For example, no footage of her children throwing tantrums seems to exist, constructing a world where an idealistic version of the family supersedes the reality.  
• Deliberately low production values construct a sense of authenticity. This is highly conventional of the lifestyle vlog. There is very simple editing used, favouring the use of long take and jump cuts, constructing an authentic mode of address. 
• Sugg announces that she has forgotten her phone, an act of incompetence that reinforces Sugg’s authenticity. 
• At one stage, Sugg tries to sneeze in an apparently unscripted and voyeuristic moment. However, by leaving this charming moment, Sugg’s constructs a world where her realistic and relatable life is somehow more perfect because of these flaws. 
• Sugg’s frequently breaks the fourth wall, not only through her constant direct mode of address, but also through referring to how the video is made. She makes two references to the process of montage, suggesting that she has sole authorship of this experience. 
• Sugg’s is an auteur, who has complete control of the product. Yet by constructing such a perfect life, Sugg is also the manipulator. She deliberately anchors and limits the different readings that the audience can make of this product. 
• A hyperreal reconstruction of reality is continually presented in Sugg’s videos. In this video, themes of hyperreality are constructed through the use of editing to select and cherry-pick perfect moments that construct a carefully cultivated ideology of everyday perfection. 
• Sugg presents a clearly aspirational mode of address for her target audience. This target audience appears to be younger women and young mothers who aspire to this particular lifestyle. 
• Sugg presents a consistently consumerist ideology. The opening montage situates the audience in an intimate and voyeuristic mode of address. We see Sugg’s preparation for what should be an intimate and thoughtful moment. However, this moment is constructed through consumer products. Chocolate spread, sprinkle eyes, the matching pyjamas, a frying pan, cooking utensils, ingredients, love heart sweets, the house itself, furnishings, table setting, flowers. This montage constructs a consumerist ideological perspective, where intimate moments can be fulfilled through carefully purchasing products. Reinforcing this ideology is the fact that embedded in the description for the YouTube hosted video are a series of hyperlinks, directing the audience to buy these products. This clear example of commodity fetishism has been included in Sugg’s videos since she was 11, where she codified the conventions of the lifestyle vlog. 
• David Gauntlett argued that we can construct our identities through the consumption of media . Here, Zoella constructs an ideology that she is fashionable, trendy, and yet also down to earth. The target audience aspire to achieve a lifestyle and identity that is similar to Sugg
• By constructing her life through consumer products, and encouraging the audience to do the same, Sugg constructs a postmodern identity, that suggests we can achieve a hyperreal and perfect lifestyle through consumption as opposed to authentic action

“Home Haul, Making Bracelets & Family Days Out”

• Minimal editing constructs a media product with visibly low production values. Clear codes and conventions of the lifestyle vlog. 
• Digitally convergent technologies have not only been used to construct and to distribute this product, but also form the basic for discussion. While walking around the home store Home sense Sugg refers to the music playing in the background, and suggests the video she is filming may have a copyright strike. This assumes a deep and detailed knowledge of digitally convergent media from the target audience 
• She switches off her car engine to allow the audience to hear her voice better. While this footage would previously be cut out using the logic of old media, here including the mistakes cultivates a strong sense of authenticity for the audience. In short, Zoe Sugg is a friend, a real person. 
• However Zoe Sugg is not real. Instead, we see a carefully cultivated representation.
• A wide angle mid shot shows Sugg playing with her daughter. The use of long take and the positioning allowed through the cinematography constructs a voyeuristic mode of address. The sound is notably more quiet and muffled than before, again constructing a voyeuristic mode of address, that is further reinforced through the hyperreal MES of the child’s bedroom. 
• Here we see a representation of a perfect and yet relatable family. The unscripted dialogue is often banal and even boring, yet this too helps to align the target audience, and helps cultivate a sense of authenticity. 
• Sugg directly addresses the camera, in a direct mode of address that breaks the forth wall. However, there was never a fourth wall to break. Sugg’s entire persona is completely based on the connection that exists between her and her viewers
• The video reinforces a consumerist ideology, that links back to her very first video . Haul videos provide audiences with an escapist fantasy. However these videos can be criticised, partly through profiting from consumerism, and provides a shallow lifestyle with no depth. The idea of constructing an identity purely through consumer products is highly postmodern, and reflects a completely different society and way of thinking. 
• By providing such an intimate and voyeuristic look in to Sugg’s life, a postmodern mode of address is constructed, that completely shatters an previous rules and metanarratives. These private and boring moments are now presented as something special, and a new way of living one’s life. 
• Sugg’s refers to her vlogging as her ‘side hustle’, which suggests a total discontent between the ‘authentic fantasy’ that she is constructing, and the ‘material reality’ of her day to day existence. 
• “Mooching” - an informal and relatable mode of address. Sugg is a 33 year old woman who often addresses and appeals to a far younger audience. While her style and address have evolved to become more mature, her outlook is still youthful, making an aspirational mode of address for a younger target audience. 

Save the planet, kill yourself feature article

• Regulatory issues - under UK IPSO guidelines, to promote, encourage or otherwise facilitate suicide is illegal
• The entire article presents nothing but walls of text. This is highly unconventional for magazines, where walls of copy would normally be broken up with captions, pull quotes, images and adverts. This article therefore resembles more closely a book. Without any distraction, we are being forced to actively read this article. This conflicts with the style and aesthetic previously established by adbusters, contradicting its own brand identity. 
• However, the composition of the columns themselves themselves is tilted and canted, making the audience anxious and uneasy 
• In the article, we are posited as a shopper in a large American supermarket, a relatable experience. However, for each and every product that we and the narrator consider buying, we are told exactly how we are making the world a worse place
• The lexis is clinical and confusing, using words like aposematic and nucleotide in order to construct a post apocalyptic and depressing sci fi narrative. 
• The article then uses iPhone as an example, discussing the conflict and issues that go in to their manufacture. Rather than engaging in fetishistic disavowal and ignoring issues, the article forces us to confront them
• A hateful, aggressive, upsetting and accusatory article 
• A potentially harmful lexis, especially for vulnerable people. The article flatly asks the audience to consider committing suicide in order to save the planet. This brutal mode of address is designed to force audiences to confront societal issues using extreme tactics. This literally incites the audience to commit suicide breaking OFCOM guidelines
• The article presents a highly affecting and genuinely depressing mode of address. 
• The article instantly positions the audience in a large American supermarket, constructing a highly realistic and relatable mode of address. 
• The article directly addresses the audience directly, repeatedly using the word ‘you’. This constructs a more commanding, instructing tone, connecting the audience directly with the text
• The level of detail of this article is horrifying, and constructs a sense of existential anxiety. This is the horror of being alive. The article is desperately attempting to force the audience to confront reality. 
• “The microbeads in your toothpaste…” the horror of placing plastic inside us, of filling our bodies with microplastics and the health issues this cause… 
• “The worst thing about the meat isn’t the plastic or the pink slime…” constructing a sense of absolute disgust and hatred 

Adbusters - brand identity and ideology

How is the brand identity for Adbusters cultivated in this interview?

Being interviewed by another magazine allows the producer of a magazine to promote the brand identity, and also allows the producer to promote their product. However Adbusters brand identity is based around subverting consumerism. 

In this article, Kalle larson subverts conventional consumerist ideology by taking a subversive mode of address, for example “Adbusters and went head on against the whole fucking industry”. 

Adbuster’s brand identity is progressive, discussing the powers of the internet in mobilising audiences. He cites the occupy wall street movement, a highly influential anticapitalist movement that sought to disrupt the greed and inequality associated with the London stock exchange

The Occupy movement sought to disrupt the symbols of capitalism and draw attention to the inequality that exists in capitalist 

Larsen argues that Adbusters provides a proactive relationship with it’s audience, and it encourages the audience joining in, filming stuff, even writing articles, and protesting and getting involved in direct action

For Curran and Seaton, the audience doesn’t just already exist: it is made by the producer of the media product. In what ways does Adbusters construct it’s audiences?

Adbusters constructs an activist audience: an audience who goes out and disrupts capitalism. Ways to resist capitalism include protest, boycotts (for example Israeli produce), rejecting consumerism by not buying from major manufacturers, or even anything at all! Also vandalism, destruction of property and other disruptive and illegal events

Quotes

• With thousands of loyal subscribers and an online network of over 100,000 followers, the magazine is one big resounding fuck-you to corporate advertising and consumer culture - indicates a dedicated, yet niche target audience who actively purchase the magazine
• Yes. Right from the start we called ourselves Adbusters and went head on against the whole fucking industry - provides a somewhat shocking and edgy mode of address, and situates Adbusters as an edgy and subversive magazine . However, the ideology is actually somewhat simple and straightforward
• Now we’re excited about [developing] a new magazine aesthetic that can somehow come to grips with the internet crisis that all print magazines are in. […] We’re totally dedicated to staying hard copy and pioneering this new aesthetic - Adbusters business model is based on an old fashioned and even conservative mode of addressing audiences
• it’s hard to beat a hard-copy magazine that feels good in your hand. This is a complementary model that people like us can pioneer - is this commodity fetishism? Is this a confused version of anti-capitalism? How convincing is Adbuster’s brand identity? 
• We have this culture jammers network, and almost 100,000 people have signed up. We’re in constant communication with those people – we send them stuff and they send us stuff. We let them know what the next issue will be about, and people send ideas for what the next issue could be about, and if they shoot some wonderful magical photo on their iPhone then they’ll send it to us - Adbusters encourages the audience to engage with, but more importantly produce the magazine through an open submission policy. This is a perfect example of Clay Shirky’s end of audience theory
• Revolutions don’t happen until things get really personal. […] [And now] we have the tools, we have the social media, the internet, and we are able to mobilise ourselves really quickly and create a flash mob somewhere if we want to - encouraging the audience to build a community to take direct action, and even instigate a revolution
• Adbusters talk a lot to the converted, but you have a whole bunch of interesting unconverted people so fuck it, convert them - acknowledges that adbusters relies on a pre-existing audience of people who already align with their values. Yet he explicates that the real value of Adbusters is to encourage the audience to convert the ideology of their friends and coworkers. Encourages an active audience response

Ways of disrupting capitalism (examples only…)

• Choosing independent businesses over huge multinationals 
• Rejecting being paid… 
• Stop consuming mainstream media, or at least paying for it
• Pirating, stealing, shoplifting
• [Redacted]
• Disrupting businesses through protests and sit in
• Working to rule, being a jobsworth

The occupy wall street movement 

Rage Against The Machine - Sleep Now In The Fire

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing populist movement against economic inequality, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial District, and lasted for fifty-nine days—from September 17 to November 15, 2011.[7]

Deliberate disruption to the stock exchange, and draws attention and publicity towards the immense poverty and inequality that free market unrestrained capitalism causes. From another perspective, the movement constructed an aesthetic and an ideology for it’s supporters to follow. In short,. It encourages active audience participation.

Rather than encouraging a capitalist ideology, adbuster’s encourages it’s audience to actively live an activist lifestyle and to challenge capitalism