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?
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| 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
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| 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