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
