Online media 1: Zoella/Zoe Sugg and industry concerns

Second year students reading this in 2022: the online media question this year will definitely be industry based! This means there's only so many questions that can come up! We cover half of them right here, but remember, the wording will be very different, and the question may ask you to make reference to a theorist (most likely either Hesmondhalgh or Livingstone & Lunt).

So this stuff is REALLY important to know!

Zoella has rebranded herself as Zoe Sugg, and now adopts a far more mature, yet still relatable and approachable mode of address for her new, 18-40 target audience

How is this media product produced, distributed and circulated, and by who?

• Produced directly by Zoella/Zoe Sugg (early in career), and a small team of editors/promotors (especially following rebranding)
• Her videos were initially distributed through YouTube exclusively
• Breezy and excitable mode of address maximises the potential for this video to be shared by fans
• Relatable content: eating pizza, Primark and decorating her baby's room 
• Boyfriend tag video demands audience interaction, providing the opportunity to share the video
• Video has almost 7million views, which demonstrates a significant success
• Sugg represents a vertically integrated and a multimedia integrated industry
• Sugg offers her audiences a multimedia experience through her website, with links to books, apps and her video content, still hosted on YouTube
• Deliberately low production values, with very straightforward editing and jump cuts
• Zoella has used her YouTube empire in order to build a specific brand identity. She has recently diversified, and now targets a significantly different audience

How have recent technological changes in this industry changed production, distribution and circulation?

• Broadband internet has allowed greater capacity for streaming and effective distribution
• Official Russian subtitles allow Sugg to appeal to and to promote to a vast target audience
• Sugg discusses topics such as Primark to appeal to a working class target audience
• Blog uses web 2.0 standard design, with a modern clean interface, with easy to see and identify hyperlinks
• Menu bar has a range of sophisticated topics, such as 
• STYLE
• BEAUTY
• LIFESTYLE
• RECIPES
• BOOKS
• SEX AND HEALTH
• SHOP ZOELLA
• A clear example of hyper-modality 

What economic factors have affected this product? How financially successful was it? Was it made commercially or not for profit?

• YouTube videos can be monetised by producers who have an exceptionally high follower count. At least 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours over the last year are essential to actually applying for monetisation 
• Zoe Suggs has significantly diversified her output in order to maximise her profit potential
• Relatability ensures success. The deliberately low production values make Sugg appealing to a younger target audience (for her 'Zoella' YouTube)

Industry key terms

Distribution: the way in which a media product is given out. For online media, we are exclusively talking about digital distribution!

Circulation: how many audience members engage with the digital product, which can be measured through view counts for example

Regulation: the rules media products must follow. Online media is not effectively regulated!

Digital convergence: the coming together of previously separate industries thanks to digital technologies

Conglomeration: where an organisation becomes bigger by buying more companies. Google is an excellent example! 

Vertical integration: where an organisation buys out others in different sectors, meaning they own both distribution and production

Horizontal integration: the same but in the same sector

Multimedia integration: any form of integration which involves digital technologies

Censorship: the practice of removing content for ideological reasons 

Diversification: where a producer branches out in to different sectors/media/etc

Specialisation: where an industry or a producer does one thing particularly well

Monopoly: where one company controls all of a market

Brand identity: where a brand has a specific identity different from any other

Advertorial: an article in a magazine, blog or newspaper, which is paid for by an advertiser. These legally MUST be labelled as adverts!

"the online media industry is a specialised industry"

David Hesmondhalgh - your man for talking about the cultural industries

The following information is cribbed from exam board resources

Hesmondhalgh argues that major cultural organisations create products for different industries in order to maximise chances of commercial success. In relation to online products, he argues that major IT companies now compete with the more traditional media conglomerates within the cultural sector: ‘Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon are now as significant as News Corporation, Time Warner and Sony for understanding cultural production and consumption.’

 

The domination of online media by a limited number of tech giants, Google/YouTube/Facebook has arguably hijacked the web’s capacity for audience activism, and, in the process, has arguably asserted a more passive viewing experience. 

A bit of website discussion 

• Aesthetically pleasing layout, neatly organised with a range of hyperlinks to click on
• Enormous banner advert suggests Sugg has aggressively monetised her website
• Clearly, Sugg has been involved in search engine optimisation. Zoella.co.uk is the top result for searches for 'Zoella'
• Blog is regularly updated
• Content has changed dramatically since Sugg started vlogging, and now actively targets a much older audience

Using Woman magazine to answer possible exam questions

Q block had an extra lesson this week, so they used their time wisely, by creating revision resources for their future selves to use. Doing little posters like this is a great way to revise, and makes a fun (!) change to just copying notes from notes. 

Remember: if revision is boring, you're doing it wrong! try something else!

Extra Special on Men!

How does Woman construct and appeal to it’s target audience? What choices have been made as to how women are represented?

• The main image is particularly striking, and depicts an extremely hegemonically, stereotypically attractive model pushing her bare foot in to the head on a man, wearing a suit and looking exaggeratedly  annoyed. The mode of address that this image adopts is jokey and not serious. 
• This image could be appealing to women at the time, as it symbolically represents a woman in a position of power. However, another reading could be that the woman is not being taken seriously, and the jokey mode of address infers that such a power dynamic is in fact hilarious. 
• This image is highly polysemic (which means it has many meanings), which may appeal to multiple audiences
• Additionally, the image has fetishistic connotations, by showing an attractive woman in a position of power over an attractive man. A fetish is an obsession with a particular aspect. Therefore, some audiences may take sexual pleasure from this image.
• This is a classic example of a negotiated reading, and also an example of the pick and mix theory where audiences can pick whatever ideology suits them
• The lexis of the phrase "getting to know them" constructs a binary opposition between men and women". This reinforces the idea that men are different and hard to understand, and this is potentially pleasurable for audiences, as it infers that if the female target audience upstands men, they may even have power over them
• The advice given is often highly sexist, and even makes the assumption that if a man talks about a woman, it will be in a disrespectful way
• MES of woman's costume is modern, stylish, classy and exciting, which contradicts traditional 1960's representations of women! However, it also presents aspirational and exclusionary representation of women for the target audience
• Men are overwhelmingly represented as well dressed, dressed in suits, ties and shirts. This may be symbolic of belonging to a higher class, and again is highly aspirational, and reinforces the ideology that in order for women to succeed in contemporary society, women must attract the attention of a rich and high status man

Advance information of A-level media exams (Summer 2022)

Component one

Section A: Analysing media language and representation (unseen section)

One media language question analysing an unseen music video

Possible theorists: Barthes and Levi-Strauss

One representation question comparing the Kiss of the Vampire poster to an unseen film poster

Possible theorists: Hall (representation), Gauntlet, Liesbet Van Zoonen, hooks, Gilroy 

(it is likely that one of the above questions will be worth 30 marks, and the other will be worth 15 marks)

Section B: Understanding media industries and audiences (shorter answer questions)

Industry/context questions on the newspaper industry: The Daily Mirror and The Times. There will be at least one question that will reward you for "drawing together your knowledge and understanding from your full course of study"

Possible theorists: Livingstone and Lunt, Curren and Seaton, Hesmondhalgh

Audience question(s) on the WaterAid advert

Possible theorists: Gerbner, Hall (reception)

Component Two

A: Television

1) An audience question on Humans (15)

Possible theorists: Jenkins and Hall

2) A representation question on Les Revenants/The Returned (15)

Possible theorists: Hall, Van Zoonen, hooks, Butler

B: Magazines

A media language question on both Woman and Adbusters (30)

Possible theorists: Barthes and Levi-Strauss

C: Online media 

An industry/context question on Zoella and Attitude (30)

Possible theorists: Livingstone and Lunt and Hesmondhalgh 

The original information as presented by the exam board is presented below:

The Alfred Hitchcock interview: quotes and analysis

 Quotes

"Britain, of course, is a male dominated society" - a clear admission of patriarchal hegemonic norms. Audiences are, of course, supposed to accept this dominant ideology

"I've come to these conclusions after years of selecting and grooming some of the most beautiful women in the world" - the symbolism of the word 'grooming' is problematic. While it may OK to groom a horse, this is a clear example of objectification. Additionally he sees his job as more finding, raising and rearing women that anything to do with film making...

"naturally I chose an English girl for a wife..." - Hitchcock referring to his older wife as a 'girl' is condescending and potentially predatory. It also infers and reinforces the idea that men have the power in selecting a wife... another example of patriarchal hegemony

"this variety of sex appeal provide the ideal complement to the other thrills" - clear example of sexualisation!

"they're like snow capped volcanoes" - here, Hitchcock is inferring that British women are sweet and innocent on the outside, yet are sexually promiscuous and daring on the inside. An example fetishism, an obsession with race and nationality

"Personally, I find this far more intriguing than the Latin brand of sex appeal that puts everything in the shop window" - here Hitchcock suggestions that Latin (presumably Mediterranean women?) are far more overtly sexually promiscuous than British women, which is an explicit example of stereotyping 

"The time I've spent grooming actresses has never been wasted" - lexis of the word 'grooming' creates a connotations of a predatory, and at least dismissive relationship with women. It reinforces the significant position of power that Hitchcock is in. This is a clear example of objectification (a process of comparing a person to something that is not human, usually used to belittle)

"perhaps it's because I'm such a happily married man I can look at women objectively" - an admission of objectification? 

• The anchorage provided by the caption reinforces the view that Kelly's success was purely down to being discovered by Alfred Hitchcock
• Grace Kelly is represented as being powerful, and even intimidating. 
• A direct mode of address is presented, with Kelly literally 'looking down' on the audience, inferring her superiority and status
• Grace Kelly was at this stage a princess, a glamorous role that only really be achieved by marrying a certain man
• MES of makeup, the shininess of the lip-gloss and the pouting open lips are symbolic of sex, and a proairetic code, inferring that she is about to kiss someone 
• Kelly is an aspirational figure of sexuality and glamour for the target audience
• This reinforces the notion that in order to be successful, women should be hegemonically beautiful and sexually available to appeal to rich and powerful men (like Alfred Hitchcock)