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.