What is online media?
- Products, services and texts which involved the internet.
Digital convergence - The coming together of previously separate industries through digital technology. e.g. phones and newspapers, can be accessed online or through an app
Vlogging - Video blogging (blogging - It is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views on an individual subject. blog - web log (online log) ) . Written and shared
The activity or practice of posting short videos to or maintaining a vlog - google
Micro-blogging - twitter
42% of internet users said they had watched a vlog within the last month rising to 50% for 16-24 year-olds (Guardian, 2015), clearly demonstrating an ability to reach and influence vast range of audiences.
Why is YouTube possible?
- Cheap storage and servers was not possible. Hard to store high quality (or any) video.
- Internet connections were poor, hard to watch videos. Fiber Optic Broadband internet instead of dial-up changed this.
In the modern age this is easy to obtain
Vlogs
- Aspirational
- Personal identity (can identify with person on screen, can be used to define our identity)
- Identification
- Unscripted narrative
- Authenticity (?)
- Direct mode of address
- Audience Interaction
Jackson Galaxy
- Presents himself as a cat expert
- People will be aspirational to know his knowledge and understand their cat bette
- He has a direct mode of address
- Talking from his house, in a bedroom?
- Poor lighting, low production quality, relatable location (not a highly produced set), not stereotypically good looking
Youtube counts around 30 seconds as a 'view'
ZOELLA
- UK based vlogger
- 2nd most popular beauty vlogger
- 12 million subscribers
- Started broadcasting fashion and beauty related videos since 2009
- Over 1 billion views
- 147th most subscribed channel on the website
- Her second channel 'MoreZoella' has 4.8 million subscribers (over 770million views)
- 13.6 million followers on twitter
- 10.9 million on instagram
- Target demographic - Heterosexual teenage girls
Steve Neale - Genre Theory
Roland Barthes - Semiotic Codes
Zoella - June Favourites 2016
- Hyperexpressive face
- Showing beauty products, holds them in her hand and keeps showing them throughout. Close up of the products for a few seconds and then back to her face. Product keeps attention
- Flower print clothing - feminine but unsexualised
- Voice is 'customer service' like. Pristine, almost condescending and talking down to the audience
- From Wiltshire. Has no distinguishable accent. Its a clear Southern Accent, no slang and very clear. Well spoken but not posh, southern but not middle class.
- Professional lighting on face, clear background no clutter,
- Expressive hand movement
- Repeatedly messes up saying 'showbox' as 'showboc' but keeps these in. Makes her relatable
Multi-modality - where a media producer communicates with the audience in multiple ways e.g. text and images, hyperlinks
Hyperlink - 'Hyper' = 'Beyond'
Hypermodality - beyond multi-modality. Simultaneously going on many sites and encouraged to jump backwards and forwards
Media Language
Logo - Identifiable imagery for a company or person
Main navigation / menu bar - Allows access to main menu options for navigation
Carousel / slider - Scrolls up and down a webpage
Footer - Information at the bottom of a page, often includes: copyright, contact information, dates of publishing, company ownership etc
Banner ads - Ads in the form of a 'banner' rectangle along the edges or top/bottom of a website. Often a static image with information but could be a banner video ad
Search box - Area to input search terms to find specific content on a website
Social media icons - Recognisable icons for social media websites e.g. Twitter bird, Facebook F, Instagram Camera, Snapchat Ghost, Youtube PlayButton
Youtube is part of Web 2.0 Everything is clean, aesthetically pleasing and cohesive. Offers the audience a pleasurable user experience (or u-ex).
Hypermodality decreases regulation because in a few clicks you could be anywhere
Online media -
Media Language - Roland Barthes (Semiotics), Levi Strauss (Structuralism), Jean Baudrillard (Hyperreality/postmodernism)
Audience - Lisbet Van Zoonen (Feminist theory, male gaze), bell hooks (Feminist theory), David Gauntlet (Pick and Mix, Identity), Stuart Hall (Representation), Judith Butler (Gender Performativity)
Paradigms of Vlogging
- Breaks 4th Wall
- Amateur aesthetics
- Codes of realism
- High-key lighting
- Unscripted narrative
- Direct mode of address
- Aspirational content
- Invitation into private spaces
- Single camera edit
Direct mode of address imitates news shows and talk shows which garners trust via this intertextuality
Levi Strauss - "[A myth provides] a logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction" (1958)
How can Zoe Suggs address a large anonymous audience while maintaining the illusion of friendly, face-to-face conversation? BINARY OPPOSITION.
- She is an aspirational person but is not real and we will never meet her
- We know what we are seeing is a constructed representation of an ideal woman. Ignore it.
- We connect with a community that would otherwise have been hard to find. Want a sense of belonging
Hyperreality - more real than the real (Jean Baudrillard)
Simulacra - representation of a representation (representation of something that doesnt exist)
Ultimate Pizza Taste Test with Mark
- Non-diagetic Ukulele Soundtrack: Bubbly, happy, OVERLY happy like they are. Used in kids shows, online dating, smothie adverts - it is INNOCENT. Hyperreality. Ukulele - symbolic of a simpler happier life.
- Pizza and chat with friend is conforming to their target audience of teenagers --relatable--
- "Thats a big ol' crusty boy" making reference to memes and internet culture by adding 'boy' on the end e.g. seeing a cat and saying its a "big ol' round boy". Woman who is 28 trying to relate to teenagers
- Subverts expectations: She is a very thin person trying six pizzas
- VERY SKINNY - reinforces hegemonic codes of beauty
- They only nibble on food, like a winetaster, an example of waste
- 'Mark' is inferred knowledge of this person. Looks like a normal guy with a normal name. He is the 'gay best friend' and is going with some certain camp aspects like
- At the start of every vlog she puts a blooper to create an illusion of the real and that she is a normal person - intentionally amateuristic.
- Mid shot, audience sitting at the table
- 13mins 55s of footage of people nibbling on the pizza
- Reinforces friendly best friend ideology she is trying to portray
Bedroom
- Clean, tidy, plain (like a hotel room)
- Wierdly like a kids and an adults bedroom at the same time.
- Bedroom connotes private life and an insight into her personal space
What are the implications of presenting a hyperreal world to the audience?
- Reinforces how shit our world is by presenting hyperreal. Allows us to escape into a fantasy through her
- Reinforcing hegemonic norms e.g. makeup, gay best friend (tokenism)
- Promotes spending money (buying six pizzas, makeup hauls) which can give bad financial ideals to their audience.
- Gives unrealistic expectations to young impressionable audience of lifestyles
- Hyperreality can increase depression by becoming disenfranchised with the real and being obsessed with the hyperreal world
- Cognitive dissonance - meeting hero and they do not live up to your expectations
Zoella's Website
- Clear block capitals sans-serif font (easy to read, minimalist) Easy to read, audience is less mature?
- Lot's of images. Easy to see what content is in
- White background connotates fresh, clean, pure, innocent
- Every image highly saturated using filters creating a 'hipster' aesthetic
- Fairy lights connotes princess, fantasy, cute, hipster
- Hyperreal representation of a picnic (no dirt, no grass, no ants)
- Promoting middle class lifestyle
- Wooden pallets, glass bowls EXTREMELY middle class
- Contains Hyperlinks
- Hypermodality
- e.g links to pintrest with many different hyperreal pictures of picnics and becomes an echochamber which cultivates a representation
- e.g. links to instagram
- Digital convergence
Hypermodality (beyond modality) is more interactive for the audience.
Tanya Burr
- Sophistication
- Sexualised (pouts, cleavage, smokey eye makeup)
- 'Dirty' more low grade photos and candid photos whereas Zoella has high quality photos more staged
- Tanya doesn't hide sexuality but Zoella is presented as pristine and virginal
Lisbet Van Zoonen - Women's bodies used as a spectacle and a way of selling a product
- Zoella is unsexualised by conventionally attractive. She reviews products. and is attractive which reinforces hegemonic conventions.
Judith Butler - gender performativity is a repetitive and ritualistic process we perform. Our identity comes from these acts. Doesnt change gender, but gives a gender identity
Audience interaction
User 'fuckZoella' posted a very rude comment on a blog post, while using rude language towards Zoella, the username 'fuckZoella' shows an interactivity from her audience.
Also shows her blog post comments are not monitored.
Zoella Example Questions
- How far does Zoella subvert female gender stereotypes? Make reference to Judith Butler
- How does Zoella encourage interactivity with her audiences?
- To what extent is Zoella a representation of young women online?
Zoella & popularity
Zoella is 'adorkable' or 'manic pixie dream girl' and is an empty shell which her audience can portray themselves onto and be an aspirational person for her audience. Hyperreal representation.
Zoella had a series of tweets when she was 19 including insults like 'chav' and mocking how gay men spit. This is completely offbrand and she apologised for the tweets even though they were made 7 years ago and mainly in reference to TV shows.
It totally goes against her image/ideology
To what extent does Zoella use stereotypcial representations of women?
(THE ZOELLA APARTMENT)
-MTV Cribs, direct mode of address
-Focusing mistake
- Commodity fetishism
- Consistent close ups, direct mode of address (cultivation theory of makeup)
- Unsexualised
Pokemon sword trailer in glaswegian accent
- Clay shirky (end of audience)
- Henry Jenkins (cult audience)
Alex Jones
- Uneloquent
- Aggressive
- Swearing, derogatory terms
- Far right (individual liberty over group liberty), working class audience. Also targets the vulnerable like people with mental health or autism
- Curran & Seaton "Propoganda doesn't work the way we think it works. IT changes very few if anybody's mind. We don't just see an advert and change our mind. It cultivates it"- Banned from Youtube, Twitter, Facebook which added to his conspiracy message
-
- Machine Written youtube videos (FUCKED UP MAN) kids videos e.g. finger puppet song and mash of words for algorithmic value
Zoella's YouTube Channel & Algorithms
- Uses same font in every video
- Uses similar facial expressions in every thumbnail
Repetition of ideology and ability to gain views. Plays an algorithm to promote their videos. Zoella uses an algorithmic practice to target a theoretical machine fabricated audience that doesn't exist.
What is Clickbait?
Cambridgeshire Live homepage
Low res images.
Uses location data to target a specific area
Often uses hermeneutic codes "Human Barbie takes off makeup, Doctors have no words!"
"Most me can't ace this engine quiz, can you?"
To what extent does online media have a duty of care towards vulnerable people?
- Youtube works by making people spend as much time on it as possible. (Autoplays a recommended/similar video)
They have stopped recommending conspiracy videos because this algorithm . of recommending videos can cause harm to vulnerable people. However, were only motivated because advertisers were pulling away.
Regulating the internet
- Parents are meant to be responsible for regulating and teaching their children about the internet. But many don't understand it and how to use it.
- "Standards lottery" where websites decide on their own how to regulate their websites and you never know what you'll get on a website
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/news-parliament-2017/impact-of-social-media-young-people-report-published-17-19/
How could it be done?
- China, government approved websites and massive firewall
- UK, verifying age on porn websites by proving it with credit card details? Paying for a porn card?
Social Media Influencer Documentary BBC
- Social media makes products more real than scripted advertisements.
- Zoe Suggs first novel sold 78k in a week and set a record for fastest selling novel
- There are rules for advertising, but some social media influencers do not clearly state when they are being sponsored
- Many influencers promote gambling sites like 'Morgz' promoting 'MysteryBrand' to an audience of many 13 year olds and young children.
Demonetisation
- Products, services and texts which involved the internet.
Digital convergence - The coming together of previously separate industries through digital technology. e.g. phones and newspapers, can be accessed online or through an app
Vlogging - Video blogging (blogging - It is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views on an individual subject. blog - web log (online log) ) . Written and shared
The activity or practice of posting short videos to or maintaining a vlog - google
Micro-blogging - twitter
42% of internet users said they had watched a vlog within the last month rising to 50% for 16-24 year-olds (Guardian, 2015), clearly demonstrating an ability to reach and influence vast range of audiences.
Why is YouTube possible?
- Cheap storage and servers was not possible. Hard to store high quality (or any) video.
- Internet connections were poor, hard to watch videos. Fiber Optic Broadband internet instead of dial-up changed this.
In the modern age this is easy to obtain
Vlogs
- Aspirational
- Personal identity (can identify with person on screen, can be used to define our identity)
- Identification
- Unscripted narrative
- Authenticity (?)
- Direct mode of address
- Audience Interaction
Jackson Galaxy
- Presents himself as a cat expert
- People will be aspirational to know his knowledge and understand their cat bette
- He has a direct mode of address
- Talking from his house, in a bedroom?
- Poor lighting, low production quality, relatable location (not a highly produced set), not stereotypically good looking
Youtube counts around 30 seconds as a 'view'
ZOELLA
- UK based vlogger
- 2nd most popular beauty vlogger
- 12 million subscribers
- Started broadcasting fashion and beauty related videos since 2009
- Over 1 billion views
- 147th most subscribed channel on the website
- Her second channel 'MoreZoella' has 4.8 million subscribers (over 770million views)
- 13.6 million followers on twitter
- 10.9 million on instagram
- Target demographic - Heterosexual teenage girls
Steve Neale - Genre Theory
Roland Barthes - Semiotic Codes
Zoella - June Favourites 2016
- Hyperexpressive face
- Showing beauty products, holds them in her hand and keeps showing them throughout. Close up of the products for a few seconds and then back to her face. Product keeps attention
- Flower print clothing - feminine but unsexualised
- Voice is 'customer service' like. Pristine, almost condescending and talking down to the audience
- From Wiltshire. Has no distinguishable accent. Its a clear Southern Accent, no slang and very clear. Well spoken but not posh, southern but not middle class.
- Professional lighting on face, clear background no clutter,
- Expressive hand movement
- Repeatedly messes up saying 'showbox' as 'showboc' but keeps these in. Makes her relatable
Multi-modality - where a media producer communicates with the audience in multiple ways e.g. text and images, hyperlinks
Hyperlink - 'Hyper' = 'Beyond'
Hypermodality - beyond multi-modality. Simultaneously going on many sites and encouraged to jump backwards and forwards
Media Language
Logo - Identifiable imagery for a company or person
Main navigation / menu bar - Allows access to main menu options for navigation
Carousel / slider - Scrolls up and down a webpage
Footer - Information at the bottom of a page, often includes: copyright, contact information, dates of publishing, company ownership etc
Banner ads - Ads in the form of a 'banner' rectangle along the edges or top/bottom of a website. Often a static image with information but could be a banner video ad
Search box - Area to input search terms to find specific content on a website
Social media icons - Recognisable icons for social media websites e.g. Twitter bird, Facebook F, Instagram Camera, Snapchat Ghost, Youtube PlayButton
Youtube is part of Web 2.0 Everything is clean, aesthetically pleasing and cohesive. Offers the audience a pleasurable user experience (or u-ex).
Hypermodality decreases regulation because in a few clicks you could be anywhere
Online media -
Media Language - Roland Barthes (Semiotics), Levi Strauss (Structuralism), Jean Baudrillard (Hyperreality/postmodernism)
Audience - Lisbet Van Zoonen (Feminist theory, male gaze), bell hooks (Feminist theory), David Gauntlet (Pick and Mix, Identity), Stuart Hall (Representation), Judith Butler (Gender Performativity)
Paradigms of Vlogging
- Breaks 4th Wall
- Amateur aesthetics
- Codes of realism
- High-key lighting
- Unscripted narrative
- Direct mode of address
- Aspirational content
- Invitation into private spaces
- Single camera edit
Direct mode of address imitates news shows and talk shows which garners trust via this intertextuality
Levi Strauss - "[A myth provides] a logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction" (1958)
How can Zoe Suggs address a large anonymous audience while maintaining the illusion of friendly, face-to-face conversation? BINARY OPPOSITION.
- She is an aspirational person but is not real and we will never meet her
- We know what we are seeing is a constructed representation of an ideal woman. Ignore it.
- We connect with a community that would otherwise have been hard to find. Want a sense of belonging
Hyperreality - more real than the real (Jean Baudrillard)
Simulacra - representation of a representation (representation of something that doesnt exist)
Ultimate Pizza Taste Test with Mark
- Non-diagetic Ukulele Soundtrack: Bubbly, happy, OVERLY happy like they are. Used in kids shows, online dating, smothie adverts - it is INNOCENT. Hyperreality. Ukulele - symbolic of a simpler happier life.
- Pizza and chat with friend is conforming to their target audience of teenagers --relatable--
- "Thats a big ol' crusty boy" making reference to memes and internet culture by adding 'boy' on the end e.g. seeing a cat and saying its a "big ol' round boy". Woman who is 28 trying to relate to teenagers
- Subverts expectations: She is a very thin person trying six pizzas
- VERY SKINNY - reinforces hegemonic codes of beauty
- They only nibble on food, like a winetaster, an example of waste
- 'Mark' is inferred knowledge of this person. Looks like a normal guy with a normal name. He is the 'gay best friend' and is going with some certain camp aspects like
- At the start of every vlog she puts a blooper to create an illusion of the real and that she is a normal person - intentionally amateuristic.
- Mid shot, audience sitting at the table
- 13mins 55s of footage of people nibbling on the pizza
- Reinforces friendly best friend ideology she is trying to portray
Bedroom
- Clean, tidy, plain (like a hotel room)
- Wierdly like a kids and an adults bedroom at the same time.
- Bedroom connotes private life and an insight into her personal space
What are the implications of presenting a hyperreal world to the audience?
- Reinforces how shit our world is by presenting hyperreal. Allows us to escape into a fantasy through her
- Reinforcing hegemonic norms e.g. makeup, gay best friend (tokenism)
- Promotes spending money (buying six pizzas, makeup hauls) which can give bad financial ideals to their audience.
- Gives unrealistic expectations to young impressionable audience of lifestyles
- Hyperreality can increase depression by becoming disenfranchised with the real and being obsessed with the hyperreal world
- Cognitive dissonance - meeting hero and they do not live up to your expectations
Zoella's Website
- Clear block capitals sans-serif font (easy to read, minimalist) Easy to read, audience is less mature?
- Lot's of images. Easy to see what content is in
- White background connotates fresh, clean, pure, innocent
- Every image highly saturated using filters creating a 'hipster' aesthetic
- Fairy lights connotes princess, fantasy, cute, hipster
- Hyperreal representation of a picnic (no dirt, no grass, no ants)
- Promoting middle class lifestyle
- Wooden pallets, glass bowls EXTREMELY middle class
- Contains Hyperlinks
- Hypermodality
- e.g links to pintrest with many different hyperreal pictures of picnics and becomes an echochamber which cultivates a representation
- e.g. links to instagram
- Digital convergence
Hypermodality (beyond modality) is more interactive for the audience.
Tanya Burr
- Sophistication
- Sexualised (pouts, cleavage, smokey eye makeup)
- 'Dirty' more low grade photos and candid photos whereas Zoella has high quality photos more staged
- Tanya doesn't hide sexuality but Zoella is presented as pristine and virginal
Lisbet Van Zoonen - Women's bodies used as a spectacle and a way of selling a product
- Zoella is unsexualised by conventionally attractive. She reviews products. and is attractive which reinforces hegemonic conventions.
Judith Butler - gender performativity is a repetitive and ritualistic process we perform. Our identity comes from these acts. Doesnt change gender, but gives a gender identity
Audience interaction
User 'fuckZoella' posted a very rude comment on a blog post, while using rude language towards Zoella, the username 'fuckZoella' shows an interactivity from her audience.
Also shows her blog post comments are not monitored.
Zoella Example Questions
- How far does Zoella subvert female gender stereotypes? Make reference to Judith Butler
- How does Zoella encourage interactivity with her audiences?
- To what extent is Zoella a representation of young women online?
Zoella & popularity
Zoella is 'adorkable' or 'manic pixie dream girl' and is an empty shell which her audience can portray themselves onto and be an aspirational person for her audience. Hyperreal representation.
Zoella had a series of tweets when she was 19 including insults like 'chav' and mocking how gay men spit. This is completely offbrand and she apologised for the tweets even though they were made 7 years ago and mainly in reference to TV shows.
It totally goes against her image/ideology
To what extent does Zoella use stereotypcial representations of women?
(THE ZOELLA APARTMENT)
-MTV Cribs, direct mode of address
-Focusing mistake
- Commodity fetishism
- Consistent close ups, direct mode of address (cultivation theory of makeup)
- Unsexualised
Pokemon sword trailer in glaswegian accent
- Clay shirky (end of audience)
- Henry Jenkins (cult audience)
Alex Jones
- Uneloquent
- Aggressive
- Swearing, derogatory terms
- Far right (individual liberty over group liberty), working class audience. Also targets the vulnerable like people with mental health or autism
- Curran & Seaton "Propoganda doesn't work the way we think it works. IT changes very few if anybody's mind. We don't just see an advert and change our mind. It cultivates it"- Banned from Youtube, Twitter, Facebook which added to his conspiracy message
-
- Machine Written youtube videos (FUCKED UP MAN) kids videos e.g. finger puppet song and mash of words for algorithmic value
Zoella's YouTube Channel & Algorithms
- Uses same font in every video
- Uses similar facial expressions in every thumbnail
Repetition of ideology and ability to gain views. Plays an algorithm to promote their videos. Zoella uses an algorithmic practice to target a theoretical machine fabricated audience that doesn't exist.
What is Clickbait?
Cambridgeshire Live homepage
Low res images.
Uses location data to target a specific area
Often uses hermeneutic codes "Human Barbie takes off makeup, Doctors have no words!"
"Most me can't ace this engine quiz, can you?"
To what extent does online media have a duty of care towards vulnerable people?
- Youtube works by making people spend as much time on it as possible. (Autoplays a recommended/similar video)
They have stopped recommending conspiracy videos because this algorithm . of recommending videos can cause harm to vulnerable people. However, were only motivated because advertisers were pulling away.
Regulating the internet
- Parents are meant to be responsible for regulating and teaching their children about the internet. But many don't understand it and how to use it.
- "Standards lottery" where websites decide on their own how to regulate their websites and you never know what you'll get on a website
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/science-and-technology-committee/news-parliament-2017/impact-of-social-media-young-people-report-published-17-19/
How could it be done?
- China, government approved websites and massive firewall
- UK, verifying age on porn websites by proving it with credit card details? Paying for a porn card?
Social Media Influencer Documentary BBC
- Social media makes products more real than scripted advertisements.
- Zoe Suggs first novel sold 78k in a week and set a record for fastest selling novel
- There are rules for advertising, but some social media influencers do not clearly state when they are being sponsored
- Many influencers promote gambling sites like 'Morgz' promoting 'MysteryBrand' to an audience of many 13 year olds and young children.
Demonetisation
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