Online Media: Zoella Audiences Flashcards
Introduction to Zoella
Zoella is a pseudonym for popular British blogger, vlogger, and YouTuber Zoe Sugg
Fashion and lifestyle content
2 YouTube channels; Zoella, and MoreZoella
Does zoella target a mass or specialised audience?
She targets a broad mass audience
Her YouTube channel attracts millions of subscribers
She is able to establish a personal connection with her fans
How does zoella target women through her content?
Primary target audience is women aged 13-24
Zoe engages in stereotypical female based activities such as fashion, makeup, relationships
Her clothing is stereotypically female aswell, which attracts a female audience who share their identity based on Zoella and aspire to achieve her look
How does Zoella target the age demographic of 13-24?
She uses Instagram and Snapchat regularly and heavily which fits in with this age group
Every day activities of this demographic are incorporated into narratives to create connections with the target audience eg shopping, going through drive thrus, and eating at fast food restaurants
How does Zoella target the BC1C2 socio economic group?
She cleverly builds partnerships with companies who target similar demographics such as H&M and ASOS, who represent high street fashion at affordable prices
Moderately formal language with some slang but this is deployed with Standard English to mirror lower middle class values
What additional profiles does Zoella target?
Aspirant tribe: she is on trend and is constantly chasing the latest fashions
Her partnerships foreground a concern to be a social butterfly
Audience response to ‘I Moved House With Alfie’
In the vlog, she takes a direct mode of address and positions the audience through relatable themes, messages and values
Her audience demographic of aged 13-24 may be able to relate to her vlog of moving in with her boyfriend, as those at the older end of her age demographic my be experiencing this or have gone through this
Henry Jenkins Theory of Fandom
Fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings
Fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully authorised by the media producers - textual poaching
Fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and inflecting mass culture images
Application of Fandom Theory by Henry Jenkins
Zoella fans are able to poach aspects of her lifestyle to construct their own identities
Reception Theory by Stuart Hall
Media audiences are active, not passive
Take 3 readings to a text; dominant, negotiated, and oppositional
Application of Reception Theory by Stuart Hall
In a vlog, Zoella addresses the £50 advent calendar scandal, and makes a direct apology to the audience for the upset caused by the pricing of the calendar
Preferred/Dominant reading: sympathise with her and take her apology as sincere
Oppositional reading: upset that Zoella has attempted to exploit them
End of Audience Theory by Clay Shirky
Media users are actively involved in the construction and circulation of textual meanings
He states that the internet and digital technologies have had a profound effect on the relations between the media and individuals
Audiences are no longer passive consumers but are now fully involved as they can ‘speak back’ to the media
Application of End of Audience Theory by Clay Shirky
The growth of the internet and digital technologies has made it much easier for users to create and share content with each other
Zoella creates her own content which audiences consume, like, share, and comment on - therefore they speak back
This is evidence that audiences are not passive, as they participate regularly in the media content that Zoe and Alfie produce
