zoella

Question 1

what techniques does zoella use in her videos

Answer 1

• emotional language
• time lapses of content
• parasocial interaction with direct adress
• high production values (lighting, sound, scenery, props
• everyday mise en scene
• codes of realism
• breaking third wall
• ideal imagery
• confessional imagery - best friend

Question 2

social and economic context of zoella

Answer 2

• extends technology into a tool of culture
• social influencer with active and engaged followers
• monetizing yt chanel with high end fashion and social influencer
• stats: 11 million subscribers with 1.1 billion views

Question 3

zoellas persona

Answer 3

down to earth, relatable, like a sister

Question 4

zoellas social media

Answer 4

high visibility social media presense : twitter facebook and instagram
house style and repeated content across all platforms: partying, brands celebrations

Question 5

postmodernism zoella

Answer 5

self created vlogging community- aspiring hyperreality
self reflexity in vlogging style - self concious narrative style with jump cuts and breaking 4th wall

Question 6

represenation of gender roles

Answer 6

• reinforces conventional beauty ideas with makeup routines - mainstream brand of beauty myth
• sways between conservative dress to liberal fashion depedning on context
• alfies gym fresh cameos reinforce notive of active masculinity whilst zoella more domestic of anxious to leave house
• alfie giggles in boyish manner whilst zoe sqqueals with delight
• -

Question 7

stereotypes of domesticity

Answer 7

interior design and home lifestyle - disiplined, tidy, responsible for beauty of home - alfie more lazy in teasing manner
zoe focuses on baking rather thaan cooking eg easter chocolates cupcakes, halloween cupcakes

Question 8

commodity fetishism

Answer 8

haul videos focus on franchising zoella brands - expensive products attract aspirers and suceeders coming from middle class feminity of zoe

Question 9

controversies: cultural binaries

Answer 9

exclusion of non white participants - white dominat friendship group but in 2020 had active research into BLM
critised in twitter posts of homophobic slurs and fat shamiing chavs
although these were in her teen era - she has evolved
£50 advent calender

Question 10

self made buisness woman

Answer 10

empowered identity as a sucessful professional woman with sucesful and diversified brands that have grown over years
confidence in adressing her bf shows leadership

Question 11

technology boom - democratisation

Answer 11

general public can create and distribute own product without professional involvement

Question 12

gatekeeping

Answer 12

selfcensorship (jump cuts) and deleting content which is self mediated

Question 13

collaboration videos

Answer 13

with alfie, louis cole, mirandasings, > connected yt community with shared goals

Question 14

monetising content

Answer 14

youtube partner programme : minimum of 1000 subscribers to generate money - 80% of zoella videos start with mandatory advert

Question 15

targeted advertising

Answer 15

taste, interests and browsing hisyory - zoella synergises with brands for adversising eg fashion cosmetics charity

Question 16

zoellas plateforms

Answer 16

twitter - 211,000
instrgam - 1.3 million
facebook - 2.4 million

Question 17

zoella digital influence

Answer 17

paid to review and promote products - haul videos to review shops eg primark matalan or brands such as pizza hut > example of cross promotional marketing

Question 18

zoella merch

Answer 18

sells online and retail eg beauty products and lifestyle products (phones cases stationary) includes familiar icons such as her image logo and slogan

Question 19

zoella synergy

Answer 19

four ghostwritten novels, downloadable apps key to digitally convergence

Question 20

demographic audience

Answer 20

• 13-25 females: BC1C2 middle to upper class mainstream/high street brand hauls
• younger millennials with expanded views on diversity, political context
• disposable incomes with acess to money to spend on luxuries

Question 21

psychographic audience

Answer 21

• girly girl stereotype (fashion, cosmetics, relationships) - passive
• active eg challenging alfie’s laziness shows leadership
• bachelor - heteronormative ideologies
• main streamers and aspires
• uk tribes: aspirant - to be on trend catch latest fashion

Question 22

primary audience

Answer 22

young teenage girls still forming personal identities - job or parents to supply with money for products - zoella plays role of older sister giving advice on womanhood

Question 23

secondary audience

Answer 23

parents and advertisers who find content safe compared to other bloggers - zoella very pg friendly

Question 24

casual followers audience

Answer 24

online web surfers - not a fan or former fan with negotiated reading

Question 25

followers of similar vloggers audience

Answer 25

online yt vlogging community - shared goals - synergy with collobaoration videos - brand association exposure

Question 26

semiotics barthes

Answer 26

• conventional rep of womanhood
• connotations as homemaker with allusions to the domestic housewife with emphasis on kitchen
• feminine lifestyle connatiations - fashionable expensive clothing, red lipstick, eyeshadow makeup, small dog, family gatherings, cute car, femine friends and aspirational aesthetically pleasing mise en scene

Question 27

simulacra baudrillard

Answer 27

zoe idealised rep of feminist and beauty myth become a simulacra - media proliferated copy of herself that transcends norms of reality to convey beautified hyper-reality

Question 28

structuralism levi strauss

Answer 28

binary op potions reinforce traditional femine attributes and expectations - beauty myth and fufillment of domestic goddess role
- feminine vs masculinity
- happy vs sad
- single vs relationship
- affluence vs poverty

Question 29

representation stuart hall

Answer 29

• encoding/decoding stereotypes relating to gender - reinforce gender based expectations - role of domestic/beauty based activities
• femine role contrasts with alfie who assumes more active presence - zoe visits him at work whilst alfie drives car - zoe more passive

Question 30

identity gauntlet

Answer 30

• limited plurality and diversity regarding successful women in society
• idea blogs frame our experiences > zoella provides fans with a means of imposing order and meaning on their own lives

Question 31

gender performativity - butler

Answer 31

• apply makeup on alfie is done as pantomime rather than expression of gender trouble
• makeup tutorials allow for construction of feminity offering audience mechanisms to feel naturally female
• beauty hauls sense of ritualistic act - repeated performance that allows her and audience to realise gender to realise idealised state that no one inhabits

Question 32

regulation livingstone and lunt

Answer 32

• general data protection regulation assists micro targeting for online adverts and products
• regulated by advertising standards authority - CAP code states that paid for content must be clearly signposted and referenced
• must comply with office of fair trading - all adverts fully evidenced
• YT community guidelines - produce suitable content for all ages
• self regulate much content - from judicious editing to sanitisation of any trace of negative or malicious feedback

Question 33

cultural industries hesmondhalph

Answer 33

YT content now dominated by large scale media producers - undermines original purpose as a peer-to-peer file sharing platform that celebrated everyday user generated content

Question 34

cultivation gerbner

Answer 34

• blog influences actively engaged subscribers attitudes, lifestyles products friendships experiences - supported comments in threads suggest collective cultivation of aspirational ideology

Question 35

uses and gratifications

Answer 35

surveillance: informing subscribers as to reliability of certain products of instructional nature of cosmetic application video
escapism: readers immerse themselves in highly mediated aspirational lifestyle of someone who is more affluent than themselves

Question 36

random jenkins

Answer 36

• retweet vlog content: redistribute zoe conetent with shares, celebrates them with posts to thank audience
• subversive perspective: some use blogs as creative scaffold to graft projection of own identity - remixes fan fiction - zoaflie
• participatory culture: reappropriate zoellas material forges dynamic community of interaction and discourse

Question 37

end of audience shirky

Answer 37

• feedback mechanisms: prompts viewers to react to hauls and reviews in comments and like enables zoellas feedback on upload content
• interactivity: q&a videos to communicate with zoella and discussions with each other in comments
• # westandwithzoe: sun article gave a misogynist critique of zoe posting image in her underwear and critiques wholesome image - fans and supported gave a # in solidarity with zoe emphasises role of active audience