Zoella - Media Language Flashcards
1
Q
Conventional Camera technique
A
- Single camera set up
- medium close ups
- Direct address
- Filmed by the vlogger themselves
2
Q
Lighting
A
- Lights have become easily available and cheap online, many vloggers use them.
- Use of soft box lights, or ring lights
- Lighting used to focus the audience on the vlogger themsleves and to make the shots look more professional.
3
Q
Handheld Shots
A
- Often filmed by a phone not a professional camera
- The hand held camera shots add a feeling of realism and naturality to Zoella’s posts.
- The shots often create an ‘amateur’ feeling because of the shaky nature, nut is appealing to an audience who feel they are seeing he ‘real’ Zoella.
4
Q
POV Shots
A
- Shots from Zoella’s point of view which put audiences into her shoes, seeing what she sees.
- Strengthens the parasocial bond between the content creator and the audience.
5
Q
Interaction with audience
A
- Many online media producers, such as vloggers, give audiences opportunities to ‘interact’ or be ‘active’ by liking, sharing, commenting etc.
- Vloggers will often ask their viewers questions or instruct them to hit subscribe, comment below etc.
- This helps to make the audience feel engaged.
6
Q
Intertexuality
A
- Zoella often refers to other media products in her posts e.g singers, films, brands, celebrities etc.
- This adds to her representation as someone who is current, popular and fashionable.
7
Q
Collaborations
A
- Zoella collaborates regularly with other social media influencers/ vloggers which creates more intertextual references, whilst also creating an impression of popularity, sucess etc.
- A lot of her content (e.g. posts) are shared across multiple channels, for example, Her’s Alfie’s, Joe’s etc.
- They borrow from each other in terms of ideas and content, and often have a variety of near identicals videos, photos and written posts online across their channels.
8
Q
Post-modern conventions
A
- Zoella clearly shows us that she is aware of the camera and the audience, sometimes showing off the camera, or the lights, breaking the 4th wall, using direct adress etc.
- Self-awareness is a feature of postmodern media products.
9
Q
Post-modernism
A
- Whilst each of Zoella’s videos have a rough narrative e.g. ‘Christmas Eve Preparations’, the editing often is quite fragmented, showing us a montage of shots from different days or activites.
- There is not a clear Todorovian narrative structure to most videos, instead they are often just glimpses into random minor events, rather than one major ‘quest,’ (A fragmented or non linear narrative is also a feature of postmodern media products.)
- Whilst many postmodern media products embrace surreal ideas, and anti-realism, Zoella is often trying to create the illusion of reality for her audience.
- In most media productss, e.g. films & TV, editors use ‘continuity editing’ which is designed to use different angles of the same shots to create smooth scenes where the editing becomes ‘invisible to the audience and feels as though it is one long scene. By contrast, when vloggers film with a single camera from one angle, its hard to make editing ‘invisible’ and so often we notice things that wouldn’t normally be noticeable.
10
Q
Setting
A
- Vloggers often use ‘personal spaces’ for the location of their photos and videos, such as their homes (e.g. bedrooms etc.) or cars. This adds a sense of intimacy as we feel like we are seeing Zoella’s real domain, and acting as a ‘voyeur’ into her life and relationship.
11
Q
Editing
Continuation of Postmodern
A
- Sometimes we will see ‘jump cuts’ which are obvious ‘cuts’ made into one shot where something has been taken out and the two remaining bits of the shot have been sandwiched back together.
- This is reasonably uncommon in other media products as it draws the audiences attention to the fact it has been edited.
- Other obvious editing techniques we might see in vlogs are things like a ‘dip to black’
- Vloggers might also use fades/ dissolves to show passing of time. Or even different types of ‘wipe’ transition.
- So the style of editing could be about making them look relatable, e.g. the choice to leave in mistakes) or due to the limitations of filming on a single camera set up (when they end up usin jump cuts, dissolves, etc.)
- Vloggers will often choose to leave in pauses or long silences, which would often get cut out of other media products. These pauses or silences add to the idea that Zoella is reacting naturally to the world around her, and make her feel relatable and less professional meaning some audience will trust her more.
12
Q
Script
A
- The videos feel spontaneous and unscripted which appeals to fans who want to feel like they are seeing the ‘real Zoella’.
- Zoella, and many other vloggers use a range of informal words, colloquialisms, slang and direct address that appeals to young audiences.
- Zoella’s informal mode of address combined with her sometimes immature sense of humour and silly behaviour is a good way of appealing to younger audiences who may be able to relate to this.
13
Q
Parasocialism
A
- Parasocial interactions are those interactions with the audience which create a feeling that the audience actually are friends with Zoella, and that they do know her.
- This creates a parasocial relationship betwee Zoella and her fans.
14
Q
Graphology
A
- Zoella will also often use a range of emojis, graphics or other symbolic codes superimposed on her videos or photos, or embedded into the text of her written posts.
- These appeal to younger audiences as well as making her seem youthful and fun.
15
Q
Mise-en-scene
A
- The mise-en-scene is typically feminine e.g. pinks, pastels, gold, glitter etc.
- Her website echos this branding and style of femininity by using youthful pastels, fairy lights, serif font that appears ‘handwritten’ and imagery of lace patterns and glittery backgrounds.
