Kieran Desouza's Blog
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
WaterAid Sample Question
Wednesday, March 10, 2021
PAPER 2 Online Media Exam Question
Firstly, online audiences have changed over the time, caused by social media making things much easier to do. I am talking about how audiences interact with content creators has changed to audiences becoming a content creator themselves. For example, YouTube, you can watch your favourite youtuber and comment in the comment section to interact with the youtuber and other fans, same applies to other apps and websites like Instagram and Facebook. But now, many of those online audiences have decided to create their own content and become what they were entertained by. This is because YouTube and other media have made it easy to create your own content and people decide to create instead of just watching, supported by Shirky's theory of fans creating their own texts instead of just consuming the texts. Another reason fans are starting to become content creators now is because when YouTube and other medias first came out, no one saw it as a job with good income but now, fans see how much money content creators make from it and want to be as successful as them. For example, Zoella doesn't like to tell her audience her income, you can see in her videos which show what type of house she lives in with what items show how wealthy she is which encourages some viewers to be a youtuber.
Another method that Attitude and Zoella use is targeting a specific age range to fully maximise their audience while still focusing on the gender. Attitude not only focuses on gay males but the age between 26 to 55, their website shows many examples, a heavy use of Facebook and Twitter as supporting social media which are the primary sites used by this age group however Attitude has started to use other social media to probably maximise their online audience, most stories on their website features celebrities that the target audience would of grown-up liking in the late 20th century. Another way to make their website suitable for 26-55 is what they don't do, there is no audience feedback on the website anywhere whereas websites and social media for younger audiences uses a lot of audience feedback as younger audience like to talk about the subject whereas older audiences don't as much, another reason for an absence of audience feedback is so there is no discrimination on their website topics like gay and LGBT aren't supported by everyone so Attitude keeps feedback out for now. Zoella's targeted age range has changed over the time, before it was 13-24 females Zoella used Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube which are mostly used by this age group, fans can interact with Zoella and other fans through comments to create connections and fans connections are shown in her videos to make fans feel appreciated, also showing everyday activities create connections with her fans as well. All these are ways Zoella maximise her young online audience, but she had a secondary target audience which were parents and advertisers as they were engaged by content that is safe in terms of sexual content however, Zoella has changed her target audience now as not only as she has grown up but so has her fans, now she focuses on slightly older audiences as her website does have some sexual content which wouldn't be appropriate for her old target audience and secondary target audience. Now her content is more mature while still showing most of the same content but in a separate way and added content which relates to older audiences. Gauntlett's theory of people using the internet and other media to help create their own identity links to how Attitude and Zoella makes their content suit their targeted age range like Zoella showing just showing her everyday activities may influence female viewers on how they do their everyday activities which could create or change their identity.
Lastly, the other area in how Attitude and Zoella target their online audience is through psychographics. Attitude targets both the aspirers and the reformers, the aspirers are people who want status brands that show their place in society, evidence from the Attitude website showing that they target aspirers is in the style section where it is very saturated with premium fashion brands while the travel section highlights expensive travel options, this is perfect for aspirers as they are happy to invest into luxury goods and always wants to be on the trend to seek status. The other psychographic Attitude targets is reformers who are defined by self-esteem and self-improvement, proof from the website is in the narratives that mainly political, commenting on social issues which is mostly about LGBT but also including homelessness, voting rights, etc., all this is for trying to change society which again, is perfect for reformers as they always seek enlightenment and are socially aware. Like Attitude, Zoella also targets the aspirers but on the other hand also targets the mainstreamers. We know that aspirers seek status and like to show it off, the way Zoella targets them is by showing her own aspirational lifestyle by just showing her house, cars and possessions. The other psychographic she targets is mainstreamers who like tried and trusted brands, Zoella sometimes reviews products after testing them out which shows that she is targeting mainstreamers and she is reassuring her online audience about that product unless it's a negative review then she may recommend her audience to avoid this product as mainstreamer like to keep it safe and save money. Another smaller psychographic that Zoella might target is the explorers who are people who like to discover new things, Zoella also likes to try new things out so showing these new products encourages the explorers to try them out.
In general, both Zoella and Attitude target their audiences very specifically by looking at different areas of their target audience and showing them things, they like to effectively target and maximise their online audience.
Thursday, February 25, 2021
Exam Question : targeting audiences
Firstly, the gender of Attitude is male and they make the Attitude website fit with what males generally like. On the main page, there are many photos, more than text as men like to see visuals instead of text, if the reader does want to read more, clicking on that article will bring up more text however the text is in short paragraphs and lacks in emotional content to appeal more to the Male audience.
The age range is between 26 and 55, this is shown from the way Attitude targets their audience. A heavy use of Facebook and Twitter shows that the age age range is between 26 and 55 as they are the age group that tends to use Facebook and Twitter, however they do use Instagram as well which does fall under a different age group but could still work as it could widen their current target range using Instagram. Attitude has articles mostly focused on politics, TV shows and celebrities, the celebrities are usually celebrities who were popular in the late 20th century or gay celebrities who are popular now, for example Elton John and Alan Carr who are famous gay celebrities are on recent articles. Another reason on why the age group is 26 to 55 is that there is no audience feedback, younger audiences has a heavy use of feedback like a comment section to express their feelings about the topic, they may not have any audience feedback on their website to not only avoid any discrimination but also, older audiences dont really use feedback sections as much as younger audiences.
The socio-economic group for Attitude is ABC1, the first reason is that Attitude has sponsorships with companies which advertise premium products like Calvin Klein and Jaguar which socio-economic group ABC1 are interested in. The second reason is that the langauage is formal and complex and is written in standard English to mirror middle class values and educational backgrounds of an ABC1 demographic. Articles also refer to the jobs that ABC1 demographics do like teachers, managers, designers and etc.
Attitude also depends on the psycho graphics of their audience to know how to present their website. The psychometric grouping of Attitude's target audience are Reformers and Aspirers. The website mainly is about politics, commenting on social issues which are mainly LGBTQ focused but does look at other topics too, this is for the reformers in Attitude's target audience who seek enlightenment. For the aspirers, the website has a style section which shows off premium products in a very saturated way as aspirers are concerned with looking good, material acquisition and brand awareness, also the travel section highlights 'boutique' hotel options at the expense of budget travel which definitely fits in with aspirers needs.
Tuesday, February 9, 2021
ONLINE MEDIA : Key text 2 ATTITUDE : Intro to text and audience
Attitude is a British gay lifestyle magazine owned by Stream Publishing Limited. It is sold worldwide as a physical magazine, and as a digital download for the iPad and iPhone via the App Store, and for Android devices via the Android Market. The first issue of attitude appeared in May 1994.
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
ZOELLA : Audience in detail
Heavy use of Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube - these sites fit with the social media applications most prominently used by 13-24 . Deliberate amateur aesthetic suggests authenticity to this media saturated audience segment. Everyday activities of this demographic are incorporated into narratives to create connections with the target audience (shopping, stopping at drive-through, eating at fast food restaurants). Fan connections showcased in uploads - fans represent the real target audience. Use of YouTube commentary to create intimate connections with the target audience. Emotive content - the show appeals to its female audience through narratives that engage with subject matter emotionally. Zoella continuously tells us how she ‘feels’ about the problems she faces. Zoella foregrounds stereotypical female based activities in her presentation: fashion, make-up, relationships. Costume stereotypically female - female colour palette deployed in mise en-scène. Use of pets and pet orientated references. Presenter constructs a version of ideal beauty - highly stylised, lots of makeup, attention paid to costume. Intimate confessional tone - creates a relatable female character. A quiet/passive presentation style that fits with target audience expectations and female presenter stereotypes.
All the previous points show how Zoella shows off as a quite simple stereotypical girl, maybe influencing her fans on how they should be. Her fans are mostly girl based who like girl coded things like make up, fashion and positive things, their is usually no complex genders or stereotypes in her content. However, a stereotype of a man is usually strong, hard working who likes men coded things however, the men in Zoella's content are represented with the stereotypes of a girl, as they are trying out make up and fashion. Gauntlett's theory of people using the internet or other media texts to help create a identity for them, today we have more of a variety of representations to identify with which relates to Zoella as her fans are influence by her and choose to be like her and some boys choose to be like how the boys are represented in her content which is different compared to the main stereotype of men.
Many social media's have made it easier to create your own content. Fans not only can interact with the person in the comments of their post or their youtube video, but can create their own channel/page and post their own stuff. Their content may be influenced by who they follow or could be completely different. This point is reinforced by both theories of Shirky and Jenkins, where fans use the internet to gather and create their own content and easily share it, instead of just consuming the texts, as fans get inspired by creators and want to try it out to.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
PAPER 2B ONLINE MEDIA : Introduction to Zoella
Monday, January 18, 2021
MOCK EXAM QUESTION PAPER 2A Television Crime Drama ( TEXT)
Even though 'Life on Mars' is a sci-fi crime drama and 'The Bridge' is a nordic noir crime drama, they both follow or subvert genre conventions to appeal more to audiences. In 'Life on Mars' it starts off like a generic crime drama with a car chase, running chase, fight and interrogation with all the normal conventions too like police officers with uniform, police cars and tape etc. with no signs of sci-fi conventions until the investigator "Sam" travels back in time. He travels to 1973 which changes all the modern conventions of crime drama to match with 1973 like the uniform police wore, police cars and equipment they had in 73 etc.. The reason they used very generic crime drama conventions at the beginning was to make the change more transparent for the viewer but also is more interesting for the viewer as its a change from repetitive crime dramas. Steve Neal's Theory of genres being recognisable but will change over time so it helps institutions to market their texts, supporting my point of 'Life on Mars' follows and subverts the genre conventions to appeal to audiences more. However, 'The Bridge' only follows its nordic noir conventions throughout the whole episode, its set in between Sweden and Denmark with bleak landscapes giving off a dark mood with all the generic crime drama conventions as well like 'Life on Mars' but there is no change or idea taken from another genre. It still does appeal to audiences though as the use of nordic noir itself is a change in crime dramas as its very different and successful because of the distinctive and appealing style, realistic, simple, precise and stripped of unnecessary words makes it much more relatable to real life.
The same character archetypes are used in both crime dramas but are used differently. In 'Life on Mars', the main character is Sam Tyler who is the investigator and, like generic crime dramas, he has personal problems to deal with and struggles with his work at the beginning. Tyler's first sidekick was Maya but we didn't see much of her so his main sidekick is Chris Skelton who is quite clumsy and not very professional but when Sam sorts him out then he works well. Their boss, Jean Hunt is quite different compared to other generic crime dramas as the boss is usually supportive or strict and stays in the office however Hunt is violent and is almost like a sidekick to Tyler as he always go to the crime scene with him. The villain isn't explored much in the first episode as it concentrated more an introducing all the characters. Now on 'The Bridge', the main character is Saga Norén who like Tyler, is an investigator and has personal problems which effect her work positively and negatively. Norén's first sidekick is Hanne Thomsen who is quite good at her job however doesn't stay long because of an accident and at the end of the episode Hendrik Sabroe is going to be Norén's new partner. The boss is very different compared to 'Life on Mars' as Hans Petterson is supportive and calm and stays at the office. Similar to 'Life on Mars' the villain isn't explored much as they focus on characters and the start of the investigation but as the audience, we slowly think Morten Anker is the villain because they give us hints with showing him being suspicious and stressed in a few scenes so we know but other characters don't know about it.
'Life on Mars' and 'The Bridge' represent women very differently in terms of showing them in a stereotypical way or interestingly different. 'The Bridge' represent women depending on their character, for example, the main character Saga Norén is suggested, but never stated, to have Asperger's syndrome, she is portrayed as completely oblivious to social norms, but a brilliant and devoted police investigator because it makes her character more interesting by breaking the ordinary stereotypical of women but Natalie Anker, the wife of the victim is a stereotypical woman of being overly emotional and weak. However, 'Life on Mars' does stereotypically represent all women as they were in 2006 and 1973, in 2006, it is mostly men in the work spaces however there are a few women, one example is Maya Roy, Sam Tyler's partner who takes danger into her own hands however she ends up becoming a victim of another crime showing that she is weak even though she tried to be brave, in 1973, there is basically no women to be found in work areas unless its a feminine job. Women are stereotypically represented even more as their either a housewife or works a traditional female job but Annie Cartwright who is Police Constable which is quite a rare job for women in 1970's is portrayed as strong and independent but the men in 1973 still don't treat her positively as they objectify her and push her around as men didn't like females working 'men jobs' in 1973. Liesbet Van Zoonen's feminist theory of the idea that gender is constructed through discourse, and that it's meaning varies according to cultural and historical context, meaning that because 'The Bridge' and 'Life on Mars' is set in different times, they represent women differently, and in 'Life on Mars' they had men sexually objectify women as that's what men actually did in the 1970's whereas ;The Bridge; is modern and represents women of the contemporary time which definitely has more variation of women.