PAPER 2B ONLINE MEDIA : Introduction to Zoella

Zoella is a fashion and beauty vlogger with 11.6 million subscribers on YouTube, Zoella's videos are about fashion, beauty and her life. Zoella has an estimated wealth of £4.7million, earning £600,000 a year from her two lifestyle channels. Their research predicts she can also earn upwards of £12,000 per sponsored Instagram post, also £250,000 per video for a video partnership. Companies want to place their products in her videos for new customers. Zoella and the youtuber she is collaborating gain views from each others channels. 

On the website, the first thing you see is her most recent post, her content is focused on 20-30 because of the certain articles that aren't suitable for younger ages anymore. Her target audience used to be pre-teen and early teenaged girls, the evidence is in her older youtube videos, the reason the target audience has changed is because Zoella knows that her fans have grown up and she wasn't very popular now so she raised the target audience to get her old audience. The audiences are encouraged to participate in her brand through comments, subscriptions and followers. 

Zoella offers a sense of entertainment and escapism to consumers who also feel a sense of personal identity. Also on her website is a preview of her instagram which shows both the brand @Zoella and her personal @ZoeSugg, the difference between the two is very big as the personal one shows more realistic normal posts of her life whereas the brand one is focused on her products and for her target audience. The representations feel less constructed and therefore more real. She makes a real effort to keep her vlogs as authentic and ‘real’ as they can be, showing all of her life rather than just the positive aspects. With it being a self-representation there is obviously a sense of biasness as she is unlikely to present herself in a negative light. However she is representing herself as the way she would like to be portrayed.

Her website is now controlled by Team Zoella, an instagram post shows her with her team, with young white women with expensive laptops, all healthy and happy. That matches the rest of her posts as she tries to be positive and healthy all the time and influences followers to be as well. Even though she doesn't like to show off how much money she has, you can often see how much she has like her house, or expensive items in her videos or posts. Her channel is mostly white people, the only time there is someone who isn't white is on her website or instagram to show off clothing or another type of product. The Bell Hooks theory focuses mostly on feminism but also factors in that race and class determine the extent to which an individuals are exploited, discriminated against or oppressed, meaning if Zoella represented herself differently and with different people, fans and followers probably won't like it as most of them are white and may discriminate her or the other person. 

On Instagram and Twitter, they both just repost the same articles that are on her website so more people can see them. However, her personal account shows off her life, they all have a warm theme to them to show that Zoe is a welcoming kind person, she doesn't sexualise herself at all and keeps it very positive. Her posts are usually about herself but some show who she is partnering up with, her most recent partnership was with MINI, and the rest of her posts is related with events going on.

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.

Both 'Life on Mars' and 'The Bridge' use similar narrative structures. Firstly, 'Life on Mars' starts off with Sam struggling to figure out a crime while looking quite depressed like he doesn't want to to this job anymore, then he is sent to 1973, throughout the whole series, he sorts out problems he had in 2006 like loving his job again and being good at it again, while getting new problems but sorts them out in each episode, then the end of series 1 is him waking up and killing himself so he can return to 1973 which is his new life now. 'The Bridge' starts off with Saga who is very good at her job but not good with social skills, she gets a new partner who doesn't like her but gets replaced anyway because of an accident. Saga's new partner Hendrik helps her solve the crime for the whole of series 3 until they do solve it and sort it out, however the crime brought back some bad history for Saga and caused her to try to kill herself but Hendrik stopped her as he needs her to find his missing kids. They end up falling in love for the end of the series. Both 'Life on Mars' and 'The Bridge' follow Todorov's narrative structure which starts off with equilibrium which is their life with many problems, then the disruption which is a big problem or change which effects the main character a lot but they sort it out which actually sorts out most of their previous problems leading to their new equilibrium, their new life with no problems or new problems.

The two crime dramas, 'Life on Mars' and 'The Bridge' use open endings as both end with the story continuing to the next episode and still many unanswered enigmas at the end. 'Life on Mars' finishes with Sam still being in 1973 with not many questions answered and the investigation carrying through to the next episode, same with 'The Bridge', as it ends with the investigation still going on, with new characters and enigmas. Both crime dramas are restricted meaning that both 'Life on Mars' and 'The Bridge' let the audience know all of what the main character knows and maybe some extra information that the other characters don't know. Most scenes in the two crime dramas are Sam Tyler and Saga Norén as we are following them so we would know as much as them but there are a few scenes where the main character isn't in and we find out a bit more. For the first episode, both dramas seem linear as there are no flashbacks however 'Life on Mars' could be considered non linear as he goes back in time however we don't see much of 2006 so anything that happens so far in 1973 is linear and 'The Bridge' is realistic so they keep it linear. Both are also multi-stranded meaning they both have multiple plotlines, In 'Life on Mars' we have the modern plot but isn't as important, in 1973 we have the plot of Sam Tyler figuring out if this is all real or not and the main plot of solving the crimes in 1973. In 'The Bridge', you have the main plotline of the crimes and investigation, another plotline with Henrik Sabroe and his wife and smaller plotlines like Lise Frise Anderson and her life.

Enigmas are used frequently in 'The Bridge' and 'Life on Mars' to keep the narrative alive and entices the audience to continue their interest with the plot. The first enigma of 'The Bridge' is why has the murderer set out a scene like this and who is it. There will always be lots of questions about the main case but also about the characters as well, if the viewer hasn't watched the first two series then they would have more questions like why does Saga Norén act like that for example. 'The Bridge' has more enigmas but the most effective enigma in episode 1 which keeps the viewers watching is the cliff-hanger at the end with Hendrik becoming Saga's new partner and us as the audience wonder why he wants to work on the case which is actually an enigma for the whole series and is finally answered at the end. 'Life on Mars' starts off with many enigmas as it puts you straight into an action scene with no explanation, the audience slowly figures out what is going on but still with questions like who is the real suspect as their chosen suspect isn't the right one. Then 'Life on Mars' throw more enigmas at the audience as Sam travels to 1973 creating questions like why and how is he there and many more with many of them being only answered till the end of the series. Again, like 'The Bridge', the most effective enigma in the episode 1 is the cliff-hanger where Sam is tricked into thinking its all fake and he can get out by killing himself however Annie talks him out of it confusing Sam but also the audience as no one knows if is real, fake and something else. This is all supported by Roland Barthes theory that enigma codes are designated to help understanding structuralism of narrative, meaning without enigmas then, one, the narrative would be less interesting for the audience and two, keeps the audience actually watching as we cant just stop watching while we have all these questions in our head.

THE BRIDGE : Introduction to the programme and earlier series

The Bridge is one of the most popular of the Nordic Noir crime dramas that were made in Scandinavia and broadcast globally, with a large British audience. The setting is the bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden and it often features as a setting as well as a metaphor or iconic object.

Saga Norén is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Danish/Swedish TV series The Bridge. Saga is introduced as a member of the Malmö County Police Department in the first episode of the series. 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. Her poor social skills, her difficulty in empathizing and her inability to channel her emotions make her appear cold, insensitive and blunt but she is completely honest and forthright in all aspects.

In the first two series, she develops an unlikely friendship with Danish cop Martin Rohde, who is in many ways her complete opposite. In the third series she has another Danish detective, Henrik Sabroe, as her partner, who understands her complex nature and accepts her for who she is. Lindhardt says that: "Henrik is a man who has lost everything and he needs somebody like her who does not judge him." 

Little is known about Saga's background at first, although in the second series, Martin looks into her family history, discovering that her sister Jennifer committed suicide. In the third series, her mother appears at her apartment, telling her that her father is on his deathbed, and wishes to see her. Saga refuses, but Marie-Louise persists in trying to rebuild their relationship. 

When she is first introduced, Saga has almost no personal life; her spare time is shown to be largely spent alone; she is seen reading a book in her apartment in the second episode, and several other episodes have her making references to things that she has read. It is shown that she partially uses books to try and better understand social conventions, often unsuccessfully. 

Due to Saga's devotion to police work, she does not have many out-of-work relationships, preferring one-night stands such as Anton from the first series and initially Henrik in series three. It is revealed later in the first series that she has always lived alone, except for a period when she lived with her younger sister.

Series 1

When a body, apparently cut in half at the waist, is discovered in the middle of the Øresund Bridge, which connects Copenhagen with Malmö, placed precisely on the border between the two countries, the investigation falls under the jurisdiction of both the Danish and Swedish police agencies. It is not one corpse but two halves of two separate women: the upper-half being that of a female Swedish politician, the lower-half being that of a Danish prostitute. 

Saga Norén from Sweden and Martin Rohde from Denmark lead the murder investigations. Martin has had a vasectomy. August, the nineteen-year-old son from his first marriage is now living with Martin and Mette, his current wife, with whom Martin has three children. Mette discovers that she is expecting another set of twins. 

The investigation quickly escalates as a journalist, Daniel Ferbé, whose car was used in the crime, begins receiving phone calls. The caller, who becomes known as the "Truth Terrorist", claims to be committing crimes in order to draw attention to various social problems. A social worker, Stefan Lindberg is an early suspect; his estranged sister Sonja is a poisoning victim. 

Working together, the Danish and Swedish police conclude that the killer must have a connection with them. After the killer has murdered several people, his true motivation begins to seem personal. They discover that he has been planning his campaign over a period of several years. 

In the midst of the investigation, Martin has an affair with one of the victims of the Truth Terrorist during a home visit. This affair reaches Mette, who ousts Martin from the Rhode residence. 

The ties between all the Truth Terrorist's targets are pinpointed to an ex Danish police officer, Jens Nielsen, who has supposedly killed himself. This spirals into the fact that Jens is still alive, masquerading as Mette's colleague under false pretences along with using plastic surgery. Jens has meticulously crafted a plan of revenge for Martin, after Martin cheated on his wife several years prior. The subsequent death of Jens's wife and children on the bridge in an accident leads Jens to believe that Martin is the one to blame. 

As the investigation is seemingly wrapped up, Jens kidnaps Mette and Martin's children (sans August), forcing Martin to save them. Back in Denmark, Saga uncovers that the real target is August, who Jens catfishes to gain access to information about the case and his location. Jens kidnaps August and traps him in a coffin. 

A standoff occurs between Martin and Jens on the bridge, with Jens planning to blow himself up. As Saga arrives, Martin demands Saga to state if August is alive. However, August has been killed. Upon hearing this, Martin attempts to kill Jens, but Saga wounds the both of them. The series ends as Martin grieves in the hospital and Saga drives back to Sweden.

The Bridge Genre Analysis

Nordic noir, also known as Scandinavian noir, is a genre of crime fiction usually written from a police point of view and set in Scandinavia or Nordic countries. Plain language avoiding metaphor and set in bleak landscapes results in a dark and morally complex mood, depicting a tension between the apparently still and bland social surface and the murder, misogyny, rape, and racism it depicts as lying underneath. Some critics attribute the genre's success to a distinctive and appealing style, "realistic, simple and precise... and stripped of unnecessary words". Their protagonists are typically morose detectives or ones worn down by cares and far from simply heroic. In this way, the protagonists' lives cast a light on the flaws of society, which are beyond the crime itself. This is associated with how this genre often tackles a murder mystery that is linked with several storylines and themes such as the investigation of the dark underbelly of modern society. A description of Nordic noir cited that it is typified by a dimly lit aesthetic, matched by a slow and melancholic pace, as well as multi-layered storylines. It often features a mix of bleak naturalism and disconsolate locations, with a focus on the sense of place where bad things can happen. The works also owe something to Scandinavia's political system where the apparent equality, social justice, and liberalism of the Nordic model is seen to cover up dark secrets and hidden hatreds. 

The term "nordic noir" is also applied to films and television series in this genre, both adaptations of novels and original screenplays. Notable examples are The Killing, The Bridge, Trapped, Bordertown and Marcella. Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, for example, deals with misogyny and rape, while Henning Mankell's Faceless Killers focuses on Sweden's failure to integrate its immigrant population.