how has the impact of technology been huge on the online media industry?
- convergent technologies such as social media, smart phones have led to the development of online bloggers and vloggers
- easy free access to these technologies allows anyone to become a blogger/blogger
how does the global and shareable nature of online media help vloggers?
-they can reach massive audiences and make huge amounts of revenue using a variety of platforms
-how many followers does Zoella have?
- 11 million YouTube subcribers
- 1.1 million instagram followers
- vlogging channel 4.5 million subscribers
how did Zoella brand herself in her early years as a vlogger?
(gender performativity, Judith Butler)
why has she tried to maintain that brand?
- branded herself as being relatable, normal ‘average girl next door’ representation
- used an everyday mis en scene to create this ‘girl next door’ branding’
- often would leave in clips that conventionally would be edited out, creates a sense of realism despite her identity being heavily constructed to appeal to the widest audience possible (Judith Butler) identity is a social construct
-had to try and retain that branding despite her being a much bigger micro celebrity
why do vloggers take advantage of MCN?
- MCN represents creators who publish content while receiving a percentage of ad revenue generated from the creators channels
- benefits vloggers because their content can be promoted to a much wider audience
- often MCNs can assist vloggers with production as they have their own team of production staff, studios and equipment
what MCN did Zoella use to belong to?
-Style Haul Network, an MCN for beauty vloggers
why would some audiences say that zoellas immense wealth has had an impact on production values of her videos?
- the monetisation has changed the focus of them
- she thinks carefully how she represents herself to audiences due to the desperate need to stay monetised and make profit
- carefully consider everything she posts to maximise revenue
what is hesmondhalghs theory and how can it be applied to Zoella?
- he believed that to maximise profit a producer should copy an existing successful format rather than make something different or original
- zoella made a spin off sister channel ‘more zoella’ to help her make more money out of her existing successful brand
why have brands turned to online advertising?
- due to the decline in traditional media products
- digital marketing adverts have doubled in last 10 years
why does zoella have a marketing appeal?
- advertisers use zoella as a brand to advertise their products because of the personal connection she has forged with her audience through her representation as ‘the girl next door’
- these connections driven by social media engagement give them a great deal of audience influence
- products that partner with zoella can gain a great deal of ‘credibility’
why do the ASA regulate online ads?
-to ensure that bloggers make it clear when they are doing a paid promotion
how does zoella make it clear she is doing a paid promotion?
examples…
- usually through hashtags like ‘soon’ or ‘sponsored’ or ‘paidforpromotion’
- she has an instragam post titled ‘paid partnership with etsyuk’
- a YouTube video ‘everyday festive glam look’ with the description including a phrase ‘this video contains paid for advertorial for benefit cosmetics’
why does zoella follow the paid promotion rules?
-she could get demonetised by YouTube resulting in no profit
when has zoella not made it clear when a promotion has been paid for?
- an instragam post of her wearing an asos dress for a paid promotion but she didn’t advertise it
- she got into trouble
how are social media pages regulated?
- not by ASA, there is not regulatory body
- social media pages have to self regulate by having rules on what audiences can post and rely on others reporting inappropriate content or algorithms
why is there a problem with self regulating social media sites?
- if content breaches regulations it is often already seen by millions before it is removed
- due to vast number of global users its impossible to ensure that content doesn’t breach the guidelines sometimes
when has zoella breached social media sites with inappropriate content?
- uses derogatory terms such as ‘tranny’ ‘fat chav’ ‘skank’ or homophobic comments
- she apologised for the content but it is still online due to our digital footprint
why did her vlog while driving cause bad publicity?
-she was publicly told off by a police officer because it could potentially influence younger audiences to be dangerous whilst driving
why does zoella stay ‘family friendly’?
- family friendly in terms of content e.g. no swearing, sexually suggestive content because their target audience is young and needs sanitised content such as ‘baking an epic chocolate cake’ or ‘ultimate pizza test’ videos
- friendly and informal and never covering anything controversial as she is always trying to appeal to the widest possible audience and avoiding being demonetised
why is it significant that Zoella has her own company A-Z Creatives?
- it gives her her own team of staff to help her run channels
- shes not an independent producer anymore
- she has her own manager who deals with brand partnership deals and publishing products she’s going to be involved in
- a manager for her social medias
- own creative producers who creates images and graphics
how does zoellas old blog site contrast her new website?
-her old one was more personal and informal reflecting her own individual contribution as a solo blogger
what is her new website like?
- she has developed it through restyling
- she has become a brand and a business so her website is reflective of her new status as a ‘brand’
why does zoella not write in first person anymore?
- instead of writing in first person, posts are written from the perspective of ‘we’ reflecting a more corporate approach
- in articles such as ‘between you and me: answering your problems’ she uses the plural pronoun ‘we’ in the description
- this is reflective of the fact that she is now so monetised that she’s lost her individuality and there’s a huge push on selling and profit
why is she constantly focuses on pushing her merchandise?
- doing vlogs about her own products such as ‘zoella x etsy’ or her advent calends
- she does it because diversifying into other synergetic products help to reduce risk and increase profit
- many bloggers have to diversify to get multiple chains of revenue
