Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks

 Background and audience wider reading

Read this Guardian feature on stan accounts and fandom. Answer the following questions:

1) What examples of fandom and celebrities are provided in the article?

- Julia Fox and her fandom (@JuliaFoxSource who is her biggest fan account)

- Ariana Grande - Arianators 

- Cardi B - Bardigang

- Lady Gaga - Little Monsters

2) Why did Taylor Swift run into trouble with her fanbase? 

When Swift's presale for her concert came out, Swifties (her fan base) were locked out of Ticketmaster's system which left Swifties to be disappointed. 

3) Do stan accounts reflect Clay Shirky's ideas regarding the 'end of audience'? How? 

They reinforce Shirky's ideas of "end of audience" as stan accounts produce their own content and news related to a celebrity which may not be filtered or professional. Furthermore, stan accounts act as unpaid advertising which reflects the blur of content and promotion. Additionally, the news and content published by stan accounts is unprofessional showing how the digital landscape of media as removed restrictions behind cultural industries. 

Read this Conversation feature on the economics of Taylor Swift fandom. Answer the following questions: 

1) What do Taylor Swift fans spend their money on? 

Swifties typically spend their money on tickets to her tour, travelling to different countries to visit more concerts and merch related to the concert or her album releases.  

2) How does Swift build the connection with her fans? Give examples from the article.

One way is by promoting a para social relationship with her. For example, she hand picks fans before her album release to discuss with them. She does this to construct the idea that she has a reciprocated friendship with her fandom. Furthermore, she also engages with her fans on social media by liking, replying to or retweeting their messages. 

3) What have Swifties done to try and get Taylor Swift's attention online? 

Swifties will try to get Taylor Swift's attention online by posting tweets online in an attempt to get Swift to like, repost or comment on their posts. Furthermore, they may share screenshots of them buying merch or expensive tickets to show their loyalty. 

4) Why is fandom described as a 'hierarchy'? 

Fandoms are described as a "hierarchy" as partaking in certain things (such as buying expensive tickets which is done in Swift's fandom) will elevate and increase their status and power.

5) What does the article suggest is Swift's 'business model'? 

Taylor Swift's business model is suggested to be built on fans desire to meet and interact with her as if she is a friend. Fans seem desperate to meet her as they purchase expensive tickets for her tours and try to interact with her online. 

Taylor Swift: audience questions and theories

Work through the following questions to apply media debates and theories to the Taylor Swift CSP. You may want to go back to your previous blogpost or your A3 annotated booklet for examples. 

1) Is Taylor Swift's website and social media constructed to appeal to a particular gender or audience?

I believe that Taylor Swift's website is constructed to appeal to a female target audience. This is because Taylor Swift herself is a feminist and focuses on empowering women which she does on her social media. This relates to her website as she provides links to her social media platforms where people can follow her and support what she stands for.

2) What opportunities are there for audience interaction in Taylor Swift's online presence and how controlled are these? 

Taylor Swift does control the interaction by limiting comments on her posts which shows the amount of control she has on her representations. However, audiences can interact with her fan pages and her team.

3) How does Taylor Swift's online presence reflect Clay Shirky’s ‘End of Audience’ theories? 

Taylor Swift's online presence reflects the "End of Audience" as her audiences and fans are able to create content on social media which promotes her projects and music without any professionalism.

4) What effects might Taylor Swift's online presence have on audiences? Is it designed to influence the audience’s views on social or political issues or is this largely a vehicle to promote Swift's work? 

Taylor Swift's social media is primarily to promote her projects and music's through sharing streaming links and merch related to her releases. However, Taylor Swift is open about her political views and urges her audience to follow her beliefs when it comes to politics and her stance on feminist movements as she is a well known feminist. Therefore it could be argues that the main design of Swift's social media presence is to promote her views on politics. 

5) Applying Hall’s Reception theory, what might be a preferred and oppositional reading of Taylor Swift's online presence? 

Preferred: Taylor Swift speaks up about the right things and focuses on a good balance on speaking out about politics and also her own projects related to her music. 

Oppositional: Taylor Swift speaks out too much on politics and is "woke". She doesn't produce good music and her projects related to her music videos that she directs are of low quality.

Industries

How social media companies make money

Read this analysis of how social media companies make money and answer the following questions:

1) How many users do the major social media sites boast?

Meta had 3.58 million daily active people world wide and has an average revenue per person of $57.03.

2) What is the main way social media sites make money? 

The main way social media sites make money is through profits earnt from advertisers who use the platform to reach their target customers. 

3) What does ARPU stand for and why is it important for social media companies?

ARPU stands for  average revenue per person which is important for social media companies as the number of people viewing a product or trend influence whether advertisers and companies want to be featured on that social media website. 

4) Why has Meta spent huge money acquiring other brands like Instagram and WhatsApp? 

Meta had spent huge amounts of money acquiring other brands and social media platforms to eliminate competition but also to increase the amount of profit they make from companies who want to advertise on their social media.

5) What other methods do social media sites have to generate income e.g. Twitter Blue? 

Creating subscriptions for social media users to join. For example, subscriptions that allow users to avoid adverts or on X they give users a verified checkmark which shows that the account is verified and can be trusted.

Regulation of social media

Read this BBC News article on a report recommending social media regulation. Answer the following questions:

1) What suggestions does the report make? Pick out three you think are particularly interesting. 

• - limiting the use of micro-targeting advertising messages

• - making it illegal to exclude people from content on the basis of race or religion, such as hiding a spare room advert from people of colour

• - banning the use of so-called dark patterns - user interfaces designed to confuse or frustrate the user, such as making it hard to delete your account

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

Christopher Wylie is a British-Canadian data consultant and whistleblower best known for exposing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

3) What does Wylie say about the debate between media regulation and free speech? 

People are free to state what they believe in but social media platforms shouldn't be used to deceive people and that people are not entitled too have their voice artificially amplified by technology.

4) What is ‘disinformation’ and do you agree that there are things that are objectively true or false? 

Disinformation is information that is false and have been spread to manipulate and mislead people. I agree that things are objectively true or false but the facts and truth about something can be changed due to people adding their own subjective opinions.

5) Why does Wylie compare Facebook to an oil company? 

Wylie compares Facebook to an oil company as it doesn't profit from the negative by-product of its usage but its business model causes harm to others due to this. 

6) What does it suggest a consequence of regulating the big social networks might be? 

A consequence that could come out of regulating big social networks is that less harmful content such as bullying or fake news could be spread meaning it would be much more safer.

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

Instagram has been criticised for only showing one type or theme of content to their viewers depending on what they have viewed previously. 

8) Can we apply any of these criticisms or suggestions to Taylor Swift? For example, should Taylor Swift have to explicitly make clear when she is being paid to promote a company or cause? 

I think this could be applied to Taylor Swift as she does promote content that may seem repetitive to her audience. For example, during the Toy Story movie release she repetitively promoted her music being on that show which some audiences may have found boring. However, she does post a lot of content that follows a variety of things as she posts about her different eras and releases.