ZOELLA Paper 2: Analysing audience and theory

PAPER 2 ZOELLA : Analysing Audience and theory

You may get a question in the Online Media section which explicitly asks you to apply a specific theory to your online texts and you will definitely need to know about key audience/representation  theories for at least one section of paper 2
Explain how the main audience theories we have studied can be applied to Zoella/Zoe Sugg and her audience

• Cultivation
• End of Audience
• Fandom
• Identity

Plan the key points you would make in the exam question below:

How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media?Discuss, with reference to Zoella. You should refer to relevant academic theories in your response. 

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     Gerbner's Cultivation theory basically tells us in respects to Zoella's youtube channel that the more we see representations of the stereotype that  young, teenage girls love pink things, make-up and hair, the more we believe it is true. We often see this in Zoella's videos as she always follows this stereotype, making her viewers follow her and try to be like her increasing the stereotype. However, her "Zoe Sugg" page is more formal and grown up where she talks about much more serious and relatable topics that may interest larger audiences. If people keep seeing young girls like Zoe Sugg doing similar videos with pink and cute backgrounds they further get the idea that most young girls behave in that way, when really there is a lot of girls who enjoy playing football or like cars. 

        Gauntletts' theory of Identity tells us that we follow the social media or internet to create our own identities. For example, young girls could be influenced by "Zoella" to behave in a certain way because of how social media tells them, for example the fact that they have to wear make-up, have pretty hair or take perfect selfies. This in a way could make people have a fake identity as they just want to copy others and be "normal" in society. With "Zoe Sugg" as another Youtube account and page, we can see that the person is physically the same one who  does the "Zoella" videos, however the attributes and character she plays are very different. This shows Zoe Sugg is torn between her two identities and is unsure if she should continue them both or stop one of her Youtube accounts. This is because her "Zoella" one is much more stereotypical and might not interest as many audiences now as it has been going on for a long time and people have grown up with her and changed interests. Both of her pages, however, are different identities and may not actually be who she really is behind the camera, she is just trying to appear interesting for her viewers. 

        Shirky's End Of Audience theory states that people may now be more influenced to respond to texts on Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat as they have become very popular in society and it is almost seen very peculiar if someone doesn't use social media. This could link to the way that fans of "Zoella" recreate make-up videos in her style and post them, trying to get noticed by her or accepted. A lot of people created Youtube accounts after seeing Zoe Sugg's success and find a lot of pleasure seeing their followers or likes going up as it makes them feel satisfied and content. The majority of people in this day and age believe that if they do not have enough likes or comments they are not good enough, which shows what internet and technologies or idols do to people's minds. Fans of "Zoella" watch her videos and head to social media to express their feelings toward them. The majority of her fans are girls aged 13 to their late twenties who enjoy and have a parasocial interaction to her videos, whilst the older people may believe it is wrong and is feeding bad things into young girls' minds.