Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks

 Audience

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?

Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters, Beyoncé’s Bey Hive, Taylor Swift’s Swifties, and Nicki Minaj’s Barbs.

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

When the presale for Taylor Swift’s tour turned into a battle royale for fans locked out of Ticketmaster’s system, frazzled Swifties voiced their disappointment.

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

Yes, because fans are making content back. The fact that fan accounts are a thing really encapsulates this.

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? 

They are known for spending significant amounts of money on albums, merchandise and  

 concert tickets.

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

Fans frequently engage in parasocial relationships with her by handpicking fans for “secret sessions” before album releases.

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

When Swift’s official social media team, Taylor Nation, engage with fans – by liking, replying to, or retweeting their messages – individuals often put the date and type of interaction in their bio to broadcast the attention they received to others within the fandom community.

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

Within the fandom, fans who travel to shows, attend multiple nights, or have seats near the stage are labelled “dedicated” and “committed”. Those who miss out on tickets often express their frustration at missing out to others who they don’t deem to be “real” fans.

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

Swift’s business model is largely built on fan desire to meet her. How do you meet her? You prove you are the biggest fan – and you’ve made the sacrifices

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?

No, they're made to appeal to all groups through the theming and the album versions.

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

Her DMs and account interacts with people from time to time. She comments and shout outs fan accounts. 

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

Taylor herself according to his ideas is meant to be a part of the audience but she is a producer instead. Many to may + fans also become producers and make content - mass amateurization.

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? 

I don't think it's designed to do so but her political opinions do influence others. 

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 = 2.96M/pm

X = 2019 was 300M/pm

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

Advertising - The media company is renting your eyeballs to its advertisers.

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

Average Revenue per User - measures the earnings generated per user or unit.

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

WhatsApp boasts over 2 billion monthly active users, which to Meta management means an even greater stock of susceptible minds to sell as a unit to companies looking to, for instance, move a few more smartphones this quarter.
 Every acquisition Meta has made since, whether it was $1 billion for Instagram or $19 billion for WhatsApp, was conducted with the same goal in mind.

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

Premium membership.

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.

 

Creation of a "statutory building code", which describes mandatory safety and quality requirements for digital platforms.

Implementing "circuit breakers" so that newly viral content is temporarily stopped from spreading while it is fact-checked.

Limiting the use of micro-targeting advertising messages

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, and former Facebook investor Roger McNamee - a long-time critic of the social network.

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

 "|You are free to say what you want, within the confines of hate speech, libel law and so on. But you are not entitled to have your voice artificially amplified by technology."

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

false information that is intended to mislead; deliberate misinformation. Yes.

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

An oil company would say: "We do not profit from pollution." Pollution is a by-product - and a harmful by-product. Regardless of whether Facebook profits from hate or not, it is a harmful by-product of the current design and there are social harms that come from this business model.

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

I do not think that business model should be allowed in its current form. Platforms that monetise user engagement have a duty to their users to make at least a minimum effort to prevent clearly identified harms. 

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

Perfect body images.

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? 

Yes, because otherwise it's misleading.