Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries

Audience

Background and audience wider reading

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

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

Fandoms are a big part of celebrities as they make up their popularity and followings and even sometimes promotions. The example shows is about Fox's fandom wanted no part in hr updates as she spoke up on wanting to give Wang, who follows sexual assault allegations, time to heal and learn from his mistakes. This lead most of Fox's fandom to re-think and stop their support slowly pulling down the artists career.

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

The was chaos when people tried buying tickets on ticket master where fans where locked out and Taylor called this 'excruciating'. Ticketmaster ended up testifying in Congress in a hearing about consolidation in the ticketing industry.

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

They do as a new audience has begun where they are able to share and post online initially being apart of social media having a say in many conversations.

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 mostly spend them on money on albums, merchandise and concert tickets.

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

She builds connections with a parasocial relationship, actively courting this through handpicking fans for secret session or even replying/liking posts.

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

They believed being noticed on social media puts you a step closer to meeting Swift in person so they make fan accounts, comment, like tweet and even at Taylor.

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

As its fans have their status elevated by participating in certain ways. For swifts this follows  practices of consumption, including the purchasing of concert tickets.

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

It is because its based on how her fans desire to meet her making her a more desirable persona as many look up to her.

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?

It applies to both Gen Z and millennials focusing on mostly white women. Her audience is between the younger age of 12 to a lot older like 50. 

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

Many opportunities come from social media where they only see what persona she chose to reveal whilst most of her personal life is concealed. Lots of her responses and tweets are very casual showing how she has her own control over her socials when not promoting her album.

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

Her online presence shows the end of an audience through fans being able to actually interact with content and even promote/share her posts rather than just being consumers.

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 is seen to endorse Kamal Harris, supporting her campaign in the election. Doing this makes her fans want to follow in her footsteps when it comes to these political issues. This leads to a lot of favouritism and usage as not only is Kamala using Taylor to her advantage but the same is happening in reverse.

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

The preferred reading could be about her feminist movement and her being a strong figure for women to look up to especially as a popular artist. The oppositional could be how she used this idea of feminism and leadership for her fans but instead is subverting this all in her album as she sexualises herself.

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?

As of Q4 2022, Meta, formerly Facebook, had 2.96 billion monthly active users. Twitter (now X) stopped reporting monthly active users, but the last count in Q1 2019 was 330 million, while LinkedIn had about 900 million monthly active users as of Q1 2023.

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

It makes money through your enjoyment which also turns into a temporary distraction by media company's.

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

It stands for 'Average Revenue Per User'.

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

It has spend a lot as WhatsApp has over 2 billion monthly active users, which makes a even greater  stock of susceptible minds to sell as a unit to companies looking to, for instance, move a few more smartphones this quarter. 

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

Theres some thing like subscribing to X Premium. X Premium subscribers receive benefits including editable posts, fewer ads, longer posts, and more robust security measures. This service costs $8 per month or $84 per year.

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. 

The suggestions are that social networks should be required to release details of their algorithms and core functions to trusted researchers, in order for the technology to be vetted. It also suggests adding "friction" to online sharing, to prevent the rampant spread of disinformation.

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

He is Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, and former Facebook investor Roger McNamee.

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

He says that 'In most Western democracies, you do have the freedom of speech. But freedom of speech is not an entitlement to reach. 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. These platforms are not neutral environments. Algorithms make decisions about what people see or do not see.'

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

Its when there is misleading information put online to deceive audiences. I believe that there are things that are objectively true or false such as an opinion which can rely on the audience perspective to see if they follow it.

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

He says that an oil company would say: "We do not profit from pollution" where it is a by-product - and a harmful by-product. He shows that Facebook is similar, regardless if it profits from hate, its 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? 

It writes how platforms that monitor user engagement have a minimum effort of actually preventing harm coming to them. There are less safety considerations for an online social media platform that has proven to negatively impact someone's mental health.

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

It is criticised for showing constant ads on the body, the way it promotes these ideal body's to people especially young girls is a damaging nature. From the user's perspective, they should not be constantly bombarded with a singular theme. They are criticised for unrealistic 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? 

We can apply a lot to Taylor Swift from her unclear paid promotions whereas some loyal fans are willing to give in others may just want to explore, making they're own decisions. Although she is seen being honest with her paid promotion when it comes to giving feedback and reviews showing her constant care for anyone watching her music videos. Another criticism is her whole feminist persona that is instantly contrasted with her whole album living up to traditional stereotypes of sexualising the female body and making it desirable.