Zoella + Attitude

• Zoella


  Zoe Elizabeth Sugg
• Age: 28
• She was working as an apprentice at an interior design company when she created her first blog 'Zoella' in February 2009
• Attitude magazine


  A gay men's lifestyle magazine launched in 1994. Britain's leading gay magazine. Also has international versions = successful.
• The fashion, beauty and lifestyle blog expanded into a YouTube channel in 2009, while she was working for British clothing retailer New Look
• She was named as one of the National Citizen Service's ambassadors in 2013, helping to promote the newly launched youth service. The following year she was named as the first 'Digital Ambassador' for Mind, the mental health charity
• Attitude magazine's website is a case study for Component 2 question 3: Online
• Her main channel, Zoella


  • Mostly fashion, beauty hauls, and 'favourites' videos (showing her favourite products of the previous month)

  
• It is studied alongside Zoella
• You may be asked to compare to Zoella, you may be asked to talk about Attitude alongside Zoella (but not directly compare), you may be asked separate questions about Attitude and Zoella (one question in Component 2 will be split)
• You need to study all areas of the media framework: media language, representation, audience, industry and contexts
• Her second channel, MoreZoella


  • Contains mostly vlogs where she shows her viewers what she does in her day
• YouTube subscribers – in excess of 12 million
• You will need to be able to apply to media theorists and the questions may ask for one specific named theorist
• Partner is Alfie Deyes, creator of PointlessBlog
• Homosexuality in the 1990s


  • 1990: The first gay pride event is held in Manchester. In July 1990, 4 gay men (Christopher Schliach, Henry Bright, William Dalziel and Michael Boothe) were murdered. Hundreds of lesbians and gay men marched from the park where Boothe had been killed to Ealing town hall and held a candlelight memorial. Justin Fashanu became the first professional footballer to come out in the press, but later subsequently committed suicide.
  • 1991: Queen singer Freddie Mercury announced that he had AIDS; he died the following day.
  • 1992: The first Pride Festival was held in Brighton.
  • 1994: An amendment was introduced to lower the age of consent for homosexual acts, from 21 to 16 in line with that for heterosexual acts. Instead it was lowered to 18.
  • 1997: Angela Eagle, Labour MP for Wallasey, becomes the first MP to come out voluntarily as a lesbian. Gay partners were given equal immigration rights.
  • 1999: In May, a gay pub called The Admiral Duncan in Soho, was bombed by former British National Party member David Copeland, killing three people and wounding at least 70. The equal age of consent proposed by the Labour Government was blocked again, after a campaign by Conservative MP Baroness Young was held against it.
• She is the named author of three novels, aimed at a young audience and detailing the life of a fictitious female blogger, although she works with an editorial team and a 'ghost-writer' through her publisher, Penguin Books
• Section 28


  The amendment stated that a local authority "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" in schools
• She launched a range of beauty products under the brand name Zoella Beauty in September 2014
• One of the reasons behind this section being created was because of how the media presented AIDS/HIV in the 1980s. The media created this negative stigma against gay/bisexual men and this correlated with the higher number of homophobic/biphobic incidents afterwards
• In recent years there has been a cultural shift towards user interaction through participation, connection and collaboration. This characterises the WEB 2.0 era. Digital technologies and the growth of the internet has drastically altered the media landscape. Online media texts, such as blogs, file-sharing sites (such as YouTube), social media (I,e, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.) are challenging the traditional relationship between producers, products and audiences. The cultural significance of content creators, such as Zoella, is measured in terms of subscribers to blogs and vlogs, and circulation of images in the mass media and mainstream culture.
• During the 1987 election campaign, the Conservative Party (under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher) issued attack posters claiming that the Labour Party wanted the book Young, Gay and Proud to be read in schools
• Legalisation of Section 28


  1. This section became law on 24 May 1988. Several protests were staged the night before by lesbian women, which included abseiling into Parliament, and one woman managed to chain herself to Sue Lawley's desk, and was sat on by newsreader Nicholas Witchell.

  2. On 7 February 2000, the first attempted legislation to repeal Section 28 was introduced by the Labour Government, but was defeated by a House of Lords campaign led by Baroness Young. On Thursday 18 September 2003 the Local Government Bill received Royal Assent and Section 28 was finally taken off the statute books. However, Kent County Council decided to create their own version of Section 28 to keep the effect of the now repealed law in their schools. This was eventually quashed by the Equality Act 2010.
• Zoella's blog


  • Simplistic style suggests a minimalist aesthetic which is popular within Gen Z and social media viewer cultures
  • Varied topics for articles demonstrates her wide range of topics in which she speaks about, how she targets different audiences
  • Use of 'Shop Zoella' links to the capitalisation of social media stars marketing and how merchandising is crucial in the financial side of social media and influencers
  • Use of the simplistic font illustrates her formality and the way in which her identity is positioned
• Homosexuality is more socially acceptable
• Zoella's blog images


  • High quality to demonstrate a high level of budget within her brand identity
  • Link to her instagram account to broaden the social media presence

  
• In 2014, gay marriage was made legal in the UK
• Style


  Implying that this is an aspirational article for people to fit in with trends of the time
• A lot more allies compared to the 1990s
• Matilda Djerf


  • Recognisable figure links to Dyer's star theory, more audiences targeted
• Use of collage


  • Links to trendy and minimalist aesthetic of the website
• Links to shop the clothes in Matilda's look

  Linking to 'Aspirer' audience in the psychometric audience chart

  
• Less of a negative stigma (especially in the UK)
• Clothing is on a more affluent side


  • Linking the audiences that the blog may be targeting
• Less of a stereotype that all gay men are 'flamboyant' and all lesbians are 'butch' or 'manly'
• Shop Zoella


  Linking to merchandising and capitalisation of social media presences
• More representations of homosexuality in the media = normalised
• History of homosexuality in the media

  • TV shows like Queer Eye introduce the modern idea of Metrosexual (A straight man who is interested in personal hygiene, fashion and shopping which is traditionally associated with gay men) through the use of five gay men of all races, and only one of them fits the stereotype of being flamboyant.
  • My Beautiful Laundrette is a 1985 British comedy-drama film, set in London during the Thatcher years and presents relationships between members of the Pakistani and English communities. The film focuses on Omar, a young Pakistani man living in London, and his old friend street punk named Johnny, they then both become business managers for a laundrette.
  • The first gay kiss on UK television was between Colin Russell and Barry Clark on EastEnders in 1987, during the AIDS crisis, so it caused a lot of controversy in the press.
  • The first lesbian kiss on UK television was between Margaret Clemence and Beth Jordache on Brookside in 1994.
  • Queer as Folk 1999 British television series that follows the lives of three gay men living in Manchester's gay village around Canal Street. The show focuses on three gay men (Stuart Allen Jones, Vince Tyler and Nathan Maloney). Though the TV show is a good depiction of the lives of gay men, all the actors playing these characters are straight men.
• Filmm


  • Links to digital convergence as she becomes part of her own industry but on the flip side
• Attitude magazine website


  • Masthead – sans serif, no capitals (modern, informal)
  • Colour Palette – bright colours, but lots of white space (crisp, clean layout). Topic colours (underneath stories) are all rainbow banner colours
  • Website layout & design – newest stories at the top (immediacy), stories categorised by topic. All shaped the same = consistent, clean layout (similar to other sites such as YouTube). Easy to navigate. Professional, but not flashy.
  • Website features – navigation bar, search box, picture slideshow, hyperlinks, videos, social media links (convergence)
  • Mode of address – informal on the whole, however more serious topics have more formal language to connote the serious nature of the story.
  • Mediation & Ideology – most stories specifically linked to homosexuality, gay culture, things that affect gay people (e.g. homophobia, specific diseases). Ideology = left wing (although apolitical) and liberal.
  • Multimodality & Hypermodality – uses a variety of mediums (text, video, images) & hyperlinks = both.