zoella - media lang and rep

    Cards (34)

    • Conventional camera technique
      • Single camera set up
      • Medium close ups
      • Direct address
      • Filmed by the vlogger themselves
    • Vlogger lighting
      • Soft box lights
      • Ring lights
      • To focus the audience on the vlogger and make the shots look more professional
    • Vlogger filming
      • Using mobile phones
      • Hand held 'shaky' effect
      • Feels more personal and intimate
    • Hand held camera shots
      • Add a feeling of realism and naturality
      • Create an 'amateur' feeling
      • But are often appealing to the audience who feel they are seeing the 'real' Zoella
    • Vlogger interaction with audience
      • Opportunities for audience to 'interact' or be 'active' by liking, sharing, commenting etc.
      • Vloggers will often ask viewers questions or instruct them to hit subscribe, or comment below
      • Helps to make the audience feel engaged
    • Zoella refers to other media products
      Adds to her representation as someone who is current, popular, fashionable
    • Zoella collaborates with other social media influencers/vloggers
      • Creates more intertextual references
      • Creates an impression of popularity, success
    • Sharing of content across multiple channels

      • Borrowing from each other in terms of content and ideas
      • Near identical videos, photos and written posts online across their channels
    • Zoella's awareness of the camera and audience

      • Sometimes showing off the camera or the lights
      • Breaking the fourth wall using a feature of postmodern media products
    • Zoella's video structure
      • Rough narrative eg 'Christmas Eve preparations'
      • Editing is quite fragmented, showing a montage of shots from different days or activities
      • Not a clear Todorovian narrative structure
      • Just glimpses into random minor events, rather than one major quest
      • A fragmented or non linear narrative is a feature of postmodern media products
    • Zoella is often trying to create the illusion of reality for her audience, unlike many postmodern media products that embrace surreal ideas and anti-realism
    • Continuity editing vs single camera vlogging
      • In most media products, continuity editing is used to create smooth scenes where the editing is 'invisible'
      • With single camera vlogging, it's hard to make the editing 'invisible' so we often notice things that wouldn't normally be noticeable
    • Vlogger editing techniques
      • Leaving in shots of the vlogger fumbling words, messing up, saying the wrong thing
      • Makes them more relatable
      • Jump cuts - obvious 'cuts' made into one shot where something has been taken out
      • Dip to black
      • Fades/dissolves to show passing of time
      • Different types of 'wipe' transition
    • Vlogger editing choices
      • About making them look relatable (eg leaving in mistakes)
      • Due to limitations of filming on a single camera set up (jump cuts, dissolves etc)
    • Vlogger pauses and silences
      • Often left in, which adds to the idea of reacting naturally and makes them feel relatable and less 'professional'
      • Helps build trust with the audience
    • Zoella's videos feel

      • Spontaneous and unscripted
      • Appeals to fans who want to feel they are seeing the 'real Zoella'
    • Zoella's language and humour
      • Informal words, colloquialisms, slang and direct address
      • Appealing to young audiences
      • Immature sense of humour and silly behaviour
    • Parasocial interactions

      Interactions that create a feeling the audience is friends with the vlogger and knows them
    • Zoella's written posts
      • Use of emojis, graphics or other symbolic codes
      • Appeals to younger audiences by making her seem youthful and fun
    • Zoella's mise en scene
      • Typically feminine eg pinks, pastels, gold, glitter
      • Her website uses this branding and style of femininity
    • Zoella's content
      • Lots of shots of makeup and hair products being used and demonstrated
      • Overtly feminine body language and actions such as applying makeup, touching lips and hair
    • Zoella's relatable activities

      • Cooking, cleaning, going out with friends
      • Helps the audience relate to her/identify with her and see her as a 'normal' person
    • Zoella's 'imperfections'
      • No make up, spots, crying, messy house etc.
      • Adds to the representation of 'reality' and makes it feel like we are seeing the REAL Zoella, even though it is likely still heavily constructed
    • Zoella's 'taboo' topics
      • Mental health, sexual health
      • Adds to the feeling of reality as we are seeing aspects that might traditionally be left out of typical media representations
    • The representations of Zoella in her posts are still heavily constructed
    • Zoella's posts may present a hyperreal 'simulacrum' of Zoella rather than the 'real' Zoella
    • Women are often represented in either domestic or sexualised ways in media products
    • Zoella's representation of women
      • Not often sexualised
      • Shown in 'family friendly' ways eg no swearing, no revealing clothing, a focus on fun rather than shock value
      • May be due to young target audience and avoiding bad publicity/losing sponsors
    • Zoella has gotten in trouble before for posting homophobic comments and general slurs
    • Controversial content could lead to Zoella's videos being filtered out or demonetised, so she represents herself as mostly 'clean'
    • Zoella's repetitive tasks
      • Often associated with femininity eg cooking, cleaning
      • May construct her identity as female and reinforce notions of femininity
    • Representation of masculinity
      • Often showing men eg Alfie, going to the gym, playing football, drinking beer
      • Sometimes represented in a metrosexual way, taking an interest in appearance
    • This may reflect growing social and cultural trends of metrosexuality and gender being more than just old fashioned binary stereotypes
    • Zoella's representation of powerful women
      • 'Who run the world' - some posts challenge gender stereotypes to a certain degree
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