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?

In the decades since, it’s become a catchall term for people who base their entire online existence around a specific fandom: 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. Ticketmaster and Swift quickly apologized, with the singer calling the process excruciating 

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

Stan accounts are like roving reporters in that they comment on the action live and as it happens, Stans don’t just root for their icons, they fiercely defend them. Anything perceived as a shot against their favourite. This shows how audiences are now actively engaging in the producers content and becoming "reporters"

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? 

Taylor Swift fans 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.

Swift shares a particularly intense connection with her fans. Fans frequently engage in Para social relationships with their celebrity objects of fandom, where they feel as if they honestly know the celebrity. These relationships are often portrayed as problematic in both academic and popular discourse. However, the connections fans feel to their favourite celebrities can be a healthy expansion to their online world.

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

To be noticed, however, fans must participate in particular, approved ways. The Taylor Nation twitter account retweets and engages with fans who have shared screenshots of merchandise, receipts, pictures of themselves with multiple copies of albums, or particularly over-the-top displays of emotion and creativity. This sets a baseline of what it takes to get their and Swift’s attention.

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

Fandom communities are often discussed as spaces of friendship and community. More realistically, they are hierarchical structures in which fans have their status elevated by participating in certain ways. For Swift fans, these hierarchies are heavily tied to practices of consumption, including the purchasing of concert tickets.

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

Swift’s business model is largely built on fan desire to meet her. You prove you are the biggest fan and you’ve made the sacrifices and spent the money to show it.

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?

Taylor swifts website and social media is constructed to mainly influence girls as she presents herself as a feminist and advocating her political views, she continuously posts about girl positivity leading her to have a huge female fan base.

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

Audiences can interact through commenting on her social media platforms for example TikTok, Instagram and twitter also buying merchandise and Tickets from her website. However, it is highly controlled through her teams management by monitoring comments maintaining a positive image.

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

Taylor swifts online presence continuously encourages audiences to interact and follow her ideas this relates to clay shirky as audiences are actively engaging. 

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 swifts online presence is mainly a promotion network for her albums as she updates her social media bio to her newest album, also on Instagram she doesn't follow anyone and only posts promotional content.

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

The preferred reading is Taylor swifts online presence is purely for content promoting her albums to her audience an d allowing them to purchase her tickets and merchandise. However, the oppositional reading is her online social media presence is to engage with the audience and build a better relationship

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? 

Such volume is the short answer to the question of how these companies are making money

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

ARPU means average revenue per user this is important as social media companies can find an average total revenue approximately 

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

Growing Meta’s user base to the point where it reached critical mass was obviously important to the company’s operations, but only to the extent that it provided something to attract advertisers 

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

Under the new system that Musk implemented in 2023, however, checkmarks became a symbol that users had subscribed 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. 

 -One of its suggestions is 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. 

-He said social networks should be required to weigh up all the potential harms that could be caused by their design and engineering decisions

-It also suggests adding "friction" to online sharing, to prevent the rampant spread of disinformation.

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

Among those contributing to the report were Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie

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

"If I were to produce a kitchen appliance, I have to do more safety testing and go through more compliance procedures to create a toaster than to create Facebook," Mr Wylie told the BBC.

He said social networks should be required to weigh up all the potential harms that could be caused by their design and engineering decisions.

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

When people believe in something that is false. I agree things can be objectively false For example, that Covid does not exist and that the vaccine is actually to control the minds of people. These are all things that are manifestly untrue, and you can prove that.

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

As they both benefit from things that harm the environment an oil company from pollution and Facebook from hate online

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

Platforms that monetise user engagement have a duty to their users to make at least a minimum effort to prevent clearly identified harms. I think it's ridiculous that there's more safety consideration for creating a toaster in someone's kitchen, than for platforms that have had such a manifest impact on our public health response and democratic institutions.

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

If it has just spent the past week showing you body-building ads, it could then hold off for the next two weeks. If you want to promote body building, you can. But from the user's perspective, they should not be constantly bombarded with a singular theme.

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? 

Taylor swift should say if she is being payed to promote a company as her followers want to go off her actual opinion on the product and not just her promoting a company cause she is benefitting from it

A/A* extension tasks

Read Deconstructing Taylor in Media Magazine MM51 which covers representations, postmodernism and the relationship between Swift and her fans. You can find this in our Media Magazine archive.

Read this Guardian article on teenagers and phone addiction. Do you recognise what it is discussing?

Read this Guardian article on the Online Harms Bill. What does it suggest regarding regulation of social media companies?

This Guardian article also explores the mental health implications of social media. Do you think that strict regulation of social media should happen?