Attitude and Zoella - Identity and David Guantlet

Explore how Zoella and Attitude online manipulate audiences through ideology.

Representations (singular, straightforward or challenging?)
Attitude - The representations of Attitude magazine are simple and straightforward due to the fact they closely follow the stereotypical view of gay men - this manipulates the audience to follow these stereotypes - appealing to a mainstream gay audience - can appeal to a wider gay audience 

Zoella - The representations of Zoella are somewhat straightforward due to the fact she is shown to stick to the standards of being a stereotypical woman who is hegemonically attractive, by being careful of her weight, fashionable, wears makeup and conforms to societies rules - in most of Zoella's videos she is clearly wearing makeup - some more than others and she is never showing much of her body. - SHE IS THE PERFECT REPRESENTATION OF A WOMAN 

Mode of address 
Zoella - direct mode of address in videos as she is always looking directly at the camera and the audience - shows that she is speaking directly to you - makes it feel like whatever she is saying was directed for you therefore she can manipulate the audience through this. 

Mode of address in 

Product Placement
Attitude - In Attitude there are large sections of the website to show the target audience of gay men who have a disposable and large income, what they should be spending their money on which is an example of commodity fetishism. By doing this, it is manipulating their audience to spend money on certain products, which are mainly luxurious, in order to show their wealth.

Zoella - in the video "HUGE Summer Primark haul" - video resembles a long and unscripted advertisement - she has kept the pricetag on so she can tell the audience the price but could also be seen as a cultivation of materialistic and capitalistic ideologies 

Target audience (pink pound etc.)
Zoella - targets a niche audience - young teenage girls = around 13 years old - however in most of her videos, she isn't targeting an audience but instead  using algorithmic practice to target a theoretical machine fabricated audience
However when she was selling her products, her target audience was young teenagers but the price of the advent calendar was definitely not for teenagers

Attitude - Magazine and it’s online version specifically targets a gay male audience.However, the website clearly targets a working class gay male audience, and the magazine targets a more middle class, professional and aspiration gay male audiencePossible heterosexual female secondary target audience, who may appreciate highly sexualised images of men



Hyper-reality (realism?)
Zoella's blog and the pancakes but also: how she is pretending to be everyones friend - she probably doesn't love everyone who watches her video - her worries are completely different to our worries - she is worried about boxes candles go in - she looks perfect - her makeup and appearance are perfect - this is due to youtube and trying to draw in an audience 

Attitude - Constructs a hyperreal representation of gay male identity, and a world where everyone is young, musculed, and sexually available

Industry contexts (lack of regulation etc.)
Zoella uses algorithm to bring in an audience - Revenue predominantly generated through advertising and click-through - Zoella is also self-regulated which caused issues on instagram stories - Regulation - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt - she isn't regulated and neither is the internet - she got threatened with court action because she didn't clearly state she had been paid to promote a product on her social media account as it could break consumer law  (Competition and Markets Authority) - this is underlined by how ineffective the regulation of the online media is 

Attitude - online, the website goes against traditional regulation issues. However the website self-regulates, censoring swear words, and providing NSFW tags for sexualised content

How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media? Discuss, with reference to Zoella and Attitude. [30]

Aspects of identity can be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media in several ways because the ideology of the producer is being used to create the representations used within the media product in order to manipulate the audience. David Gauntlet's theory of identity follows the idea that audiences create their own identity through the media products they see. 

Zoella, is a vlogger who has 12 million subscribers and over 1 billion views on her Youtube channel, is seen as the perfect representation of a woman within her Youtube videos. She is seen to be hegemonically attractive by being cautious of her weight and wearing makeup. 

The mise-en-scene of Zoella's makeup in the video titled "HUGE summer primary haul" is clearly visible and shows she is wearing a lot of it. This reinforces the idea that Zoella conforms so hegemonic and society's rules. Zoella is a very non-sexualised character which goes against Lisbet Van Zoonen's feminist theory of women only being placed in media products for men. Zoella also represents a very motherly character through her actions of baking and picnics which represents stereotypical ideologies of what a perfect woman should be like. The audience's identity would be affected by the representation of Zoella due to the fact she reinforces the ideology that in order to be pretty, people need to wear makeup. However, on Attitude online, a gay magazine which has a large global audience,  a simple and straightforward representation is used within the articles due to the fact they closely follow the stereotypical view of gay men. On Attiude online, gay men are represented as being particularly interested in style, with a tab directly taking them to a whole page of style-based articles, including some linking them to particular clothing items they are likely to enjoy. By including these stereotypical views, they appeal to a mainstream gay audience and can also appeal to a much larger gay audience. The audience would be affected by this representation due to the fact it assumes that every gay man, enjoys style. George Gerbner's cultivation theory followed the idea that if someone is exposed to something over a prolonged period of time, they would follow these ideological views. Therefore if the target audience of Attitude, continuously read these articles about style, they will begin to believe that they must dress this way in order to fit in. 

In both Attitude and Zoella, product placement is used a lot in order for them to make a profit from their audience. In Zoella's "HUGE summer primary haul" video it resembles a long and unscripted advertisement of the clothing shop Primark. This is because, she has kept the price tag so not only can she tell her audience to go and buy the products but it is also a cultivation of materialistic ideologies and commodity fetishism, which is the idea that people need to buy products. Zoella is able to sell these ideologies through the use of direct mode of address. Throughout the majority of the video, Zoella maintains a direct mode of address with the audience which makes it feel like what Zoella is saying about these products was meant for the person watching. This highlights the fact that Zoella is able to manipulate her audience into buying certain things. Likewise, on Attitude online, there are large sections of the website to show the target audience, of gay men who have a disposable and large income, what they should be spending their money on which is an example of commodity fetishism. By doing this, they are manipulating their audience to spend money on certain products, which are mainly luxurious, in order to show their wealth. Gerbner's theory is reinforced through both of these ways of selling products due to the fact, the audience for both Zoella and Attitude are constantly being shown what products they should buy which would in turn affect the way audiences use online media. 

Zoella targets a niche audience of young teenage girls around the age of 13 years old. Zoella targets her audience is a number of ways but regularly through the title and subjects of her videos. The "Ultimate Pizza Taste Test With Mark" is targeted at a young audience due to the fact they are likely to be able to relate to Zoe and Mark sitting and eating Pizza. However, in most of her videos, she isn't targeting an audience but instead using algorithmic practice to target a theoretical and machine fabricated audience. Zoella uses algorithms as this is the way she makes the majority of her money. Curran and Seaton's power and media industries theory reinforces the idea that Zoella uses the algorithmic titles in order to attract a much larger audience and maximise advertising revenue. As well as this, Zoella's products haven't always targeted her young, teenage audience.This is because in 2017 Zoella released an Advent Calendar for an RRP of £50 despite her audience being young teenagers who wouldn't be able to afford this. This also suggests that Zoella is driven by profit and this would greatly affect the identity of her audience and the way they use online media because they would be misdirected in what they think they should be able to afford. Attitude magazine targets a more middle class, professional and aspiration gay male audience. However, the website clearly targets a working class gay male audience this is because the online magazine is free for anyone to look at therefore has a larger and more varied audience. As well as this, the images of hyper sexualised men in the 'boys' tab targets their audience with a voyeuristic and confrontational mode of address as they are able to look into the lives of stereotypically attractive men. This also suggests a possible secondary target audience for Attitude online as being heterosexual females, as they are likely to be highly appreciative of the sexualised images of men. Through the use of targeting their audience with sexualised images, it suggests that the audience of attitude may use online media in a way of sexual gratification. 

Hyperreal constructions are used in both Attitude and on Zoella's youtube channel due to the fact it constructs an idea that is actually better than reality, which is more likely going to attract a larger audience. In Zoella's videos she pretends to be everyone's friend and constantly repeats "I love you guys" throughout the majority of her videos, this creates a friendly and warming mode of address that the audience are going to enjoy. However, she probably doesn't love everyone who watches her videos because it could be anyone. As well as this, her worries that she displays on camera, are completely different to our worries. In the video, "THE ZOELLA APARTMENT" she talks to the audience about how she is worried about the boxes that she has designed for her candles to go in. Many people that watch Zoella, are likely to be working class young teenagers who would never need to worry about something as simple as this, which makes Zoella a hyper-real person. Attitude also constructs a hyperreal representation of gay male identity, and does this through posting images of heterosexual men with chiselled and muscular bodies. By creating this world where everyone is young, muscled, and sexually available it makes the audience believe that everyone is like this, however most people reading the article online would be aware that there are in fact very few people as muscular as the people being shown. By creating this hyper-real world for their audience to enjoy it allows the audience to begin to forget the reality of the real world and that not everything is as perfect as what is being shown. Lastly, Attitude online goes against traditional regulation issues as the website does show men wearing little to no clothing at all which shows that there is a lack of regulation within online media. However, attitude does self-regulate to a certain extent by censoring swear words and telling their audience where there is sexualised content. The audience would be able to create their identity through this self-regulation as they are able to view things they wish to see and don't wish to see. Zoella predominantly uses algorithm to bring in an audience as her revenue is made through and advertising and getting as many "clicks" and views on her videos as possible. Sonia Livingston and Peter Lunt's theory of regulation can be seen via Zoella due to the fact she isn't regulated and neither is the internet. In recent years, Zoella was threaten with court action because she didn't clearly state that she had been paid to promote a product on her social media account which could break consumer law. The lack of regulation of both Zoella and attitude would affect the identity of the audience and the way in which they use online media because they could come into contact with certain images that they don't wish to see, or they may be unaware that people are being made to promote things in order for them to earn a fee out of it. This could either lead the audience to being more cautious while using online media but in most cases people are unaware of the lack of regulation of the internet. 

In conclusion, aspects of identity can affect the way in which audiences use online media due to the ideology of the producer. Zoella is likely to have an affect on her audiences identity through largely promoting a stereotypical idea of how women should conform to hegemonic views of society and Attitude would affect the audience identity by showing highly sexualised images and representing gay men in a stereotypical view.