OSP: Taylor Swift CSP - Audience and Industries

Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks

Create a new blog post called 'Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks' and work through the following to complete your case study.

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?

Fans are seen as quite obsessive especially with big artists like Taylor Swift and are seen to be hardcore in the role of supporting her. Issy Aldridge said “Stan accounts are like roving reporters in that they comment on the action live and as it happens.”

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

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 apologised.Taylor Swift described this process as excruciating.

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

Yes, as audiences are no longer passive. This means they do not sit back and allow things to happen whether or not it is their favourite artist who has made a mistake, or a well known celebrity, stans will now hold people accountable and voice their views on everything whether it is positively or negatively.


1) What do Taylor Swift fans spend their money on? 

Taylor Swift fans are known for spending significant amounts of money on albums,concert tickets and merchandise.

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

Taylor swift personally handpicks fans to allow them to have a person relationship with her. For example she handpicks fans to engage in "secret sessions" with her of albums that have not been released.

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

They like,reply and retweet her posts and media to get noticed.

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

For Swift fans,hierarchies are usually 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. This is because fans show their dedication  through spending stupendous amounts of money on her merch and tickets etc.

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 blog post 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 fans are usually females although the age range is very flexible as any age can be a swiftie! Her songs largely focus around her troubles and breakups with boyfriends which many young and old females can relate to.

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

There are many opportunities. This is because Taylor swift is able to recognise fans through their dedication with constant posts of her work and being active on hers social media accounts. With this she is able to engage with her fans either online or directly sending gifts to display her appreciation of their support.

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

The majority of her fans are always active o her posts and what she does. They have an opinion on what she does, but more importantly they always have an opinion on those who may not support or enjoy Taylor Swifts music, which displays how audiences are no longer passive.

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 definitely has an influence on her fans opinions as well as their political views. Taylor Swift has an enormous platform which means she can and has voiced her political views, encouraging others to be inspired by her and have the same views.

5) Applying Hall’s Reception theory, what might be a preferred and oppositional reading of Taylor Swift's online presence?
 
Critics could view her online presence as overly calculated so she can maintain the loyalty she has built with her fans.
Whilst preferred reading would be that Taylor Swift always aims to build a community with her fans bu engaging constantly and recognising those that support her.


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

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

ARPU stands for average revenue per user and it is important as it explains their market capitalisation.

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

Whats App boasts over 2 billion monthly active users, which to Meta management means an even greater stock of susceptible minds to sell as a unit to companies looking to.

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

Hosting family photos and personal musings.

Regulation of social media


1) What suggestions does the report make? Pick out three you think are particularly interesting. 

  • Making it illegal to exclude people from content on the basis of race or religion, such as hiding a spare room advert from people of colour

  • Banning the use of so-called dark patterns - user interfaces designed to confuse or frustrate the user, such as making it hard to delete your account

  • Forcing social networks to disclose in the news feed why content has been recommended to a user


2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

A whistle blower, an individual who exposes information.

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

Social networks should display a correction to every single person who was exposed to misinformation, if independent fact-checkers identify a story as false.

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

Disinformation is information that is false. I believe that most things are subjective as the truth to everyone is different.

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

An oil company would say: "We do not profit from pollution." Pollution is a by-product - and a harmful by-product. Regardless of whether Facebook profits from hate or not, it is 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? 

These platforms are not neutral environments. Algorithms make decisions about what people see or do not see. Nothing in this report restricts your ability to say what you want. What we're talking about is the platform's function of artificially amplifying false and manipulative information on a wide scale.

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

Users are constantly bombarded with a certain theme created by their algorithm.

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? 

Yes Taylor Swift , if she does not, should make it extremely clear what is promoting and what is her genuine views to avoid any misleading or harmful information















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