Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries

 

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?

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”. Ticketmaster ended up testifying in Congress in a hearing about consolidation in the ticketing industry.

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

Yes stan accounts reflect Shirky's ideas because it's an instance of consumers who would traditionally be fans on the sidelines have the chance to post and speak about there opinion gaining their own following of people who share the same values and beliefs.

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.

By handpicking fans for “secret sessions” before album releases (often held in her own home) and hosting post-show meet and greets, over the past 16 years she has carefully built the illusion of these relationships as reciprocated friendship.

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

When Swift’s official social media team, Taylor Nation, engage with fans – by liking, replying to, or retweeting their messages – individuals often put the date and type of interaction in their bio to broadcast the attention they received to others within the fandom community.

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. How do you 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?

I think her website and social media is slightly catered to a female audience although, she is a mainstream artist so she needs to try to appeal to a mass group.

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

Audiences can comment on her posts and she/ her team controls what and how to reply too .

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

Shirky can be applied to her multiple fan accounts where her audience are becoming prosumers. 

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? 

I think it's more to promote swift's work due to the constant links back to her music and other projects however, she does use social media to promote her liberal views too.

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

Preferred- She is a talented solo music artist, positively influential

Oppositional- She overly promotes a materialistic 'American dream' lifestyle and encourages para social relationships with her fans

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?

2) What is the main way social media sites make money? 

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

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

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

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. 

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

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

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

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

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

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

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?