Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries

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?

Julia Fox and her getting cancelled because she walked in Alexander Wangs runway because he sexually assaulted multiple people. Julia Fox usually supports victims however she said that we should allow people to grow and heal from their mistakes.

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

the presale for Taylor Swift’s tour led to fans being locked out of Ticketmaster’s system. Ticketmaster and Swift quickly apologized. 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 because it is the stans who are able to make the artist famous and take away their fame from them at any moment

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? 

• albums
• merchandise
• concert tickets

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

She handpicks fans for secret sessions where she invites them to her home before an album gets released.

She hosts many post show meet and greets where she memorises facts about her fans and remembers things about them to talk with them next time she sees them.

She also has a history of sending her fans gifts and things that remind her of that fan.

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

The fans believe that interacting with her online gets you one step closer to meeting her in real life.

The Taylor nation twitter account will repost pictures of fans with a lot of merch or surrounded by the albums that they have bought.

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

Fans who travel far for shows as well as attend multiple shows, buy the most VIP tickets and are front row/seat as seen as the most dedicated fans. This helps them think that they deserve to meet Taylor Swift because they are showing how dedicated they are to her. 

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

That everything she does targets her fans directly and is a way for her to get more publicity or for her to make more money.

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 that her social media and website are aimed at both genders, I don't think that it targets a particular gender over the other. She tries to target as wide of an audience as possible so for her to just target one gender would not make sense.

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

Most of her replies are probably not made be her but by her team. Her fans will comment in her comment sections and will share theories about upcoming albums. Her fans can also post pictures hoping to get recognised by her or her other accounts like Taylor Nation.

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

It shows that the audience are now producers as they make lots of content about her and often help promote her music and her in general. 

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 that her social media is designed to promote her however because she posts so strongly about her political views it allows her fans to also align with them and therefore feel a stronger personal relationship with Taylor Swift as they share the same belief so strongly.

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

Preferred - that she loves her fans equally and spreads her views to the audience

Negotiated - she loves her fans but could only be having certain views to increase her fanbase

Oppositional - she only cares about her fans spending money on her and not them personally 

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 (META), formerly Facebook, had 2.96 billion monthly active users.1 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? 

People spend a long time on social media so they make money from advertisements 

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

Average revenue per user

Its how the can see how much they will make in total roughly

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

To get more active users that they can get companies to pay to advertise on their sites, this means that they will get more money and advertisers will get a wider audience

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

You can pay to get verified on certain apps

You can pay for more features on certain social media apps 

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. 

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.

adding "friction" to online sharing, to prevent the rampant spread of disinformation.

mandatory safety and quality requirements for digital platforms.

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

Data consultant and whistle blower

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

You are free to say what you want within the confines of hate speech 

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

Withholding or leaving out certain pieces of information, I think that when your given information it should be given in a holistic way with all of the information and not just bits of it 

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

He says that oil companies would say that they don't profit from pollution and it is just a harmful by product, Facebook don't profit from hate on their platform and would see it as a harmful by product. 

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

Platforms have a duty to make sure their audience is safe

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

that they encourage and don't do anything about the fake and highly edited pictures on their platforms which have negative consequences on young vulnerable people 

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? 

I think that she should make it very clear when she is promoting something so that her audience knows and doesn't just follow everything that she says without thinking first.