Zoella Case Study

Zoella Case Study

Language

Read this Marie Clare article on Zoella as an online phenomenon.

1) Who is Zoella and why is she famous? How many subscribers does Zoella's YouTube channel have currently?
Zoella started off as a blogger and eventually moved onto YouTube, Zoella is now a well known You Tuber who targets a teenage audience, but as she's been getting older she's been going down hill as a world sensation. Currently Zoella approximately has 9.7 million followers (updated 29 October 2019)

2) What is convergence?
Convergence is when things come together (intertextuality).

3) What are Zoella's videos about? Find five video titles and write them here:

4) What are the codes and conventions of vlogging videos?

5) How does Zoella use media language choices to create her online identity?
Zoella uses mise-en-scene to create her online identity with costume and ____, she also uses a ___ tone and informal language to create an sense of diversion and make it seem as if your talking to a friend.

Industries

1) How does Zoella make money?
Zoella mainly makes her money from promotions, advertisements (pre-roll ads) etc. But she also has her own book collection (ghost written), meet & greets, beauty line etc.

2) What is a digital influencer? Why is Zoella considered a digital influencer?
A digital influencer is someone who uses social media sites to become famous and influences other people, they do this by    Zoella's seen as a digital influencer because she has a lot of followers who keep up with what shes doing, for example shes a

3) Why do companies want to place their products in Zoella's videos?
Companies want to place their products in Zoella's videos because she has a huge fan base and gets an average of  1.1 billion views (and counting) on each video. Also, this would help them both out because she gets payed for doing this and the more money she gets the more videos she would make since it helps her money increase but this would also help the companies who pay her because if shes more active on YouTube she would get an even larger fan base meaning if she successes the companies would have success as well.

4) Why are YouTube collaborations so important for helping digital influencers like Zoella to grow?
YouTube collaborations are so important for digital influences like Zoella because it brings together her fans and the person she decides to collab with fans, this means that if each fan base ends up liking the video other other YouTuber that their one collab with they would then end up scrolling through the other YouTubers account and selecting videos that they may find interesting.

5) How has Zoella moved into a more traditional media landscape in recent years?
Zoella has turned into a more traditional media landscape in recent years by appearing on TV such as ITV's Loose Women show, having her own book (ghostwritten) etc.

Audience

1) Who is the target audience for Zoella's channel?
Zoella's YouTube channel is mainly targeted towards teenagers, as your able to see by the way she acts.

2) How are audiences encouraged to participate in or feel part of Zoella's brand? 

3) What audience pleasures are provided by Zoella's videos and associated products?
Zoella's YouTube videos provide the audience pleasures of

4) Applying Stuart Hall's Reception theory, what would a preferred and oppositional reading of Zoella?

Preferred (people who love Zoella): She's a great role model because she's seen as a normal down-to-earth girl just like her audience.
Oppositional (people who hate Zoella): She isn't a great role model because she's seen as being a hypocrite, for example she tells her audience that caring about looks leads to anxiety and depression but she has her very own make up line with Superdrug. Also, she has various tutorials on hair & makeup. She also does clothes hauls.

5) Why has Zoella been criticised by some people?
Zoella has been criticised by some people for the very thing that I had just said, she warns young females about caring for looks leads to anxiety and depression but in fact she's being a hypocrite because she doesn't follow what she tells her young audience to do.

Representations

Read this Independent article arguing Zoella is a bad role model for young women.

Next, read this Independent article arguing the opposite. 

1) What is your opinion on this debate - is Zoella a positive role model for young women?
In my opinion, I think Zoella is a bad role model for young women because she's constructed as you're able to see from her video's. No one that "works" as a YouTuber should ever be that happy, it's just utterly unrealistic. The connotations that young women would get from her YouTube video's would be to hide and cover up their emotions and that being a hypocrite is okay.
However, some people may disagree with my statement and say that she's a good role model because of how she constructs herself to be the "happy" human being that she is and that this would show young females to see everything as positive. Also to show people that everything is a new opportunity and the only way to do good and successful in life is to think positive as she does. An example of this would be Zoella herself.

2) What representations of women are provided by Zoella?
Zoella confuses her audience when it comes to the representation of women, she does this because she tells her female audience to not worry about the way that they look or anything like that but she's being hypocritical because in most of her videos shes caked up with make up. Also, she had released her own beauty line with Superdrug.

3) What representations of celebrity are provided by Zoella? Is a self-made YouTube celebrity more authentic or positive than a traditional music or TV star?
Zoella as you may already know isn't a traditional media star. She's self-made, she started off blogging at a young age then moved onto vlogging which she may do sometimes in her YouTube videos.

4) How does Zoella represent herself? Is this the real Zoe Suggs or a media construction designed to sell products?
Zoella represents herself as a ____ teenager and because of this I personally believe that this version of Zoe Sugg is media constructed and designed to sell her products so that she's able to make a reliable income. Zoella acts as if she's a 16 or 17 year old but she's actually 29 years of age.When she started YouTube she was ____.

5) What criticisms could be levelled at the representation of Zoella?