Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries

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?
Stan accounts are like roving reporters in that they comment on the action live and as it happens, Stans often have an emotional connection to stars and the themes they represent. 

2) Why did Taylor Swift run into trouble with her fanbase? 
Presale for Taylor Swift’s tour turned into a battle royale for fans locked out of Ticketmaster’s system

3) Do stan accounts reflect Clay Shirky's ideas regarding the 'end of audience'? How? 
Stan accounts, dedicated to fandoms and celebrities, Fans create and share content and engage this shows the active role rather than just consuming media.


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.
Fans frequently engage in parasocial relationships ,she memorises facts about each fan in attendance, and sends fans surprise gifts.

3) What have Swifties done to try and get Taylor Swift's attention online? 
The Taylor Nation twitter account retweets and engages with fans who have shared screenshots of merchandise receipts to get Swift’s attention.

4) Why is fandom described as a 'hierarchy'? 
As thoses fans who consumed more by buying the merchandise released are seen on a higher level then those who don’t ans are labelled as ‘dedicated’ and ‘committed’. And the 
core making them more worthy to meet Swift.

5) What does the article suggest is Swift's 'business model'? 
Swift’s business model is largely built on fan desire to meet her.


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?

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

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

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? 

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


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 billion monthly active users boosted by social media sites worldwide.

2) What is the main way social media sites make money? 
Advertising is the main way reason social media sites make money but Musk with Twitter rebranded and uses the blue check mark and gives them important and trusted famous people.

3) What does ARPU stand for and why is it important for social media companies? 
Average Revenue Per User(ARPU) and it is important as it gives social media platforms a revenue stream.

4) Why has Meta spent huge money acquiring other brands like Instagram and WhatsApp? 
Meta has aquired other brands as Instagrams nd Whatsapp as it helps the user growth and to increase revenue and also for vertical intergration.

5) What other methods do social media sites have to generate income e.g. Twitter Blue? 
Some platforms, such as X, are experimenting with other ways to make money, such as subscription services(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. 
•forcing social networks to disclose in the news feed why content has been recommended to a user
•limiting how many times messages can be forwarded to large groups, as Facebook does on WhatsApp
•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


2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 
He is a researcher of harvested personal data which Facebook users unwillingly share. Wylie advocates for data privacy and manipulation.

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? 

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