OSP: TAYLOR SWIFT CSP - AUDIENCE AND INDUSTRIES

Background and audience wider reading

1) What examples of fandom and celebrities are provided in the article?

- Julia Fox

- That Fangirl Life

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

- The presales for her tickets turned into a battle royale and fans were then locked out of Ticket Master. When fans voiced their disappointment Taylor Swift and Ticket Master apologised  and they had to testify in Congress about consolidation in the ticketing industry.

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

- Yes because stan accounts show how much power audiences really have over the their idols and how they can influence things with the use of media.

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

- They 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.

- She engages in parasocial relationships where they feel as if they know the celebrity. 

- She handpicks fans for "secret sessions" before album releases and hosting post-show meet and greets, this builds up a relationship of friendship between Swift and the audience.

- She memorises facts about each fan that attends and surprises them with new comments.

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, pictures of themselves with multiple copies of albums, or particularly over-the-top displays of emotion and creativity. They believe this will get her attention.

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

- It depends on their status of how much they have participated in different ways e.g. fans who travel to shows, attend multiple nights, or have seats near the stage are labelled “dedicated” and “committed”. Those who miss out on tickets often express their frustration at missing out to others who they don’t deem to be "real".

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

- Swift’s business model is largely built on fan desire to meet her. You can meet her by becoming the biggest fan.

Taylor Swift: audience questions and theories

1) Is Taylor Swift's website and social media constructed to appeal to a particular gender or audience?

- Her website is generally constructed to appeal to a female audience.

- Her website can attract an older audience  (senior swifties) as she promotes being able to listen to her music through the use of cassettes, tape and vinyl.

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

- There are opportunities to purchase exclusives and be a part of the Swift fan club. Fans also have the opportunity to comment on her posts where she may comment back. They can sometimes be featured in her posts and stories.

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

- Taylor Swift engages with her fans like they are her friends and not just consumers of her products in ways like communicating with her fans directly. She keeps up with trends her consumers would to make her seem like them.

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? 

- There can be some kind of influence like creating a sense of community where fans feel like they know her. She has recently showed support for Kamala Harris' political campaign. This can alter her audience's political view as it can cause her audience to therefore vote for who Swift supports instead.

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

- A preferred reading may be that she is relatable due to things she posts about and music she sings.

- An oppositional reading may be that her whole identity is a marketing scheme to make money.

Industries

1) How many users do the major social media sites boast?

- Facebook - 2.96 billion 

- Twitter - 330 million

- LinkedIn - 900 million

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

-  They primarily make money through selling advertising. 

- Meta's ARPU comes primarily through profits earned from advertisers who use the platform to reach customers.

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

- Average revenue per user.

- Companies rely on their subscribers and users to make a profit of a product based on the amount of money generated off of them.

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

- WhatsApp 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 

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

- Elon Musk implemented checkmarks, instead of the old blue ones that symbolised you had an important account, to subscribers of X Premium to recieve benefits. For example, editable posts, few ads, and longer posts.

Regulation of social media

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

- One of its suggestions is that 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.

- It also suggests adding "friction" to online sharing, to prevent the rampant spread of disinformation.

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

- Cambridge Analytica who contributed to the report made to establish to make non-binding recommendations to 38 countries.

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

- In most Western democracies, you do have the freedom of speech. But freedom of speech is not an entitlement to reach. You are free to say what you want, within the confines of hate speech, libel law and so on. But you are not entitled to have your voice artificially amplified by technology.

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

- Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. 

- I think things are objectively true if they are backed up by facts and not influenced by other things.

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? 

- It's ridiculous that there's more safety consideration for creating a toaster in someone's kitchen, than for platforms that have had such a manifest impact on our public health response and democratic institutions.

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

 - Issues such as the way "perfect" images on Instagram can affect mental health and body image. 

- This is a product of a platform that is making recommendations to you. These algorithms work by picking up what you engage with and then they show you more and more of that.

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? 

- It may not be good for Taylor Swift to make it clear when she promotes a company or cause because it will just show that shes being paid for whatever it is. This is because it can give off the impression she may not actually use the product shes promoting offline since hes being paid to promote it. The promotion may not be authentic.