Revision: Zoella - Media Language and Representation

About Zoella and her content

• Conventional camera technique = single camera set up, medium close ups, direct address, filmed by vloggers themselves
• As lights have become easily available and cheap online, many vloggers use them (soft box lights or ring lights) to focus the audience on the vlogger themselves, and to make the shots look a bit more professional

Handheld shots

• many vloggers film their posts on their own mobile phones, which increasingly have great video capabilities
• this gives a hand held 'shaky' effect, but often makes it feel more personal and intimate
• the hand held camera shots add a feeling of realism and naturality to her posts
• it often creates an 'amateur' feeling because of the shaky nature, but is often appealing to an audience who feel they are seeing the 'real' Zoella
• many online media producers such as vloggers, give audiences opportunities to 'interact' or be 'active' by liking, sharing, commenting, etc.
• vloggers will often ask their viewers questions or instruct them to hit subscribe or comment below etc, making the audience feel engaged

Intertextuality

• Zoella often refers to other products in her posts (e.g singers, films, brands, celebs, etc)
• this adds to her representation as someone who is current, popular, fashionable, etc

Collaborations

• she also collaborates regularly with other social media influencers/vloggers which creates more intertextual references whilst also creating an impression of popularity, success, etc
• a lot of her content (e.g posts) are shared across multiple channels (e.g hers, Alfie's, Joe's, etc)
• they borrow from each other in terms of ideas and content, and often have a variety of near identical videos, photos and written posts online across their channels

Postmodern conventions

• she clearly shows us she is aware of the camera and the audience, sometimes showing off the camera or the lights, breaking the 4th wall, using direct address etc
• self-awareness is a feature of postmodern media products

Postmodernism

• whilst each video has a rough narrative (e.g 'Christmas Eve Preparations'), the editing often is quite fragmented showing us a montage of shots from different days or activities
• there is not a clear Todorovian narrative structure to most videos, instead they are often just glimpses into random minor events, rather than one major 'quest'
• a fragmented or non linear narrative is also a feature of postmodern media products
• whilst many postmodern media products embrace surreal ideas, and anti-realism, Zoella is often trying to create the illusion of reality for her audience
• in most media products (e.g films and TV) editors use 'continuity editing' which is designed to use different angles of the same shots to create smooth scenes where the editing almost becomes invisible to the audience and it feels as if it is one long scene
• by contrast, when vloggers film with a single camera from one angle, it's hard to make the editing 'invisible' and so often we notice things that wouldn't normally be noticable
• sometimes we will see 'jump cuts' which are obvious 'cuts' made into one shot where something has been taken out and two remaining bits of the shot have been sandwiched back together
• this is reasonably uncommon in other media products as it draws the audiences attention to the fact it has been edited
• other obvious editing techniques we might see in vlogs are things like a 'dip to black' or fades/dissolves to show passes of time/wipes
• the style of editing could be about making them look relatable (e.g the choice to leave in a mistake) or due to the limitations of filming on a single camera set up (when they end up using jump cuts, dissolves, etc)
• vloggers will often choose to leave in pauses or long silences which would often get cut out of other media products
• these pauses or silences add to the idea that she is reacting naturally to the world around her, and make her feel relatable and less 'professional' meaning some audiences will trust her more
• these videos feel spontaneous and unscripted which appeals to fans who want to feel like they are seeing the 'real Zoella'
• Zoella and many other vloggers use a range of informal words, colloquialisms, slang and direct address that appeals to young audiences
• her informal mode of address combined with her sometimes immature sense of humour and silly behaviour is a good way of appealing to younger audiences who may be able to relate to this
• parasocial interactions are those interactions with the audience which creates a feeling that the audience actually is friends with her, and that they do know her
• this creates a parasocial relationship between Zoella and her fans
• Zoella will also often use a range of emojis, graphics or other symbolic codes superimposed on her videos or photos, or embedded into the text of her written posts, and these appeal to younger audiences as well as making her seem youthful and fun

Setting

• vloggers often use 'personal space' for the location of their photos and videos, such as their homes (e.g bedrooms) or cars
• this adds a sense of intimacy as we feel like we are seeing her real domain, and acting as a 'voyeur' into her life and relationship
• the mise-en-scene is typically feminine (e.g pinks, pastels, gold, glitter, etc)
• her website echoes this branding and style of femininity by using youthful pastels, fairy lights, serif fonts that appear 'handwritten' and imagery of lace patterns and glittery backgrounds

Main focus

• Zoella also uses a lot of shots of makeup and hair products being used and demonstrated
• she uses reasonably overtly feminine body language and actions such as applying makeup, touching her lips and hair, etc

Relatable

• Zoella's videos and posts feature her doing a lot of relatable activities such as cooking, cleaning, going out with friends, etc
• this helps the audience to relate to her/identify with her and see her as a normal person
• seeing imperfections (e.g no makeup, spots, crying, messy house, etc) adds to this representation of 'reality' and makes it feel like we are seeing the "real" Zoella, even though it is likely still heavily constructed

Mental Health

• Zoella tackles some issues that are often seen as 'taboo' (e.g mental health such as anxiety, depression, sexual health (smear tests), etc)
• this adds to the feeling of reality really well, as we are seeing aspects that might traditionally be left out of typical media representations that are idealised
• fans feel as though she is exposing her real life
• you should still question how real the representations of Zoella are in her posts
• her posts are still heavily constructed (e.g images chosen, edited, text written, etc)
• perhaps what we are seeing is a hyperreal 'simulacrum' of Zoella
• many media products represent women in either domestic or sexualised way (Liesbet Van Zoonen)

Sexualisation

• Zoella and other women are not often sexualised in her content
• women are often shown in quite 'family friendly' ways (e.g no swearing, no revealing clothing, a focus on fun rather than shock value)
• she may choose to represent herself and others like this because of the young age of her target audience
• another reason is that she may want to avoid bad publicity, to avoid losing sponsors or brand deals
• she is not always successful in representing herself in a popular way and has gotten in trouble before for posting homophobic comments, as well as general slurs etc.
• controversial content such as swearing or offensive behaviour or imagery could lead to her sites being filtered from audience's searches, or could lead to her videos being demonetised by YouTube or only available as an adult audience which would restrict her income
• she represents herself as mostly quite clean to avoid negative representations
• Zoella performs a lot of tasks repetitively in her videos
• tasks are often associated with femininity (e.g applying makeup, trying on clothes, cooking, cleaning, etc)
• these performances may construct her identity as a female, and reinforce notions of what femininity means to the audience

Masculinity

• Zoella's content often presents reasonably traditional ideas of masculinity as well
• often showing men (e.g Alfie) going to the gym, playing football, drinking beer, etc
• however, sometimes men are represented in a metrosexual way
• this means we see men taking an interest in their appearance (e.g hair, skin, etc) in a way which we typically associate with women
• e.g face masks
• perhaps this reflects the growing social and cultural trends of meterosexuality for men and gender, being more than just old fashioned binary stereotypes (Gauntlett)

Empowering women

• as well as representing women in domestic ways, Zoella does also post content that often represents women in quite powerful ways too
• there are some posts (e.g Who Run The World?) that challenge gender stereotypes to a certain degree