Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks

 

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?

@JuliaFoxSource, also known as Julia Fox Updates, boasts nearly 39,000 followers, and until this weekend breathlessly posted every update in the star’s life

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

for fans locked out of Ticketmaster’s system, frazzled Swifties voiced their disappointment

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

stan accounts reflect the idea of the prosumers as Stans produce highly edited fancams, translate lyrics, write fan fiction, and construct massive archive threads. They blend consumption and production

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? 

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.

By handpicking fans for “secret sessions” before album releases (often held in her own home) and hosting post-show meet and greets,

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.

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

For Swift fans, these hierarchies are heavily tied to practices of consumption, including the purchasing of concert tickets.

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

Swift’s business model is largely built on fan desire to meet her. How do you meet her? You prove you are the biggest fan – and you’ve made the sacrifices (and spent the money) to show it.

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?

it is aimed at teenage to young adult females due to her genre and her clothing. it is aimed at fans of taylor swift as only fans who understand her different eras will be interested 

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

Comments on social media posts - Taylor swift often posts her fans that attend her shows or create banners

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

fans do not passively listen to her music but instead are proactive and are prosumers

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?

she is very political on platforms like twitter which may influence her audience and reinforces the two step flow theory that she in an opinion leader 

she also uses her platform to promote her music , tours and other projects like her involvement in toy story 5  

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

preferred - she has a strong relationship with her fans and genuinely care about her performances for their benefit  

negotiated - she is only showing things that benefit her and using images of fans just boost the publics view of her 

opposed - she is using her fans in order to gain money through concerts and merch 

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?

In December 2025, Meta had 3.58 million daily active people worldwide 

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

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 - how much money one user generates them 

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

this means more users to sell as a unit to companies looking to advertise their products or services

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

checkmarks became a symbol that users had subscribed to X Premium

so other methods include monthly subscriptions 

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.

the creation of a "statutory building code", which describes mandatory safety and quality requirements for digital platforms.

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

data scientist and consoltant 

3) What does Wylie say about the debate between media regulation and free 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 - spreading news that is fake and pretending like its true. i think that there are things that are objectively true and false 

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? 

"If you have a platform that has the unique selling point of "we will allow you to promote hate speech, we will allow you to deceive and manipulate people", I do not think that business model should be allowed in its current form."

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

increasing mental health issues and negative self body image due to Instagram's promotion of the perfect body

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 audience should be aware that T.S is promoting a product because she is being paid not because she actually enjoys that product so that audiences aren't deceived