Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks

 Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks' and work through the following to complete your case study.

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?

Julia Fox — The article discusses a fan account which posted about her defense of Alexander Wang, then ultimately “drew the line” and shut down when Fox’s stance conflicted with the fans’ values
Matty Healy  — After he appeared on a podcast making offensive remarks, some stan accounts publicly expressed disillusionment or quit.

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

Taylor Swift’s trouble with her fanbase, as described in the article, revolves around the Ticketmaster presale fiasco. The presale for her tour became a chaotic event: many fans were locked out, unable to access tickets due to overwhelmed systems or technical failures. 

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

stan accounts reflect Clay Shirky’s idea of the “end of audience” because they show how fans are no longer passive consumers but active participants who create, critique, and influence celebrity culture.

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? 

They spend on albums, merchandise, and concert tickets including expensive VIP or premium packages and themed merchandise.

2) How does Swift build the connection with her fans? Give examples from the article.

“Secret sessions” before album releases, inviting handpicked fans to listen in her home and interact personally. Post-show meet‑and-greets, where she memorises personal details about fans (haircuts, relationships, achievements) and surprises them with references. Sending surprise gifts via mail — handwritten letters or gift boxes “reminding” her of the fan. On social media, engaging via likes, replies, retweets through her official account (Taylor Nation), especially for fans who post photos of receipts, multiple albums, or expressive fandom.

3) What have Swifties done to try and get Taylor Swift's attention online? 

Shared screenshots of merchandise receipts, photos showing they own multiple album copies, or elaborate displays of fandom. Posted content designed to attract retweets, replies, or likes from Taylor’s official accounts (Taylor Nation). Some even put the date and type of interaction (e.g. “Taylor replied”) in their bios to showcase that they were “noticed.”

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

Fandom is described as a hierarchy because status among fans is stratified based on consumption practices, dedication, and sacrifice — those who spend more, attend more concerts (especially multiple nights or travel), get premium seats, or display fandom more publicly are considered more “committed” and have higher status, while those who can’t afford as much are sometimes seen as less authentic fans.

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

The article suggests that Swift’s business model is built on fans proving their devotion through expenditure and sacrifice — in other words, her strategy is to monetize fan desire for closeness and recognition: the more fans spend and display their fandom (in hopes of being seen or meeting her), the more she benefits financially and in cultural capital. 

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?

Demographic analyses show her audience is majority female. For example, one report for Red (Taylor’s Version) found ~55.3% female vs ~44.7% male.

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

Social media: fans can reply to posts, tag her, share their own content (fan art, receipts, stories), post comments, react (likes, retweets).

Website and official platforms offer fan club / exclusive memberships, possibly secret sessions, curated content, behind-the‑scenes videos.Very much under professional / managerial control: content is curated, messages are carefully designed. Her official team (e.g. Taylor Nation) typically moderates correspondence or replies. Many interactions are “one to many” rather than direct two‑way.

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

Fans as producers: Swift’s fans don’t just receive her music; they actively produce content (fan art, lyric‑analysis, decoding Easter eggs, unboxing merch, sharing concert experiences). These fan productions feed back into the ecosystem.

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? 

Emotional connection & loyalty: By making interactions feel personal, revealing vulnerability, and showing consistency in identity, Swift fosters a strong fan loyalty and sense of belonging. Fans feel “seen,” “understood,” which increases engagement.

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

A preferred reading sees Taylor Swift’s online presence as authentic, empowering, and emotionally engaging, helping fans feel personally connected. An oppositional reading sees it as carefully constructed marketing that uses fake intimacy to drive sales and loyalty. A negotiated reading accepts the connection as partly genuine but also recognises the commercial motivations behind it.

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?

Meta (formerly Facebook) had about 2.96 billion monthly active users as of Q4 2022.

LinkedIn had about 900 million monthly active users as of Q1 2023.Twitter (now X) stopped reporting its monthly user numbers but the last figure cited was ~330 million in Q1 2019. 

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

The main source of revenue is advertising. Social media platforms offer “free” services to users and monetize by selling access to those users’ attention to advertisers. The larger the user base and the more engaged users are, the more attractive the platform is to advertisers. 

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

ARPU = Average Revenue Per User. It’s important because it measures how much money, on average, each user generates for the company. It helps social media firms assess how effectively they're monetizing their user base, and helps in comparing platforms or evaluating growth. Higher ARPU means more revenue per user; combined with user growth, it explains how these companies become profitable. 

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

To grow its user base further, so it has more “eyeballs” to sell to advertisers. More users = more advertising inventory. To prevent competitors from taking over those platforms — acquiring rivals or emerging platforms reduces market competition for Meta. To expand into different forms of engagement or different kinds of users (e.g. messaging, photo/video sharing) to deepen its reach and stickier services

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

Subscription services / premium features: The article mentions “X Premium” (formerly Twitter Blue) — paying for benefits like editable posts, longer posts, fewer ads, enhanced verification/security.

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. 

Platforms should be required to release details of their algorithms and core functions to trusted researchers, so the technology can be audited and vetted. 

. Implement “circuit breakers” so that newly viral content is temporarily paused or slowed while it can be fact-checked.

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

Christopher Wylie is the whistleblower formerly associated with Cambridge Analytica, who revealed how the company used millions of people’s Facebook data for political targeting and campaigns. 

He is one of the contributors to the report that the BBC article discusses.

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

He argues that freedom of speech does not necessarily imply a right to amplification — i.e. people are free to say things, but they aren’t entitled to have those things artificially amplified by algorithmic platforms.  He also points out that platforms are not neutral: algorithms decide what is shown or hidden, so regulating how platforms amplify or promote content does not necessarily equate to suppressing free expression.

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

Disinformation refers to false or misleading information that is spread deliberately. In this context, the article mentions egregious false claims such as that COVID‑19 doesn’t exist or vaccines are a tool of mind control — claims that are “manifestly untrue” and can be objectively disproven.

5) Why does Wylie compare Facebook to an oil company? 

Wylie likens Facebook to an oil company in the sense that pollution is a by‑product of oil production: the oil industry may claim it doesn’t intend to pollute, but pollution is a harmful externality of their business model. In the same way, he argues Facebook might claim it doesn’t profit from hate or disinformation directly, but those harmful outcomes are “by‑products” of its design and algorithmic choices, yet still real and significant. 

6) What does it suggest a consequence of regulating the big social networks might be?

The article mentions that if you regulate the major platforms, one possible consequence is that users might migrate to fringe “free speech” platforms that allow more extreme speech or fewer controls. 

 In other words, regulation may push some people toward more radical or less moderated networks. 

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

Instagram has been criticised for its effects on mental health and body image, especially via algorithms that push “perfect” images. The design of the platform tends to recommend content based on what users engage with, which can lead to reinforcing narrow aesthetic ideals and feeding unhealthy comparisons.