Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks

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?

Lady Gaga - Little Monsters

Beyonce - Bey Hive

Taylor Swift - Swifties

Nicki Minaj - Barbs

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

Swift ran into trouble with her fanbase due to an 'excruciating process' with the Ticketmasters, where frazzles Swifties voiced their disappointment, leading for the Ticketmasters and Swift to apologise to her fans.

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

The idea of supporters and stans making accounts reinforces Clay Shirky's idea on 'end of audience'. This is because the individuals behind those accounts have control to do what they want as well as to support or criticise who they want, which could impact how other people, who uses the social media, see different artists. This also shows how these people's account will also have audience from their followers, emphasising how anyone can become an audience and producer.

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? 

Swifties spend their money on Taylor Swift's concert where they might have to spend more money if the concert is taking place in a different country, meaning they will spend money to buy the ticket for travelling, they might also spend money to merchandise that was offered by Taylor Swift herself. 

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

Swift builds a connection with her fans through parasocial relationships, where her fans may feel that they honestly know the celebrity. In addition, she personally picks fans for 'secret sessions' before her album is released as well as the idea of extra meet and greets, allowing her to build the illusion of her relationships with Swifties to seem as a reciprocated friendship. She also memorises facts about her fans and surprise them with a few comments as well as gifts. 

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

Swifties have to participate in particular ways, the Taylor Nation account retweets and engages with fans who have shared screenshots of merchandise receipts and pictures of themselves with copies of albums, which could gain the attention of Taylor Swift. 

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

Fandom is described as a 'hierarchy' based on how much the fans have consumed, including purchasing of concert tickets. In addition, fans who travel more, attend multiple nights or people who's seats are close to the stage during a concert are seen as 'committed' and maybe high up the hierarchy. 

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

Swift's business model is largely built on fan desire to meet her. Fans who seem dedicated and desparate to meet her as well as fans who have sacrificed to meet her, to prove that they are the biggest fan. 

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?

Swift's website and social media are constructed to appeal to mostly female fans, linking to the idea that she's a feminist and supporting other female celebrities, and the idea that she's trying to portray the idea of female empowerment. She might also try to appeal to audiences her age as she seems to be highligting her age and year through her account, songs, and albums. 

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

The audience interaction for Swifties on Instagram are limited, showing how much she controls her accounts which again reinforces female empowerment. However, on some of her Instagram posts and TikTok, fans can comment but not directly towards Swift, only to her team, Taylor Nation. 

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

Taylor Swift's online presence reinforce Clay Shirky's 'End of Audience' theories by allowing audiences to become active audience through commenting, liking and sharing. Her fans can co-create her media landscape rather than just consuming it. 

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? 

Taylor Swift's online presence has an impact on audience as it shows her being an influencer, especially to other women and female celebrities. I think it is designed to influence the audience's views on political issues as well as to promote her work as it showed on one of her tweets, where she was trying to endorse the opposition party, acting as an opinion leader (Two-step flow model), to her audience as well as the youth audience. Furthermore, she could perhaps also be promoting her song as some of her songs intertextualises with politics. 

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

Preferred reading could be that she is talented, well-established and independent. While the negotiated reading could be that she demonstrates pride in her work, or is it the idea that she's trying to improve her image or to continue her legacy. Perhaps the oppositional reading could be that she's gloating at her own success and reinforcing the capitalists ideologies. 

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?

There's 3.58 million daily active people worldwide in December 2025. 

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

The main way social media sites make money is by producing commercials for their audience to subconsciously watch, where in those 16 minutes of commercial are interspersed throughout the video.

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

ARPU stands for Average revenue per person. This is important for social media companies because trends in the number of people who view the product or what social media companies have made affect their revenue and financial results, influencing the number of ads that can be shown.

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

Meta spent huge money acquiring other brands such an Instagram and WhatsApp because they had over 450 million active users every month, leading to a path for it to be a billion. This allows them to gain more money as more people are using these apps, gaining more popularity and exposure. 

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

They verify accounts of important people such as celebrities and journalists to allow people and their audience that these accounts and identities can be trusted and had been verified. 

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. 

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

Banning the use of so-called dark patterns - user interfaces designed to confuse or frustrate the user, such as making it hard to delete your account

"Statutory building code", which describes mandatory safety and quality requirements for digital platforms

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

He is a British-Canadian data consultant and whistleblower best known for exposing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

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

He argued that people do have freedom to say what they want, but they are not entitled to have their voices artificially amplified by technology. He also argues that the platform's function leads to false and manipulative information on a wide scale, where he specifiacally talks about algorithms, which makes decision as to what people see or not. 

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

Disinformation is false, inaccurate, or manipulated information that is created and spread deliberately with the intent to deceive, mislead, or manipulate people. I agree that there are things that are objectively true but there are also things that may start as true and could gradually become false due to other people adding their own subjective opinions and views, which could perhaps lead to deceiving others. 

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

Because even if Facebook is harmful or not, its function and design could still lead to social harms to the people who are using it. Which was compared with an oil company, stating that they do not gain profit from pollution but pollution is still a harmful by-product.

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

Consequences of regulating big social networks could be that it could lead to less harmful content such as fake news, it could be safer for children and it could lead to less free speech as the rules would become stricter. 

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

Instagram had been criticised for their algorithms as it is constantly bombarding people a singular content, depending on what they have viewed. 

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 it is possible to apply these criticisms to Taylor Swift as it might have already been clarified to her audience that she is being paid to promote a company which could lead for her audience to see her as someone who is promoting more rather than actually producing her music and being a celebrity. Audiences might also get tired of her constantly repeating the same information in her life, which could perhaps lead for her to gain less audience.