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To what extent do Zoella and Attitude reflect the social and historical context of the time when they were made? [30

The social and historical context of a media product is the issues, events and debates of the time they were produced. I believe that Zoella and Attitude both fully reflect their social and historical context. Zoella is an online blogger, with a target audience of younger teenage girls; her Youtube channel currently has 11million subscribers, and he been recently rebranded to Zoe Sugg. Attitude is a gay lifestyle magazine, produced by Stream, its target audience is British, gay men. It has an average circulation of 50,000 for its print magazine.

Zoella’s videos all conform to hegemonic standards of femininity. For example, in her ‘Zoella Apartment’ video she is seen to be wearing makeup throughout, this is a stereotypical representation of women and conforms to the beauty standards within today’s patriarchal society; the importance of makeup is anchored in this video by the various beauty products she advertises. Additionally, Zoella represents herself and women as shallow and materialistic, she does this by displaying her new candle in a mid-shot, whilst excitably talking about the packaging, rather than the product itself. This is an example of commodity fetishism, which represents women very stereotypically, therefore, Zoella is conforming to the hegemonic expectations of today’s society.

Furthermore, Zoella reflects the context in which she makes her content by constructing a hyperreal representation of herself. Hyperreality is a theory by Jean Baudrillard, meaning ‘more real than real’. On her blog, Zoella features a post about her “dreamy bar cart” in which she shows images of alcohol for only an aesthetic function; she creates a version of herself where she doesn’t drink any alcohol. Another example that shows she is a hyperreal construction is that fact she doesn’t sexualise herself at all. In another blog post where she shows the audience all of her new pyjamas, she is anchored to look virginal by showing almost no skin, smiling innocently, and being by herself on the bed. By presenting the audience of version of herself that is ‘more real than real’, Zoella is conforming to today’s online media culture, where people only show the best version of themselves.

Attitude online also reflects its social and historical context, by only representing a singular stereotype of gay men. All the models featured on Attitude Online have the same attributes, for example, they are tanned, muscular and have tattoos; this cultivates the idea to the audience that this is the only way gay men should look. The way that this reflects the historical context of the magazine is because gay men are ‘othered’, meaning they have been given this singular stereotype because they are different. This is similar to Paul Gilroy’s theory of post-colonialism because gay men are still being treated differently in today’s society, as a result from how they have been treated in the past.

Secondly, Attitude is an example of digital convergence, as they have combined 2 types of digital technologies to create their brand, they have both a print magazine and online website. Digital convergence is a very modern way that audience can consume media, due to advances in technology and web 2.0. Both the media products have synergy, meaning they each provide something to the audience that the other cant. For example, they are both targeted towards a different demographic within their target audience. Attitude online has more appeal to a working class audience, as it is free and has similar features to other working class websites, such as the Mirror Online. Whereas, the print magazine is targeted towards the “professional’ audience, it does this with its high production values and celebrity models that are known within the gay community, e.g. Jake Shears. As a result, Attitude can reach its secondary audience through digital convergence, allowing them to make more profit. This reflects its social and historical context because it shows that its publisher Stream has considered the modern technologies available to them.

In conclusion, both Zoella and Attitude present a singular, reductive stereotypical view of both women and gay men in order to conform to the product’s expectations in today’s society. Neither of the media products try to be subversive, therefore, they fully reflect the social and historical context of the time they were made.