Showing posts with label Mini Research Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mini Research Project. Show all posts
Thursday, 13 November 2014
Mini Research Project- Primary Questionnaire Results
I gave my questionnaire to 14 people from group A and group B, both male and female, to answer so I could get a good range of results.
I expected similar results to this for this questionnaire, as almost everyone will be exposed to Youtube videos most days even if they’re unaware of it. For example, there are a lot of direct links on Facebook and Twitter to youtube videos that play automatically as you scroll down your news feed therefore most people will view a Youtube video without going directly to Youtube and searching for a video on a specific topic.
‘Vloggers’ are now becoming some of the highest subscribed to channels on the whole of Youtube. They will typically speak about everyday topics like what they enjoy, what annoys them, the products they recommend and some of these vloggers even go as far as filming everything they get up to each day just to share with the internet. There are vloggers out there to suit almost any audience although discovering the vlogger that is right for you is a little harder than just searching for a music video or a cheat for a level on a game. The result of this question doesn’t surprise me as I am aware that a lot of teenagers are very interested in vloggers and dedicate a lot of time to watching their online content, however, I am also aware that a lot of teenagers haven’t discovered the vlogging side of Youtube as they don’t spend enough time just browsing Youtube, mainly just typing in the exact video they want and watching just that.
There was another option in this question which was gaming, as I am aware that gaming channels, like PewdiePie who has over 31 million subscribers, are some of the most popular channels on Youtube. No one within the group of people I asked chose gaming as the type of video they spend the most time watching on Youtube but this doesn’t mean that my results were inaccurate it just means that gaming videos may be more popular with a different age range or people from different parts of the world like China that has a very popular gaming culture. The most popular genre of Youtube video with the group of people I asked is music which isn’t surprising as it is a quick and free way to watch music videos and find almost any song you want, whenever you want. It doesn’t involve having to sign up or creating a playlist, however you can do so if you want. So it’s an easy and widely accessible way to listen to and find new music.
Over three quarters of the people who answered my questionnaire are familiar with who Zoella is, even if they aren’t a dedicated fan or viewer, most of the group are aware of who she is. If I asked this question a few months ago I would have expected less people to know who Zoella is but in the past month she has released her own range of bath products, has her own advert on TV, has her face on billboards nationwide and an advertisement for her Youtube channel is often featured on the Youtube homepage whether you’re subscribed to her or not and whether you have your own Youtube/Google account or not. All of this exposure means it’s unlikely that anyone hasn’t seen her name or face pop up at least once during their time on the internet, watching television or walking down the street.
Mini Research Project- Focus Group
I asked a random group of 5 people in the class of mixed to watch Zoella’s channel trailer which you see on the homepage of her channel before you subscribe and I gave them a list of questions to answer after watching it. I was unaware of who did and didn’t know who Zoella is and whether they were familiar with her videos.
The group all decided that Zoe’s target audience are females from the age of about 12 upwards who’re interested in style and fashion but she also appeals to people, male or female, who enjoy watching humorous clips on youtube as she collaborates with other Youtubers whose content may appeal to them more for example Tyler Oakley and Caspar Lee.
I asked the group if the one minute long trailer for Zoe’s trailer makes them want to see what else she has to offer and everyone said yes, even the males which I wasn’t expecting. The aim of Zoe’s channel trailer is to get people interested in what she has to offer with the intention of hopefully persuading them to subscribe. I think that the trailer has definitely succeeded as the people in my focus group who weren’t previously familiar with Zoella would be interested in watching more of her videos. The focus group also all said that they would recommend Zoe’s videos to someone they know who fits the criteria of Zoe’s target audience, being young females interested in style.
As creators of Youtube content are becoming increasingly more popular with mainly a younger audience I wanted to see whether watching a short Youtube video which is at an average of 10 minutes, is more appealing than a TV series that is an average of 8 episodes at 1 hour each. All five members of the focus group said yes, they would rather watch a short Youtube clip because it requires less of an attention span and the excitement usually happens throughout rather than a long build up.
I was interested to know how people would describe how Zoe is as a personality on her Youtube channel. I asked each member of the focus group to describe Zoella using three words, the words that were given were:
- Fun
- Friendly
- Positive
- Cute
- Funny
- Interesting
- Helpful
- Amazing
- Fresh
- Original
- Outstanding
I am not surprised with the words that have been used to describe Zoe as the trailer displays her in a very positive, fun and welcoming way. Despite Zoe being a stunning and typically beautiful girl, everyone in the focus group focused more on aspects of her personality when describing her which to me shows that it’s not just her aesthetic that makes her appealing and that her online content is genuinely helpful and inspiring to her viewers.
Mini Research Project- Secondary Research
Who watches youtube?
What are Zoella’s current channel stats and analytics? Including: views and subscribers.
This shows that Zoe’s channel is currently the 72nd most subscribed to Youtube channel in the world, meaning she is more popular than Lady Gaga’s official Vevo channel according to this website that shows the ranking of Youtube channels.
How has Zoe’s channel expanded in the past month?
The blue line shows the cumulative increase in views of videos on Zoe’s channel in the last 30 days. There is a positive correlation showing that the popularity of Zoe’s channel has been steadily growing in popularity with a couple of noticeable drops and fast increases. The quick increases are likely to be around the days that she uploaded a video.
This graph shows the cumulative growth of Zoe’s subscriber count over the past month. At the beginning of the month she had 5,994,449 subscribers and today she has 6,286,428 subscribers.
Zoe’s ‘Autumn/Fall Makeup | Gold Eyes & Berry Lips’ video is the 4th most popular beauty and cosmetics video this month. She has been beaten to the top spot by a video about how to get bigger boobs without surgery, this tells us that many people may turn to Youtube to seek advice because it is free and you don’t have to confront any ‘real people’.
What are the most popular channels on Youtube?
These are the 15 most subscribed to Youtube channels to according to http://vidstatsx.com/youtube-top-100-most-subscribed-channels. Zoe is at number 63 on this list. The majority of the channels in this top 15 are either music or gaming channels which shows that internationally, the most popular videos on Youtube are music and gaming videos.
Zoe is managed by a company called Gleam Futures. Gleam was founded in 2010 by Dominic Smales who is still the current manager of the team. They purely help Zoe as well as other Youtubers find opportunities in marketing and PR that will help Youtubers expand their channels and popularity, but they do not have any influence on the Youtubers content, they focus just on helping Youtubers get the best out of their channels.
Mini Research Project- Textual Analysis
Zoella’s Advert- Textual Analysis
As the Youtube community is beginning to grow dramatically in popularity, the stars of Youtube are beginning to become household names just like famous singers and film stars. One way that they are beginning to become more well known is because of advertisements for popular Youtube channels that are now being shown on primetime television. As well as the adverts being shown on television you will also find the adverts on the side of buses, billboards and on social networking sites. Everyone has access to at least one of these formats meaning that a vast mixed audience are becoming aware of the online Youtube community.
Zoella is one of the stars that has her own 30 second advert to promote her channel. Although the advert is only 30 seconds long you learn everything you need to know about her and her channel as it’s very fast pace and shows the key point of her life and what she has achieved. The advert starts with a blank white screen with Zoella and the Youtube logo written right in the middle. Only three colour, black, white and red, are used keeping it simple and attention grabbing. Over the top of this part of the advert you hear upbeat music and a voice over by Zoe herself. It was a good choice to use upbeat music as it reflects Zoe’s personality and the fact that she wants her channel to be a place for people to come if they want to feel supported and want feel comforted when they’re sad. The voice over music continue throughout the advert as Zoe begins to introduce herself and gives specific, straight to the point information about herself. With the small amount of information you find out that Zoe’s channel focuses on beauty, fashion and lifestyle and Youtube started off as a hobby and because of us, the viewers she has managed to achieve so much. The positivity of what she says is very inviting and she makes it clear that she is just a normal person who is very lucky, this is inspiring especially for a younger female audience as they may look at Zoe as a good role model who they could follow in the footsteps of.
The layout of the advert is very similar to the layout of a Youtube page, I think it was a good idea to do this because it reinforces that Zoe is an internet star, not a famous person from the television, also by showing the set up of a Youtube channel it offers people that are unaware of what Youtube is a chance to see what it looks like and how they may go about accessing it. The advert shows various clips from Zoe’s videos in the same format as you would see them if you were to go and watch them online. This is informative as you find out the average length of one of her videos, the punchy titles that tell you what her videos cover and you also see what her personality is like and as a young, attractive female she will looks like the sort of person that many young females aspire to be. 
An editing technique that think is very modern and relevant to what the advertisement is trying to advertise is a transition used to switch to a different piece of footage. To get from the shot where you see Zoe speaking in the style of how her Youtube channel is set up, to a close up of her face, a cursor comes onto the screen and clicks on the ‘full screen’ button. With the click you hear a typical mouse clicking sound and this is the transition to to next part of the advert where you see some more close up clips of Zoe’s videos. The same transition is used again to go back to the Youtube channel layout where you see the ‘number of views’ section of one of Zoe’s videos increasing at an extremely fast pace. As the number is rising it zooms in closer, I think this is a good shot to create an impact because it draws the audience to focus on how quickly Zoe’s popularity is rising suggesting that her videos are great and worth watching.
The final shot at the end of the video uses the same editing technique of the fast pace number increase to show the increase of Zoe’s subscribers. The creators of the advert may have wanted to emphasise how quickly Zoe’s popularity is increasing so found that this editing technique would be a quick way of showing it. The advert finally ends with the slogan ‘Youtube- Bringing out the best in me’ which is very positive and a strong statement. The slogan reflects upon the advert that you have just seen to make the audience realise that Youtube made Zoe become the BEST person she has ever been. This is a good slogan to enforce as many people that see the advert on television are unlikely to be viewers of online content therefore they may be ignorant about the communities online that also have negative connotations. The internet and social networking is often displayed in the media to be a dangerous place where people hide behind a screen as a way of victimising people. Zoe’s advert contradicts how the internet is usually publicised and shows that it is full of people, just like us, who share their lives with us in an easily accessible way that is growing in popularity.
Mini Research Project- Methodology
Youtube star and blogger Zoe Sugg (Zoella)
Zoe Sugg who is commonly known as Zoella, online, started her own beauty, fashion and lifestyle blog in 2007. Her blog started as a hobby but became very popular as more and more people found it. In 2009 Zoe decided to take her blog a step further by making a video blog on Youtube. She posts videos that are very similar to her blog posts where she discusses beauty products, fashion and also general lifestyle for example, she provides advice about anxiety to others as a sufferer herself. She now has over 6 million subscribers and due to the increase in popularity, in 2014 she is breaking the public market by creating her own range of beauty products and writing her own novel.
I decided to research Zoella because she is the person who increased my interest in media. I started watching her videos and reading her blog in 2012 and she was the first Youtuber I started watching. Since starting to watching Zoe’s videos I have found many other excellent Youtubers and I find them inspiring as they are just normal people talking in front of a camera in their bedroom. I wanted to study a Youtuber as they are becoming increasingly more popular with teenagers.
Zoe now has her own advert on TV that trailers her youtube channel. This is the advert I will do my textual analysis on.
Primary Research- I want to find out what teenagers aged 16-18 think about what teenagers think about Youtube as a format of media. Do people know who Zoella is? I will make a questionnaire to give to people in our media class and hopefully the other class too. I will also ask some friends out of the course to get the opinions of people who don’t have a direct interested in media studies. Once the questionnaires have been filled out I will analyse the data the answer the question: why are youtubers so popular?
Secondary Research- I want to find out figures and statistics about Zoe’s Youtube analytics also how she is gaining money and popularity from elsewhere. I would like to try and find people who have been influenced by her and also find out about the impact Youtube is having on society mainly with teenagers. I will use the internet to find the analytics and try and study the rise in Youtube analytics in 2014.
I have started this research as a viewer of Zoella so I am well informed about what she does and the impact that she has made on the lives of other fans. As Youtube isn’t a format of media that is widely advertised on the television, radio and other places where people may not specifically choose to see adverts, there may not be a large amount of people that are aware of the Youtube community. This could be a problem in my research if people don’t really understand the breakthrough of Youtube stars, however it will also widen my research as I will be able to gather information about the people who are yet to find out what the Youtube community is bringing to the media.
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