Pennies.

Media Musings

[penniesblogs]

Recruitment Post

My research project aims to answer the question, 'are subject cuts having a positive or negative impact on students' university experience?'

To answer this question, I am requesting any other BCM 212 students who are willing, to fill out a survey that will ask a series of multiple choice and short answer questions concerning your degree.

All responses are anonymous, and you will not be required to fill out any identifying information. None of the data supplied will be used for any purpose outside of this project. No questions are compulsory, except for a checkbox informing me of your consent to use the supplied data for the purposes of the project.

The survey will be available until May 22nd.

Consent will be able to be withdrawn at any time up until May 29th.

If you have any questions or concerns about the survey, or wish to withdraw your responses, you can email me at: [email protected]

The survey is not currently up, but will be available soon here.

[penniesblogs]

Proposal for BCM 212 Research Project

This research project aims to address the topic of the recent University of Wollongong subject cuts. In particular, I wish to answer the question, ‘are subject cuts having a positive or negative impact on students’ university experience?’ My research methods will incorporate both a survey, as well as an analysis of literature. 

The survey will be used to more directly assess students’ thoughts and feelings on the proposed topic and question. A survey has the benefit of providing both qualitative and quantitative data. 

Qualitative data is likely to be collected from short answer responses that will allow survey-takers to respond to the overarching question with personal anecdotes and elaboration on why they chose certain answers to the more quantitative questions.

Quantitative data, such as percentage statistics, will be collected from multiple choice and yes-or-no-style questions. By collecting both kinds of data from the survey results, I hope to broaden the depth of my research, which will assist in creating a more in-depth response to the question. 

Additionally, an analysis of literature will aid in crafting a deeper response to the question, and may provide a means of exploring specific issues that the survey-takers might raise. Examining literature written about broader groups, such as university students in Australia, or more generally, may allow for an opportunity to compare and contrast the results of my own survey with the perspectives of academic works on relevant subjects. As such, I will mostly look at this after collecting survey data. 

At this point, I have looked at three journal articles concerning modular teaching structures. 

The article by Hennessy discusses students’ motivation for choosing non-programme electives, and brings up concerns about students’ essay-writing skills from both staff and students who took the survey. It suggests that it is the university’s responsibility to determine whether such concerns be addressed in the individual subject modules, or through modules that focus on such generic skills.

The article by Mazrekaj looks into the effect of modular education on school dropout rates. Its findings support the claim that ‘modular education has been widely used in vocational education and training programmes based on the premise that it reduces the school dropout rate significantly.’

The article by MacLaren is a discussion of the disconnect between the supposed value of creativity within universities, and actual managerial practice. It focuses on a number of topics relevant to the current subject cuts, such as workplace culture, planning and management, and curriculum and student experience. 

The UOW subject cuts have already proved frustrating to me personally, as a double-degree student within the arts and humanities faculty. A number of subjects I had previously planned to do have been cut, specifically those within the English literatures major, some of which were originally core subjects. As a student with already limited elective choices, removing these subjects has further reduced my ability to ‘customise’ my degree. I have personally found it a rather restrictive decision on the university’s part.

For this reason, I am interested to learn whether or not this is a sentiment shared by other students at UOW. I anticipate that the subject cuts will prove to be a currently relevant concern amongst students, particularly those who study double degrees and those studying under the arts and humanities umbrella. 

References

Hennessy, E, Hernandez, R, Kieran, P & MacLoughlin, H 2010, ‘Teaching and learning across disciplines: student and staff experiences in a newly modularised system’, Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 15, no. 6, pp. 675–689.

MacLaren, I 2012, 'The contradictions of policy and practice: creativity in higher education', London Review of Education, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 159–172. Mazrekaj, D, De Witte, K, 2020, ‘The effect of modular education on school dropout’, British Educational Research Association, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 92–121.

[penniesblogs]

Proposal for BCM 212 Research Project - DRAFT

This research project aims to address the topic of the recent University of Wollongong subject cuts. In particular, I wish to answer the question, ‘are subject cuts having a positive or negative impact on students’ university experience?’ My research methods will incorporate both a survey, as well as an analysis of literature. 

The survey will be used to more directly assess students’ thoughts and feelings on the proposed topic and question. A survey has the benefit of providing both qualitative and quantitative data. 

Qualitative data is likely to be collected from short answer responses that will allow survey-takers to respond to the overarching question with personal anecdotes and elaboration on why they chose certain answers to the more quantitative questions.

Quantitative data, such as percentage statistics, will be collected from multiple choice and yes-or-no-style questions. By collecting both kinds of data from the survey results, I hope to broaden the depth of my research, which will assist in creating a more in-depth response to the question. 

Additionally, an analysis of literature will further aid in crafting a deeper understanding of the question. I aim to look into academic research that may either support or refute the results of the survey. 

Literature may also provide a means of exploring specific issues that the survey-takers might raise. Due to the limited sample size of the survey (only BCM 212 students) some patterns or trends in the data might not immediately be visible upon first glance. Examining literature written about broader groups, such as university students in Australia more generally, may allow for an opportunity to compare and contrast the results of my own survey with the perspectives of academic works on relevant subjects.

Ultimately, this method of research should help to provide a solid, well reasoned answer to the question, that utilises both first hand experience from students and academic reasoning that might support and validate these experiences.

The UOW subject cuts have already proved frustrating to me personally, as a double-degree student within the arts and humanities faculty. A number of subjects I had previously planned to do have been cut, specifically those within the English literatures major, some of which were originally core subjects. As a student with already limited elective choices, removing these subjects has further reduced my ability to ‘customise’ my degree. I have personally found it a rather restrictive decision on the university’s part.

For this reason, I am interested to learn whether or not this is a sentiment shared by other students at UOW. I anticipate that the subject cuts will prove to be a currently relevant concern amongst students, particularly those who study double degrees and those studying under the arts and humanities umbrella. 

[penniesblogs]

Feathered Folk Update #4

You can now find my store at FeatheredFolkCo on Etsy, and my TikTok and Instagram pages @/featheredfolkco.

As you know, I've been working on setting up a small etsy shop where I can sell cards featuring my own illustrations of Australian native birds. As per my last post, I've actually finished setting up the shop, and have begun to work on some social media marketing. Though I'll be taking a break, this project has been quite the personal learning experience. This project has shown me just how much work is actually involved in setting up even a very small online store like this.

Before making my last update, I had been experimenting with prototypes for the cards. by getting samples printed at Officeworks.

Above is an image of my two samples. Both are printed on 200 gsm paper, with the left being on off-white with a glossy coat, and the right on uncoated plain white paper. I ultimately wasn't happy with either print. I liked the look of the illustration on the left print, with the gloss coat and off-white tone, but the coating also made it so that the inside was difficult to write in. Ink didn't dry properly, and it was difficult to use pencil. I felt that this really just defeated the purpose of a greeting card. The right hand card didn't have this problem, but it was also too flimsy.

I decided eventually to print at 300 gsm, with uncoated white paper, even though the cost of printing was slightly higher. I also reformatted the information on the back, as I felt there was something off about the design.

In the end, this is what I ended up with:

Below is my initial etsy store listing, with the description, which I made at the end of last week after I received my final prints. There were some additional, unexpected costs, such as a $20 store fee and a 30 cent listing fee that I had to pay, on top of the cost of printing the cards. It also took a little while to find the time to process the identity checks when updating the shop.

I had only uploaded images of the digital designs, and eventually felt that this was an inadequate representation of the product, especially for a public-facing post. I later took the product photos that can be seen previously, and added them to the listing, including an image of the cards in their packaging.

I also went on to create some social media marketing for the listing.

Though I had plans to create and upload a number of TikToks and instagram reels, the prospects of creating multiple short-form videos, in addition to the work of designing and prototyping the cards, became a little strenuous. I had a lot of time constraints between juggling work and three other uni assignments - two of which were due on the same date as this one will be. I was also limited in what I could do, by the wait times for all of the print orders. Though I will consider this short-form video content, and will hold onto the TikTok account, I decided to try to work with what I had just for this assignment. I created two slideshow posts for instagram using the product photos I had taken. One announced the release of the cards on etsy, and the other listed the designs featured in the pack. I also added the posts to my instagram story.

Additionally, I made an announcement on this tumblr account here, making use of more widely-seen hashtags that would allow me to not only organise my post in my blog archive, but also let the post be seen more widely. I tried to do that on this post as well. I also uploaded a notice on the BCM discord to reach a more local audience.

Though I didn't make any sales in this time span, I did manage to get some engagement with my store in the form of shop visits and views. I believe most of these came from word of mouth. I also gained two 'admirers' in the short time I had the shop up and running, who are people on etsy that follow my shop for updates.

[penniesblogs]

Feathered Folk Update #3

I've finally set up my shop! You can find my cards available for purchase here, @/featheredfolkco!

The cards feature four unique illustrations of Australian Native birds, including the Laughing Kookaburra, Willie Wagtail, Red-Browed Finch, and Cockatiel.

The cards are also Christmas themed, and available just in time for the holidays, making them perfect to send to friends and family overseas.

There are two of each design in a pack, totalling a pack of eight cards and envelopes. One pack is $15 AUD excluding shipping costs.

[penniesblogs]

Feathered Folk Update #2

Just another update on my FeatheredFolk store project!

Scope

At the start of the week I gave an update on discord which expressed a desire to shift my focus that I outlined in the pitch away from creating cards for a variety of holidays to creating cards that could be used for any occasion. However, I have since shifted this again to sit in a comfortable middle ground. For the project I will create a ten pack of Christmas cards, with 5 different designs, in preparation for the approaching Christmas season. This allows me to do slightly more creative things with posing of the bird characters, as well as hopefully being able to appeal to a more specific target demographic. It also sets up the possibility for more occasion-themed packs of cards, such as those for birthdays, valentines day, or anniversaries, without creating too great of a workload for the project specifically.

An Idea for Facts

When creating the below sketch, I expressed a brief concern to some classmates about how I was unsure which species of bird I wanted to portray in the image. One classmate suggested a local finch they’d seen in the area, which I was also familiar with. When I looked up the species, the thought occurred to me that some customers might not recognise all of the species of birds portrayed on the cards, depending on how well-known they are. As a result, I thought it might be interesting if on the back of the cards, I were to put the name of the species and a small fact about them. This would make the cards have a kind of semi-educational purpose beyond supposed visual appeal. This is something I might consider including going forward.

The design in question and the suggested bird - Red-browed finch:

Prototype designs

I decided to scrap two of the prototype designs that I used in the pitch, as I felt that visually they would be inconsistent with the slight diversion that I’ve made in the illustrations. This came about since my last post when I created the profile picture I would use for my social media accounts. 

The beak was specifically where this variance became clear. In one of my original designs, I drew a rainbow lorikeet, and in my profile picture I drew a galah. Both the galah and lorikeet have beaks that are distinctive to them, but are quite similar to each other in shape. In my lorikeet design, I stuck with a simplistic triangle, whereas the galah had a more purposeful beak shape that appeared to portray more dimension. This aspect of dimension was something I liked about my initial kookaburra design as well. 

I decided that the lorikeet didn’t look as much like the species of bird as I would’ve liked, resulting from the design choices I made at the time. For this reason, I scrapped it, alongside the cockatoo/magpie design which I felt didn’t have enough ‘personality.’ I may revisit it and try to push the poses to fix this, but for now I won’t go ahead with it.

I decided to create a couple more sketches of potential card designs in response. Some of these have issues, but these are kinks I can still sort out.

In order: Willie wagtail, Superb fairy-wren, Cockatiel, Kookaburra

I also turned canvas time-lapse recording on for this particular document, so that I can capture some footage that I might be able to use soon for some process videos that I can use for marketing purposes.

I also purchased a couple of materials for packaging.

[penniesblogs]

Feathered Folk Update #1

Just an update on what I've been considering for my Feathered Folk online store that I pitched a couple weeks ago!

Social Media Setup

One of the first things I did after pitching my project was to secure usernames for the different accounts I’d be using for the project. This included an Instagram and TikTok page, and an Etsy storefront, all under the matching name of FeatheredFolkCo.

Though I have the social media accounts secure and public, the Etsy storefront still hasn’t gone up fully. Etsy requires me to sort out a few odds and ends before they will allow me to make it public, such as at least one listing, and an identity check which I still need to complete. I plan to make the Etsy store available once I have actually made a final product, as I will want to be able to deliver on the advertised product as soon as I am able.

In the meantime, I have made a profile icon and a sample banner for the storefront. The icon is intended to be representative of the visual style of the products I wish to sell.

Cost Breakdown

Another thing I have considered since the pitch has been the potential cost breakdown. I plan to hand make the cards to minimise the costs of needing to bulk-buy cards which have been manufactured by an external party. My aim is to make a profit on the cost of a single card, even if it is only a small one. My biggest costs associated will be on the material that the cards are printed on.

One option I have considered is buying cardstock and printing them myself. The main issue with this option is that my home printer does not support paper thicker than the gsm of standard printer paper. This means that I would need to find an alternative location to have the cards printed. The uni might be a possibility, however I would need to confirm that the printers support the thickness I would require, and it may incur a printing cost. Regardless, if I were to choose this option, I would likely be purchasing cardstock to use from Kmart.

A 50 pack of 180 GSM, A4 cardstock from Kmart is $12. This comes out to approximately 25 cents a page. If I was to print two A6 cards on an A4 sheet of paper, this would come to about 13 cents worth of paper per card. This is a rather small cost.

Another option I have considered is printing them through Officeworks. If I was to go through this route, I would be able to choose from a greater selection of paper types, including gloss finishes and a higher GSM than what the Kmart option offers. I also have the ability to print them at an A5 size to start, meaning I would only need to score and fold each card, and they would have neat edges from the get go. The downside is the cost. Each card, at a baseline of 200 GSM uncoated A5 paper would cost 67 cents to print, which is about five times more expensive. I may try printing a sample in each of my possible options once I have a design available to do this with.

Another detail to consider when setting the prices is Etsy’s approximate 6.5% cut, as well as an attempt to keep costs down to appeal to customers. One of the details I mentioned in the pitch was the pricing of cards at stores like Woolworths and Coles, where prices for a single greeting card can range anywhere from $2 to $12 dollars. Due to the relatively low manufacturing costs of my items, I figured I could price the cards at $15 for a pack of ten. This would cost the consumer $1.50 per card.

After Etsy takes their cut, and the cost of the cards is considered (using the 67 cent Officeworks example), I would make a little under six dollars for a pack of cards.

[penniesblogs]

Feathered Folk - Pitch

Based on my experience in making cards as a part of gifts for friends and family, I've noticed an opportunity for myself to monetize an aspect of an existing hobby of mine. Therefore, my digital artefact will be an online etsy storefront which sells greeting cards centred around a consistent visual theme, utilising short-form video content as a means of advertising. The products will feature digital illustrations based on native Australian birds, including both regular and holiday-themed designs. The priority will be centred around delivering handmade packs of cards at an affordable price point, compared to the five to ten dollars one might spend on a single mass-produced greeting card from the supermarket.

Past examples and concepts:

Examples of social media content:

[penniesblogs]

Revisiting Twilight: The Twilight Renaissance

After a slow death since the 2012 release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 2, Twilight as a franchise has managed to make a resurgence in the public eye. Though the series began to see nostalgic success from 2018 onwards, thanks to a Netflix streaming deal, the release of Midnight Sun, and a global pandemic, 2020 appeared to be the year of the ‘Twilight Renaissance.’

Another large factor contributing to this resurgence in popularity is the dissemination of memes and other online content, particularly on platforms such as Tumblr and TikTok. Nowadays, though it is still largely female-dominated, the Twilight fandom is composed of a diverse range of individuals, from the middle-aged women and now-adult fans which long made up the original fandom, to more men, current young adults, and queer teens. 

One of the main staying powers within the fandom however, is a love of criticism for the franchise. As Sydney Dawson states in an article for Wired, “I don't think there's anyone more critical of Twilight than die-hard Twilight fans… I’m seeing elements in the books that maybe went over my head as a kid, like the ‘life begins at conception’ idea and the way Indigenous people are handled in the books,” (2023). Dawson, who wishes to conduct an ethnographic study of the series’ fandom, represents a new wave of fans who are critical of the series in a way which reflects but can still be differentiated from criticisms of the past. Just as both the series’ quality and themes have been examined in the past (Eate 2015), they continue to be examined in the modern day. 

However, the main point of difference is that it appears that many of these critiques are derived from a place of nostalgia and legitimate enjoyment. Other perspectives from the Wired article (Eakin 2023) clarify this. As Amy Taylor states, “It's things that were always there, but it took a while for some of the younger generation to catch up.” Natalie Wilson said that “We can read the books and enjoy the films and still question some of their messages.” Other articles such as Haley Johnson’s ‘I'll bite: Giving into the ‘Twilight’ renaissance’ (2022) and Jamie Khan’s ‘The Twilight Renaissance of 2020, the year it stopped being called lame’ (2020) reflect similar personal experiences.

As it stands today, the Twilight fandom is able to challenge many of the gendered-biases against it as a female-dominated fandom space. It is clear that though the franchise and it’s fans have been disproportionately criticised in comparison to their actual realities, that this fandom has since developed a much healthier culture of criticism.

References Colombo, C 2021, ‘TikTokers are reigniting the 'Twilight' fandom, with memes and trends based on the movie franchise going viral’, Business Insider, 8 November, viewed 2 June 2024, <https://www.businessinsider.com/twilight-tiktok-trisha-paytas-twilightcore-memes-parodies-millennial-genz-2021-10#:~:text=To%20achieve%20a%20%22Twilight%22%20aesthetic,appearance%20of%20vampires%20in%20the>. Eakin, M 2023, ‘The Internet Is Thirsty for Twilight—Again’, Wired, 31 October, viewed 2 June 2024, <https://www.wired.com/story/twilight-15th-anniversary-internet-remembers/>. Johnson, H 2022, ‘I’ll bite: Giving into the ‘Twilight’ renaissance’, The Michigan Daily, 18 January, viewed 2 June 2024, <https://www.michigandaily.com/statement/ill-bite-giving-into-the-twilight-renaissance/>. Khan, J 2020, ‘The Twilight Renaissance of 2020, the year it stopped being called lame’, Capsule 98, viewed 2 June 2024, <https://capsule98.com/features/the-twilight-renaissance/>. Robinson, E 2019, image, The Liberator Magazine, viewed 2 June 2024, <https://theliberatormagazine.com/2019/10/31/the-twilight-renaissance/>.

[penniesblogs]

Twilight and the 'Anti-Fan'

Although semiotic productivity is often associated with fandoms and fan culture, notably through means of textual production such as fanfiction and fanart, it is also true that all audiences of popular media will engage in some degree of semiotic activity (Fiske 1992). 

As such, it comes as no surprise that individuals who are less kind towards a particular piece of media or franchise will draw their own conclusions and respond in their own way to any given work. The ‘anti-fan’ can be described as somebody who is not necessarily against the idea of fandom, but someone who strongly dislikes a given text or genre (Gray 2003). This is an important distinction, as anti-fans can often be just as active as participatory members of fandom spaces, as those who identify themselves as fans. As Gray states, “hate or dislike of a text can be just as powerful… and [anti-fans] can produce just as much activity, identification, meaning, and ‘effects’ or serve just as powerfully to unite and sustain a community or subculture” (2005, p.841).

In her 2011 article, Jacqueline M. Pinkowitz discusses the concept of ‘excess’ in relation to the Twilight anti-fandom, specifically in relation to the late 2000s online community, the Anti-Twilight Movement (ATM), and how its representations of Twilight fans interact with the dominant cultural hierarchy. Through the group’s anti-fan behaviours, ATM perpetuated cultural notions regarding ‘high-culture’, ‘academic’ media, stating specifically that they were “protecting the name of literature” (2008). In doing so, the website highlighted the supposed inferiority of “the popular, the emotional, and the feminine” (Pinkowitz 2011). 

However, because the behaviour and media engagement of fans and anti-fans are similar, anti-fans such as those who comprised ATM can also be associated with the connotations of excess associated with fandom. 

ATM was aware of the fact that although it was rejecting Twilight's rabidly devoted fans, it had at the same time created an entire website dedicated to the Twilight books, inviting comparisons to the same rabid behaviour they intended to criticise. As such, ATM made attempts to convince site visitors of its lack of interest or investment—that ATM rejected the ‘excess’ displayed by Twilight fans and other anti-fans alike, aiming to position their critiques as inherently rational. On their FAQ page, in response to the manufactured question "Why do you put 90% of your energy into something you hate?", ATM wrote, "Ahahaha, 90% of my what? You obviously don't understand how fast (and easy) it is to make a website. We barely put any 'energy' into this." 

Pinkowitz also argues that the Ragemail page on their website would often be used to showcase Twilight fans at their worst, characterising critics of their community as petty and unsophisticated, traits typically associated with teenage girls. This allowed them to reject these “femininely gendered rabid fans” for their emotional volatility, youth, and perceived lack of education or intelligence (Pinkowitz 2011). 

ATM never reaches the levels of anti-fandom as demonstrated in Catherine Strong’s 2009 study of the Cracked forums, which observed that users saw Twilight, as “basically as close to worthless” due to its female target demographic (2009, p. 9). These anti-fans claimed that Twilight “sucks because it was written for teenage girls” (Strong 2009, p.9), a position not held by ATM, however they still perpetuated the placing of the feminine at the bottom of the dominant cultural hierarchy (Pinkowitz 2011). Similarly to phenomena such as Beatlemania, which was defined in part because it challenged the “then-prevailing ethos of teenage purity” (Pinkowitz 2011). The assertion of labels such as “rabid” or “manic” and the moral panics surrounding these majority-female displays of fan expression reveal societal anxieties about the mass-articulation of female desire, with the eroticized fan typically being depicted as female (Pinkowitz 2011). 

As a widely popular romance franchise, Twilight posed a threat because of its potential for the expression of female desire by its fans, and thus deserved to face similar descriptions of its fans as inherently irrational, in an attempt to police and restrict such expressions.

References Fiske, J 1992, ‘The Cultural Economy of Fandom’, in LA Lewis (ed.), The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, Routledge, London, pp. 30-49. Gray, J 2003, ‘New Audiences, New Textualities: Anti-Fans and Non-Fans’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 64-81. Gray J 2005, ‘Antifandom and the Moral Text: Television Without Pity and Textual Dislike’, American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 48, no. 7, pp. 840-858. Pinkowitz, JM 2011, ‘“The rabid fans that take [Twilight] much too seriously”: The construction and rejection of excess in Twilight antifandom’, Transformative Works and Cultures, vol. 7, viewed 4 May 2024, DOI: <https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2011.0247>. Strong, C 2009, ‘"...it sucked because it was written for teenage girls": Twilight, anti-fans and symbolic violence’, paper presented at Australian Sociological Association Conference, North Ryde, Australia. The Anti-Twilight Movement, viewed 2 June 2024, <http://theantitwilightmovement.webs.com/home.htm> (accessed through https://wayback-api.archive.org/).

[penniesblogs]

Critique and Creation: Fan Content

Fandom is the term used to describe a subculture of fans who are characterised by their shared common interest in a particular interest or activity. Whilst the subject of fan interest can encompass entire hobbies or media genres, it is often more narrowly defined, focusing on single celebrities or media franchises.

Typically, this media is associated with ‘low culture’ due to its association with disempowered members of the community. As such, it is often assumed by the broader culture that fandoms surrounding ‘low-culture’ media are inherently uncritical of the media they consume. In the case of fandoms which are comprised mainly of women, especially young girls, these assumptions are frequently intertwined with and influenced by patriarchal notions of gender, and the denigration of femininity. 

Female fans of media such as Twilight are often dismissed as a whole on the basis of their supposed ‘rabid’ nature, denoting a lack of rationality or ability to respond critically to the media being consumed. This reductively stigmatises female-dominated fandoms and female fans more broadly, in a manner reminiscent of historical, gender-based moral panics, such as late 18th century attitudes towards novel reading (IS 1798), or the ‘Beatlemania’ of the 1960s. In her 2009 article, Click references the media descriptions of Twilight fans from around the release of the movies, pulling from examples where media outlets utilised ‘Victorian era gendered words’. The New York Times described fans as “on the rabid side” (Rafferty 2008), USA Today portrayed fans as “in a frenzy” (Memmott 2009), and The Boston Globe suggested an “enthusiasm bordering on hysteria” (Gorov 2009).

However, the ability for fandom spaces to turn their semiotic productivity into textual production through the creation of fanfiction, fanart, and analytical media, disputes this notion. As Fiske (1992) argues, the circulation of such fan-generated content is what helps to define fan communities, and as Eate suggests, this is especially true for female fandom spaces, who frequently utilise the transformative nature of mediums such as fanfic to engage critically with the original texts (2015). As such, the typical image surrounding Twilight fans is both indicative of a cultural tendency to deride female pleasure and consumer power, and an inaccurate assessment (Eate 2015). Fanfic authorship provides evidence of how Twilight fans have resisted arguably anti-feminist sentiments present within the original works (Hendershot-Parkin 2010).

Eate’s essay in particular discusses how Twilight fanfic challenges the heteronormative conservatism of the original franchise. As the essay states, “throughout the Twilight Saga, sexual desire is strenuously policed via tropes of monogamy and compulsory heterosexuality” (Eate 2015, p. 47).

Despite vampire literature being used historically as a vessel to explore taboos regarding sexual deviance and fluidity, notably in texts such as Dracula and Carmilla, Twilight’s vampires instead function to allegorically elevate paternalistic, conservative messaging about sexual propriety and domesticity (Eate 2015). Feminist critics of the series have read the Twilight Saga’s themes as being indicative of cultural anxieties regarding the threat of women’s improved social standing and the normalisation of premarital sex.

Similarly, Twilight fanfic writers have responded to these gendered aspects of the franchise through the reconceptualisation of the relationship between Bella and Edward’s relationship. This tendency was uncovered within the mainstream when E.L. James’s Fifty Shades series was revealed to have originally been posted online as a Twilight fanfiction entitled ‘Master of the Universe.’ Another example outlined by Eate is that of the fanfic ‘More Than a One Night Stand’ by flutetenorsaxplayer, which although primarily being a vehicle for smut, devotes a large amount of its narrative to recounting the “drudgery of domestic life and motherhood” (Eate 2015, p. 49). The fanfic’s emphasis on the monotony of married life, however implicitly, criticises the tyrannical nature of patriarchal societal expectation which is so frequently pushed in Myers's original work.

Though these works may not be deemed of the highest quality, they still serve as important examples of how fandoms recontextualise the original works through semiotic means, and how this audience behaviour challenges the often gendered stereotypes concerning critical consumption in female fandom spaces.

References Click, M 2009, ‘“Rabid”, “Obsessed”, and “Frenzied”: Understanding Twilight Fangirls and the Gendered Politics of Fandom’, Flow, vol. 11, no. 4, viewed 2 June 2024, <https://www.flowjournal.org/2009/12/rabid-obsessed-and-frenzied-understanding-twilight-fangirls-and-the-gendered-politics-of-fandom-melissa-click-university-of-missouri/#footnote_13_4638>. Eate, P 2015, ‘A New Dawn Breaks: Rewriting Gender Wrongs through Twilight Fan Fiction’, in A Trier-Bieniek (ed.), Fan Girls and the Media: Creating Characters, Consuming Culture, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, United States, pp. 37-59. Fiske, J 1992, ‘The Cultural Economy of Fandom’, in LA Lewis (ed.), The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, Routledge, London, pp. 30-49. Gorov, L 2009, ‘As Jacob Black in the new ‘Twilight’ film, Taylor Lautner is ready for the attention and the hysteria’, The Boston Globe, 15 November.  Hendershot-Parkin, R 2010, ‘Breaking Faith: Disrupted Expectations and Ownership in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga’, Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 61-85. IS 1798, ‘On the Reading of Novels’, The Monthly Visitor, and Entertaining Pocket Companion, vol. 4, pp. 242-246. Memmott, C 2008, ‘Meyer unfazed as fame dawns’, USA Today, 31 July. Rafferty, T 2008, ‘Love and Pain and the Teenage Vampire Thing’, The New York Times, 31 October, viewed 2 June 2024, <https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/movies/moviesspecial/02raff.html>.

[penniesblogs]

Signs of Real Beauty

Exploring visual messages through the lens of the Dove Real Beauty Campaign. 

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was, and still is, a marketing campaign launched by Unilever in 2004. Its supposed aim was to help build up the self-confidence of women and young children through its body-positive messaging. The campaign has become well-known through its viral videos such as Evolution, Onslaught, and Dove Real Beauty Sketches. 

Evolution

Real Beauty Sketches

Over the campaign’s 20 year lifespan, Dove has managed to amass a large number of still-image advertisements. These images echo the themes of body positivity within their video campaigns, presenting Dove as a brand which is focused on inclusivity and feminist activism. Yet they still draw derision. Why is this?

To explore this question, we will examine the following image through the lens of Semiotics.

Semiotics refers to the study of communication through the interpretation of signs and symbols (Oxford, 2023). As individuals view an image such as the example shown above, they draw on both their own past experiences and the visual cues within the image, to interpret and draw out meaning from it. Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotic theories lay the groundwork for this process. Visual imagery is able to be dissected through two components – the signifier and the signified – which combined, produce the sign itself.

The signifier and signified may also refer to denotation and connotation, respectively.

The signifier is the literal representation. This may include sounds, words, or images. In the Dove example, this would include the models, their clothing, the text, the logos, and the bottles. Even the blank white background. On their own, these images say little, but when you introduce the mental concept, or the signified, the sign is now able to produce meaning.

“'Denotation' tends to be described as the definitional, 'literal'... meaning of a sign… The term 'connotation' is used to refer to the socio-cultural and 'personal' associations (ideological, emotional etc.) of the sign."

(Chandler, 2021).

The Real Beauty campaign has been criticised for a number of reasons despite its outwardly positive messaging. Heiss (2011) criticises how the campaign simultaneously challenges and reinforces traditional understandings of beauty through its omission of women with disabilities within its advertising. Dye (2009) critiques the way in which Dove markets itself as an esteem-building brand centred on natural beauty, whilst selling beauty-enhancing products.

“Signs are more 'polysemic' - more open to interpretation - in their connotations than their denotations.” 

(Chandler, 2021).

Using the example image, it is easy to see where this conflict emerges. If we look at the signifier (the group of women), the viewer may pick up that the women are smiling, embracing one another in a friendly manner. They each have what could be considered an ‘average’ or ‘real’ body for a woman. As a group, they display diversity in hair and skin colour. This signifies that they are comfortable with their bodies, and take pride in their appearance. It signals to audiences that they too, should feel this way about themselves.

If you take into consideration the logo, images of the bottles, and content of the text, we see that this is an advertisement for a product. It can signify to viewers that though these women are confident and beautiful, it is ultimately because they use Dove firming products on their skin. This is a more cynical reading, but arguably still an important one. It relies on an understanding of social context on behalf of the viewer (Chandler, 2019). A person in contemporary society is usually able to discern when an advertisement is being shown to them, due to years of lifelong exposure to advertising.

Of course, there are more ways to interpret the image, and the campaign as a whole. This is the crux of the concept. As Stuart Hall said;

“The codes of encoding and decoding may not be perfectly symmetrical.” 

(Hall, 1973, p. 4)

That is to say, different messages may arise or be lost when an individual decodes/signifies a message.

References Chandler, D 2021, Semiotics for Beginners: Denotation, Connotation and Myth, (No Publisher), <http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/sem06.html>. Dye, L 2009, 'Consuming Constructions: A Critique of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty', Canadian Journal of Media Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 114-117. Hall, S 1973, 'Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse', University of Birmingham, p. 4. Heiss, SN 2011, 'Locating the Bodies of Women and Disability in Definitions of Beauty: An Analysis of Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty', Disability Studies Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 1, viewed 31 March 2024, <https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/1367/1497#top>. 'semiotics' 2023, in Oxford English Dictionary, 2023, Oxford University Press, viewed 31 March 2024, <https://www.oed.com/dictionary/semiotics_n?tab=meaning_and_use#23560567>.

[penniesblogs]

What Even is an Active Audience?

What constitutes active audience behaviour at a concert?

After a six-year hiatus, New Jersey rock band, My Chemical Romance (MCR), announced a one-off reunion show to be held in Los Angeles, in late-December 2019. Tickets for the show sold out within minutes, and soon it was determined that further reunion shows in Europe and North America would be scheduled worldwide for 2020. These shows had to be delayed.

At a certain point in early 2022 I began to feel a particularly strong desire to engage with music in a way I hadn't done before. I really wanted to go to a concert. Aside from the Foo Fighters concert I went to when I was about nine-months old, I hadn't ever gotten to experience live music for myself. It was a true shock to my core when one day, as I was scrolling the MCR tags on Tumblr, I was confronted by (minimal) discussion of the new Sydney tour dates. Lo and behold, I managed over the course of a few months to both save up for the cost of the tickets, and to beg on hands and knees for two of my friends to come with me. In early 2023, we had made it.

Now, approximately a year later, I am challenged by the discussions around active vs. passive audiences. What behaviours really contribute to an active audience? How would these apply to my own audience experiences?

How do we define an active audience?

There has long been an assumption that audiences are made up merely of passive consumers of media, spurred on by ideas such the Hypodermic Needle Model, which relies on the basis that audiences are vulnerable to the influence of mass media, reacting to stimuli in a passive manner, as though it has been ‘injected’ into them. Passive audiences can be contrasted with Active audiences, who are understood to be more critical of the media they consume. Active Audience theory (Oxford, n.d.) is one aspect of the Encoding and Decoding Model (Hall, 1973), and argues that audiences do not just receive information passively, but are actively (and subconsciously) involved cognitively and emotionally in responding to media. 

What about live music?

Reflecting upon my experiences at the concert, I have come to realise a certain reality. Music is inherently participatory (Baym, 2018). Audiences will listen to music not just to pass time, but will often engage critically on an active level; through analysing song structure, lyrical meaning, and using it as a tool to process their emotions. They might create music themselves, or other forms of art. All of this prompts discussion. This process of engagement can be scholarly, or it can be personal and creative (Baym, 2018). For me, music has been a valuable tool for informing my own visual, or written works of art.

This aspect of collective experience equally applies to the undercurrents of the concert experience, which I have noticed when reflecting on my own experiences. When my friends and I went to see MCR, there was constant conversation and engagement, all surrounding the central experience of live music.

“the audience can play multiple roles… the content user, the content participant, the content spreader/endorser/annotator, and the content producer.”

(Ha, 2021 p. 28)

References Baym, NK 2018, Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection, NYU Press, New York. Ha, L 2020, ‘The Changing Audience’, in Mahoney, L. M, Tang Tang, (ed.) The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Media Management and Business, Rowman & Littlefield, London, pp. 27-28. Hall, S 1973, 'Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse', University of Birmingham, p. 4. OVERVIEW: Active Audience Theory, Oxford Reference, viewed 31 March 2024, <https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095348680>.