Narrative
Go to our Media Magazine archive (issue MM79) and read the feature All Too Well on Taylor Swift and how she controls her own narrative. Answer the following questions:
1) Why is Taylor Swift re-recording her earlier albums?
She’s re recording her earlier albums to regain control of her music after her old record label sold the rights to it.
2) Why did Taylor Swift choose to make the short film 'All Too Well'?
She wanted to tell her story in her own words so she can take control of her personal narrative.
3) What other examples are provided in the article of Taylor Swift using media to construct her own image?
Some of the examples provided include: shake it off (telling her haters she doesn’t care about their opinions), bad blood and in 2017 when she altered her image using darker clothing and black eye shadow to make herself seem more mature.
Taylor Swift textual analysis
Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of Taylor Swift's website and social media.
1) Go to Taylor Swift's website. What do you notice about the media language choices - text, font, images, page design, links?
Use of modern sans serif font
Very little text, short sentences rather than big chunks of writing
Focus on imagery, taylor swift album cover
First thing on the website and on the menu is her Shop/Store - capitalism
Calls to action (shop now + sign up)
Tries to get users to sign up so they provide their emails and other info which can be used by companies taylor works with
2) Now visit her Eras tour microsite. What do you notice about the construction of this site in terms of images and website conventions?
Large central image of taylor from different eras - shows diversity of her music/career
Mainly images, very little text other than captions
Links to social media accounts with screenshots from instagram and has links to her socials at the bottom of the website (cross media convergence)
3) Visit Taylor Swift's Twitter feed. Analyse her use of tweets/posts - are they promoting her music, her tour, or something else? Can you find any that are socially or politically oriented?
A post from 2020: After stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency, you have the nerve to feign moral superiority before threatening violence? ‘When the looting starts the shooting starts’??? We will vote you out in November.
@realdonaldtrump
This post is highly political as it comments on her political views and she’s trying to influence her fanbases political ideas by telling them what she thinks about trump.
Her most recent post is promoting her newest album which shows that she mixes promotion and business with her personal beliefs on her social media.
4) Look at Taylor Swift's Instagram account. What do you notice about the selection and construction of images, reels and posts?
Her posts have a consistent warm colour palette
Posts cinematic shots rather than casual photos
Mix of promotion and personal content
Follows 0 people - not a casual instagram user
5) Research Taylor Swift across any other social media accounts - e.g. Facebook. Do you notice any differences in how she represents herself on different platforms? Comment on text, images or tone/content.
The content she posts remains very similar across all her platforms, she posts the same promotional content across all her social media but she used X to discuss more serious topics that she’s passionate about and to interact with her fans. Whereas she uses instagram,tiktok and facebook to post promotional content and participate in trends.
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