Taylor Swift: Language and Representations blog tasks

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? 

To regain control over them.

2) Why did Taylor Swift choose to make the short film 'All Too Well'? 

3) What other examples are provided in the article of Taylor Swift using media to construct her own image? 


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?

Colour scheme: black/white/grey
Typography: Serif
Top menu-  website convention
Image analysis- revealing, van Zoonen's theory that she is seen as spectacle, image dehumanise TS by cutting off her face
Front page of store- Physical media


2) Now visit her Eras tour microsite. What do you notice about the construction of this site in terms of images and website conventions? 

Structure encourages fans to spend money
Front page of TS's online store- all physical media (castes tapes, CD's). This gives fan an opperturnity for them to have physical items to demonstrate their love for her
Serif typography
Similarity to Nirvana


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? 

Banner image is consistent with her other platforms
Political Influence- she was addressing Trump and calling him out 
Origins of "Taylor Version"

4) Look at Taylor Swift's Instagram account. What do you notice about the selection and construction of images, reels and posts?  

The pinned pictures promote her album 
Rest of the pictures promote her tour
Picture with the royal family shows her influence

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.  

They are all practically the same
She promotes her self everywhere

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