Taylor Swift language and representations

 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? 

 It would give her complete ownership of the records and nullify Braun’s involvement.

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

Rather than just a music video, Swift has consciously chosen to push her professional creative boundaries for the sake of her art and her storytelling - and that's something we can only admire her for.

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

Using the narrative of the film in order to reflect her life and construct an image of her based off of that.


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?

There's a top menu on the right of Taylor Swift's website with the first option being 'Shop'. This reinforces the opportunities to either spend money or interact with her fans/music and also, perhaps, reinforces capitalistic ideologies. The website design is very bold and glamorous overall which perfectly targets the audience she wants to reach.


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

Her microsite includes a top menu with the first option being 'shop' which reinforces capitalistic ideologies and ultimately increases promotion.

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? 

Most of Taylor Swift's posts are things that promote her music, however, there are also a few socially/politically related posts. For example, she called out Donald Trump in a tweet and was criticising him.

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

She has pinned her album photos and music release dates, which ultimately increases promotion as it's the first thing people see.

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.  

She promotes herself differently on Instagram compared to TikTok. This is because on Instagram, she doesn't really interact with fans much and uses her platform as tool for promotion. Whereas, on TikTok, she often interacts with fans in comment sections and videos.

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