Over the course of the last semester of BCM241, I was able to ideate, develop and grow my digital artefact of my chosen media niche of podcast’s – in particular ‘Its a lot’ pod hosted by Abbie Chatfield.
Throughout the entirety of this semester and the research collected and dissected – as mentioned within previous blog posts – Lazarrfelds and Katz influencer theory was also at the centre of drawing my conclusions. This is due to the understanding of “…messages from the media may be further mediated by informal “opinion leaders” who intercept, interpret, and diffuse what they see and hear to the personal networks in which they are embedded” meaning that Abbie’s podcast being majority feminism pods and political opinions can create a divide and conflict within her audience and niche.
To kick off my DA I defined and explored my niche. The term media niche often refers to a source of media that targets the needs of a specific audience (Moore, 2021). In this situation, it was clear that the media source connected to my research was, of course, available in the realm of social media. To determine which platform I would use, it was necessary to investigate where many individuals tend to feel the freest to comment and express their opinions, which may sound like any social media platform. But after thoroughly examining each platform Abbie utilised, I discovered her TikTok space was the media she received the most feedback and comments on – so TikTok became my choice of media outlet.
To provide an insight into the platform, TikTok, created in 2016 (formerly Music.ly) is a social media app for creating and sharing short videos. You can create and share short lip-sync, comedy and talent videos of 3 seconds to 1 minute. You can also create short looping videos up to 60 seconds to 3 minutes long (TikTok (formerly Musical.ly), n.d.).
After identifying my niche my persona was next on the agenda. “A persona is a model of a user that focuses on the individual’s goals when using an artefact” (Blomkvist, 2002). Meaning that a persona represents patterns of users’ behaviour, goals and motives, compiled in a fictional description of a single individual, in order to make the persona more tangible and alive (Blomkvist, 2002).
The persona I developed throughout my digital artefact really utilised the second dimension of ‘Mediatisation’. This is evident through my use of hashtags within my content posted to try and generate more interaction as well as gain a larger audience base. This expression of self is assembled through the use of communication inclusive of hashtags, comments and language used.
Subsequently, one of the corroborating aims of developing my online persona was to explore the reactions of members of the niche through participant observation. Researching the audience’s reactions to specific videos and podcasts of Abbie’s channel helped guide my persona and content in the right direction in order to create interaction to help develop and dissect my research further. Ensuring my TikTok’s were consistent in terms of language and up to date podcats, presented my audience with a ‘real’ and authentic persona which helps tie into the dimension of performativity.
As a result, this DA was carried out using an autoethnographic research technique. Autoethnography is defined as a study method that tries to investigate one’s own experience in order to better comprehend a larger cultural experience (Moore, 2021). I engaged in participant observation through reading and understanding comments and reviews within Abbie’s channels to help me gain a greater understanding of the audience’s reactions to her podcasts and videos – all of which were sourced in an ethical way. Through this observational research, I was able to develop and expand on my epiphanies. This was heavily linked to my paradigmatic framework of feminism, as I have been able to use my participant involvement within the media niche and take notes on which ideas the public domain primarily rely on the perceptions and attitudes of an influencer and as well as the reactions of audience members to these ideas.
Additionally, Participating as an audience member in my own DA material and then reflecting on my observations on the wider culture of my audience allowed me to critically develop content that retains the interest of the audience. My goal was to create a DA that positioned itself in front of its intended audience by learning why some social media topics seem to capture the audience more than others, and what aspects keep them coming back. Connecting with my audience as a creator as well as a member of my DA enabled me to develop creative original content for its obvious media niche.
References:
- esaftey commissioner. n.d. TikTok (formerly Musical.ly). [online] Available at: <https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide/tiktok> [Accessed 27 October 2021].
- Trendjackers. 2019. YOUR GUIDE TO INFLUENCER MARKETING IN 2019: THEORY & PRACTICE. [online] Available at: <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317558972_Five_Dimensions_of_Online_Persona https://trendjackers.com/2019-guide-to-influencer-marketing/> [Accessed 20 October 2021].
- Blomkvist, S., 2002. Persona – an overview. [online] It.uu.se. Available at: <https://it.uu.se/edu/course/homepage/hcidist/vt05/Persona-overview.pdf> [Accessed 27 October 2021].
- Katz, E., & Lazarsfeld, P.F. (2006). Personal Influence: The Part Played by People in the Flow of Mass Communications (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315126234%5BAccessed 27 October 2021].
- Week 1, part 3 – Moore, C 2020, ‘BCM241 2021 Week One, Introduction and Overview’, lecture, BCM241
Music: https://www.bensound.com
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