Audio-Visual Essay of Lady Gaga and Born This Way Foundation (https://youtu.be/JZEChInAY5Y)

Contextual Statement

The Audio-Visual Essay is about an American singer-songwriter, Lady Gaga, her representative song, Born This Way, and Born This Way Foundation. The content is basically focusing on her activism and her foundation to see what kinds of activities they are doing and what they are aiming for.

Before going to see the depth of the Born This Way Foundation, it needs to understand what Born This Way is. The song is known for supporting, adopting, and encouraging people who are in trouble with their own sexual identities. Lady Gaga had her intentions to create the song and that is  “loving who you are, being who you are,” being “generous” and “tolerant, accepting that others are ‘born this way,’” and avoiding being “judgmental.” (Click, Lee, & Holladay 2013). In addition to those kindness messages, there are some reasons that people follow Lady Gaga. Hernandez (2021) explains how she is good at utilising social media platforms to communicate with everyone, not only her fans but also other people who can see her social media. Moreover, Click, Lee, & Holladay (2013) introduced the actual voice from her fans and the voice said that Lady gaga never uses Twitter to only promote herself and she uses Twitter to build up communication so that her fans follow her. When I found these facts, I got why people believe her and why Lady Gaga has succeeded to communicate well. As the Audio-Visual Essay shows, the majority of people showed delight to her when she participated in events and gave speeches. I analyse this as she has never told lies to the audience and has been showing what she wants to tell. If people discover that her message is manipulated for her career, no one can believe her, her messages, and her songs. However, her enthusiastic fans never doubt her messages and they put her messages on their mind as Neary reported (2019).   

She has created her communication in that way, she established the Born This Way Foundation to make her wishes, beliefs, and passions come true. As BornThis Way Foundation (2021) demonstrates, they have been expanding their activities such as holding events, practicing programs, and conducting projects. They are all based on three of their missions and visions that also follow Lady Gaga’s thoughts. For the foundation, Lady Gaga left this message: What’s amazing about the Born This Way Foundation is, it’s also made by young people for young people (BornThis Way Foundation 2021). Through the use of media, the foundation reported that their work is always informed by people’s input and they reached out to our community to learn more about what the Born This Way Foundation means to people. Furthermore, the foundation has partnered with many community-based organisations,which enables people to be aware of the foundation.

What I would like to summarise about Lady Gaga and Born This Way Foundation is that they are using social media as effective tools to communicate with their fans, and their messages are sent by her behavior, songs, as well as activities that are on the Internet.

Reference for Task 2:

Ani 2019, ‘Lady Gaga’s mother reveals traumatic details of singer’s childhood’, GULF NEWS, 25 October, viewed 29 April 2021, <https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/music/lady-gagas-mother-reveals-traumatic-details-of-singers-childhood-1.67374175>

ASSUNÇÃO, M 2018, ’12 Times Lady Gaga Showed Love for the LGBTQ Community’, billboard, 20 September, viewed 1 May 2021, <https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8475993/lady-gaga-12-times-showed-love-for-lgbtq-community>

Aziz, A 2019, ‘The Power Of Purpose: How Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation Is Creating A Kinder, Braver World’, Forbes, 25 April, viewed 2 May 2021, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/afdhelaziz/2019/04/25/the-power-of-purpose-how-lady-gagas-born-this-way-foundation-is-creating-a-kinder-braver-world/?sh=2df4e1175133>

BornThis Way Foundation 2021, Impact Report, BornThis Way Foundation, viewed 2 May 2021, <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FYyMD_sH_9XFIHVRcWuLnMM9w0L2Xj1N/view>

BornThis Way Foundation 2021, OUR WORK, BornThis Way Foundation, viewed 2 May 2021, <https://bornthisway.foundation/support-our-work/>

Fitzgerald, R 2021, ‘The Queer Politics of Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way”, The Glitter and Gold Magazine, 21 March, viewed 29 April 2021, 

<https://medium.com/the-glitter-gold/the-queer-politics-of-lady-gagas-born-this-way-ea7e484f36c1>

Hernandez, B A 2021, ‘How Lady Gaga Created a Web Marketing Spectacle for Born This Way’,Mashable, 25 May, viewed 1 May 2021, <https://mashable.com/2011/05/24/lady-gaga-case-study/>

Juliet, W 2014, ‘ “Same DNA, but Burn This Way”: Lady Gaga and the possibilities of Postessentialist Feminism’, JOURNAL OF POPULAR MUSIC STUDIES, vol. 26, viewed 29 April 2021, <https://escholarship.org/content/qt4gh8b61r/qt4gh8b61r.pdf>

Moreau, J 2021, ‘JoJo Siwa Comes Out as Gay After Viral ‘Born This Way’ TikTok’, VARIETY, 22 January, viewed 2 May 2021, <https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/jojo-siwa-comes-out-gay-tiktok-1234890554/>

Neary, L 2019, ‘How ‘Born This Way’ Was Born: An LGBT Anthem’s Pedigree’,american Anthem, 30 January, viewed 1 May 2021, <https://www.npr.org/2019/01/30/687683804/lady-gaga-born-this-way-lgbt-american-anthem>

Powers, A 2011, ‘First Take: Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’, The Record MUSIC NEW FROM NPR, 18 May, viewed 1 May 2021, <https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2011/05/18/136429290/first-take-lady-gagas-born-this-way>

Reference for Task 3:

Aziz, A 2019, ‘The Power Of Purpose: How Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation Is Creating A Kinder, Braver World’, Forbes, 25 April, viewed 2 May 2021, <https://www.forbes.com/sites/afdhelaziz/2019/04/25/the-power-of-purpose-how-lady-gagas-born-this-way-foundation-is-creating-a-kinder-braver-world/?sh=2df4e1175133>

Born This Way Foundation 2020, Born This Way Foundation: What We Do, online video, 24 July, Born This Way Foundation, viewed 3 June 2021, <https://youtu.be/9ZVtjjuNObM>

BornThis Way Foundation 2021, Impact Report, BornThis Way Foundation, viewed 2 May 2021, <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FYyMD_sH_9XFIHVRcWuLnMM9w0L2Xj1N/view>

BornThis Way Foundation 2021, OUR WORK, BornThis Way Foundation, viewed 2 May 2021, <https://bornthisway.foundation/support-our-work/>

Breaking Copyright – Music For Videos & Streams 2020, Copyright Free Chill Background Music – “Way Home” by Tokyo Music Walker, online video, 27 September, Breaking Copyright – Music For Videos & Streams, viewed 3 June 2021, <https://youtu.be/Q7HjxOAU5Kc>

Click, MA, Lee, H & Holladay, HW 2013, Making Monsters: Lady Gaga, Fan Identification, and Social Media, Popular Music and Society, 14 June, vol. 36, viewed 3 June 2021, <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03007766.2013.798546?scroll=top&needAccess=true>

Funny Pets Videos 2019, Lady Gaga message to JGBT on Oscars CNN, online video, 26 February, Funny Pets Videos, viewed 3 June 2021, <https://youtu.be/0AmeLKTqZMI>

Good Morning America 2019, Lady Gaga to LGBTQ community: ‘I would take a bullet for you’, online video, 29 June, Good Morning America, viewed 3 June 2021, <https://youtu.be/K7bNRm1z9gI>

Hernandez, B A 2021, ‘How Lady Gaga Created a Web Marketing Spectacle for Born This Way’,Mashable, 25 May, viewed 1 May 2021, <https://mashable.com/2011/05/24/lady-gaga-case-study/>

Lady Gaga 2021, Born This Way, viewed 3 June 2021, <https://twitter.com/ladygaga/status/1396651208329228291?s=20>