OSP Audience & Industry: blog tasks

 Audience

1) Who are the potential target audiences for Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian's online content? Try and cover both demographics and psychographics.

Young adults (15-21), predominantly male for Rashford and female for Kardashian, and mainly aspirers as their audiences follow them for advice and influence on how to be successful

2) Marcus Rashford’s online presence is partly driven by his excellent use of social media. How does he use social media to engage with his fans and make them feel part of his brand?

He showcases his success in his football career through posts and story highlights in order to allow fans to follow his football journey

3) What is Instagram engagement rate and what engagement rates do Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian have? 

Engagement rate is a measure of how much audiences engage with posts through likes/comments. Marcus Rashford's is currently 3.2%, and Kardashian's is currently 0.33% 

4) Go to Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian's X or Instagram account. Find and screenshot/link three posts that show the different aspects of their brand e.g. Relatable person (normal, down to earth), Campaigner (interested in politics), Celebrity (e.g. awards ceremony or fashion), Brand promotion (e.g. selling a product).

5) What audience pleasures are provided by Marcus Rashford's online presence? What about Kim Kardashian? Try and apply Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory here. 

Information/surveillance - audiences gain knowledge on politics (Rashford) and learn tips on make-up/beauty (Kardashian)

Personal relationship - audiences want to follow football career journey (Rashford) and want to follow daily routine of the Kardashian family in Keeping Up With The Kardashians 

Personal identity - audiences view him as a role model and want to become a sports star like him (Rashford) and also idolise her and want to be fashionable like her by buying her old clothes in Kardashian Kloset

Entertainment/diversion - watching him play football as a young talent (Rashford) and watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians to escape reality and see the life of a wealthy and famous family

6) Applying Stuart Hall's Reception theory, what would a preferred and oppositional reading of Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian's online presence be?

• Preferred reading (people who support Rashford/Kardashian): making a positive impact on young people by offering advice/helping educate children
• Oppositional reading (people who criticise Kardashian): reinforcing beauty standards and causing unhealthy obsessions amongst fans

Industries

1) What is Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian's net worth and how does their online presence help them to make money? 

Rashford - around £16 million

Kardashian - $1.7 billion

2) What companies/brands are Rashford and Kardashian associated with? Why might they want to be linked to those celebrities?

Rashford - Truffle Trust, FareShare (associated with his political campaign for free school meals)

Kardashian - Hermes, Gucci, Chanel etc (associated with beauty/fashion)

3) Research Twitter/X and Instagram. Who owns the companies, how do they make money and how much profit did they make last year?

Twitter - bought by Elon Musk for $44 billion and renamed to X, $3 billion revenue from advertising 

Instagram - bought by Facebook (subsidiary of Meta) for $1 billion, revenue of $61 billion

4) What are the worries about Instagram’s negative effects?

It causes growing insecurities and worsens mental health, especially amongst girls, about their looks

5) How do social media platforms manage online abuse on their platforms and why has Marcus Rashford drawn attention to this? How might this change in the future?

Threats being punishable being punishable by jail sentences and fines are issued if harmful material is spread, some platforms have Ofcom regulate their content

6) What happened by law in 2022 that changed the way the internet is regulated? Write three changes that this new law may bring in and explain why it is difficult to regulate the internet.

Because there is too much content and the denial of freedom of speech may occur if posts are properly managed