The exam could focus on anything from the changing nature of digital audiences to the regulation and financial power of social media giants.
Notes from the lesson: Audience
Zendaya’s followers on social media:
- 67% female on Instagram and 73% female on Twitter
- Most commonly aged 20-24
- Based mainly in USA, Brazil and UK
- Top occupations: retail, publishing, entertainment, modelling, design or makeup
- Interests: music, reality TV, social networks and fantasy books
- Similar celebrity influencers: Ariana Grande, Beyoncé and Harry Styles
- Media consumption: Zendaya’s followers enjoy MTV, Vogue, E! News, National Geographic, The Times and HBO
- Other brands followers like: Nike, Disney, Netflix, CHANEL, Starbucks and Marvel.
Generations
Generation X: Born between 1965 – 1980
Millennials / Generation Y: Born between 1981 – 1995
Generation Z (or iGen): Born 1996 – 2010
Zendaya has been described as one of Generation Z’s leading voices. Although she doesn’t describe herself as an activist, she has certainly highlighted certain causes to her millions of followers:
- BLM – particularly telling authentic African-American stories in film and TV
- Feminism: “True feminism has to be intersectional.”
- LGBTQ+ rights – including portraying a cis-trans love story in Euphoria on HBO
- Mental health advocate (particularly anxiety)
Audience pleasures and engagement
One of the key audience pleasures of Zendaya’s online presence is her natural ability to engage with audiences online in a seemingly authentic way. Instagram engagement data:
- Over 180m followers
- Engagement rate of 3.04% (compared to average of 1.7% for accounts with 100k+ followers)
- 5.5m average likes per post
Industries
Social media companies overwhelmingly make their money through advertising – promoted or paid-for posts.
For Facebook and Instagram, the amount of data the parent company Meta holds about users (everything from the school they attended to their postcode) means adverts can be micro-targeted which is hugely appealing to advertisers.
Social media companies: in focus
Twitter
- Twitter was started by Jack Dorsey in 2006. It has over 200 million active users worldwide.
- Twitter’s revenue is around $3 billion.
- Twitter makes most of its money through advertising – promoted tweets or ‘trend takeovers’.
- In 2022 Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 BILLION and has since added controversial new features.
- Twitter is now coming under pressure from rivals including Meta’s Threads.
Instagram
- Instagram is an image and video sharing site launched in 2010.
- In 2012 it was bought by Facebook for $1 billion. Facebook and Instagram’s parent company is Meta – a global conglomerate owned by Mark Zuckerberg.
- Instagram has over 2 billion active users worldwide.
- Instagram revenue is more than $40 BILLION.
- Zendaya has 180m+ Instagram followers.
Regulation: Livingstone & Lunt
Livingstone and Lunt suggest that the British media landscape has prioritised consumer choice and commercial interests when it comes to regulation.
This fits with neoliberalist ideology.
Neoliberalism: a political approach associated with free-market capitalism prioritising free trade, globalisation and deregulation.
Livingstone & Lunt: global media regulation
Livingstone and Lunt argue the global media landscape has made it difficult for UK regulators:
- Online content has increased at a rate far faster than regulators can react to.
- User-generated content (e.g. social media) means tech giants do not technically publish their own content.
- Ofcom can’t impact on American tech giants.
- Online anonymity makes enforcement difficult.
2023 Online Safety Bill
The 2023 Online Safety Bill is attempting to regulate the internet – but has been heavily amended and criticised as it makes its way through Parliament.
Watch this BBC News interview on the topic:
Watch: Channel 4 debate on regulation
Watch this Channel 4 News debate featuring the President of messaging service Signal on end-to-end encryption.
Where do you stand on this debate?
Zendaya: Audience and Industries blog tasks
Create a new blogpost called 'Zendaya: Audience and Industries blog tasks' and work through the following to complete your case study.
Audience
Smart Water brand case study
Read this Smart Water case study from Influencer Intelligence and answer the following questions:
1) What is the charity link to her Smart Water brand ambassador role and how does this link to the celebrity persona she has created?
2) Read the analysis of Zendaya’s social media profile. What statistics support why she is described as ‘a high-ranking celebrity influencer’?
3) What details are provided about Zendaya’s audience?
4) What psychographic groups would fit the profile for Zendaya’s audience in this case study?
5) Why does the case study suggest Zendaya is a good fit for the Smart Water brand?
Social media data analysis
Look at this analysis website for Zendaya’s Instagram account. Complete the following tasks:
1) Pick out three notable statistics from the site.
2) Scroll down through the data available. Who are Zendaya’s top mentions and what does this suggest about how she uses the account?
3) How does Zendaya’s Instagram engagement rate of 3%+ compare with the average engagement rate for accounts with more than 100,000 followers?
Zendaya: audience questions and theories
Finally, work through the following questions to apply media debates and theories to the Zendaya CSP:
1) Is Zendaya’s website and social media constructed to appeal to a particular gender or audience?
2) What opportunities are there for audience interaction in Zendaya’s online presence and how controlled are these?
3) How does Zendaya’s social media presence reflect Clay Shirky’s ‘End of Audience’ theories?
4) What effects might Zendaya’s online presence have on audiences? Is it designed to influence the audience’s views on social or political issues or is this largely a vehicle to promote Zendaya’s work?
5) Applying Hall’s Reception theory, what might be a preferred and oppositional reading of Zendaya’s online presence?
Industries
How social media companies make money
Read this analysis of how social media companies make money and answer the following questions:
1) How many users do the major social media sites boast?
2) What is the main way social media sites make money?
3) What does ARPU stand for and why is it important for social media companies?
4) Why has Meta spent huge money acquiring other brands like Instagram and WhatsApp?
5) What other methods do social media sites have to generate income e.g. Twitter Blue?
Regulation of social media
Read this BBC News article on a report recommending social media regulation. Answer the following questions:
1) What suggestions does the report make? Pick out three you think are particularly interesting.
2) Who is Christopher Wylie?
3) What does Wylie say about the debate between media regulation and free speech?
4) What is ‘disinformation’ and do you agree that there are things that are objectively true or false?
5) Why does Wylie compare Facebook to an oil company?
6) What does it suggest a consequence of regulating the big social networks might be?
7) What has Instagram been criticised for?
8) Can we apply any of these criticisms or suggestions to Zendaya? For example, should Zendaya have to explicitly make clear when she is being paid to promote a company or cause?
A/A* extension tasks
Read this Ask feature on Zendaya as the voice of Generation Z. Do you consider Zendaya to be an activist or a mainstream star using social media to promote her products?
Read this Guardian article on the Online Harms Bill. What does it suggest regarding regulation of social media companies?
Read this People report on Zendaya and social media anxiety. Do you agree with her message? Does the message make Zendaya a hypocrite seeing as so much of her brand is built on social media?
This Guardian article also explores the mental health implications of social media. Do you think that strict regulation of social media should happen?
Complete for homework - due date on Google Classroom.
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