Zendaya: Audience and Industries

 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?

She will be in a new series of creative celebrating those defining 'smart' in those own terms and she will be supporting community water programmes which directly impact women. She wants to achieve universal access to clean drinking water. This links to her celebrity persona as she describes herself as an 'activist'. 

2) Read the analysis of Zendaya’s social media profile. What statistics support why she is described as ‘a high-ranking celebrity influencer’?

She speaks to a 59% female audience across both Instagram and twitter, who are either single or married, between the ages of 25-29. She is seen as the voice for "Gen Z". 

3) What details are provided about Zendaya’s audience?

• 67% female audience on Instagram
• 71% female audience on twitter
• Common age of 20-24
• Mainly English speaking in USA

4) What psychographic groups would fit the profile for Zendaya’s audience in this case study?

Aspirers 

5) Why does the case study suggest Zendaya is a good fit for the Smart Water brand? 

She has a wide social media audience and fanbase, has authority and is seen as voice for people, so she is a good representation and can gain support for the charity from her audience.

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.

• 185,429,549 followers
• 3.43% engagement rate
• 0.302%  followers growth rate

2) Scroll down through the data available. Who are Zendaya’s top mentions and what does this suggest about how she uses the account? 

• @loiusvuitton
• @nicolasghesquire
• @lancomeoffical
• @abdmstudio

All these accounts are to do with fashion and beauty products which shows how she uses the account to promote and advertise companies that she uses or is an ambassador of.

3) How does Zendaya’s Instagram engagement rate of 3%+ compare with the average engagement rate for accounts with more than 100,000 followers? 

Usually it is 1.7% but Zendaya has 3% which shows the huge fanbase she attracts of all ages and backgrounds.

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?

It think it mainly appeals to women and to aspirers as they want to change the world so this seen through all the activism and charity Zendaya does and the feminism activism too.

2) What opportunities are there for audience interaction in Zendaya’s online presence and how controlled are these? 

She posts a lot of videos of trailers and clips on social media allowing her fans to respond and comment their opinions. She also posts about charities and activism which initiates conversation in her comment sections. She also interacts with her audience by responding to their comments. Some of these posts however may be done by social media managers trying to make the posts authentic and more like her.

3) How does Zendaya’s social media presence reflect Clay Shirky’s ‘End of Audience’ theories? 

Zendaya has produced her own show etc. and has a large social media presence. By having a strong social media presence she has become a prosumer. 

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? 

Zendaya uses social and political issues to promote her online presence. She posts a lot about charities and activism and movements like BLM and LGBTQ+ and also feminism.

5) Applying Hall’s Reception theory, what might be a preferred and oppositional reading of Zendaya’s online presence? 

Preferred: That she is a genuine nice person who wants to give back to her community for giving her the opportunities she has had and giving money to charities and activism organisations and wants to change the world for the good, giving voices to the unheard.

Oppositional: She is a product of her society and a fake person, having her online and public appearance done by other people. She only gives to charity and takes part in active movements to gain publicity and is in it just for the money. 

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?

• Facebook - 2.96 million monthly users 
• Twitter (X) - 330 million as of 2019
• LinkedIn - 900 million as of 2019

2) What is the main way social media sites make money? 

Primarily make money through advertising.

3) What does ARPU stand for and why is it important for social media companies? 

Average revenue per user - its shows them how much profit they earned through advertising on their platform to reach costumers.

4) Why has Meta spent huge money acquiring other brands like Instagram and WhatsApp? 

WhatsApp has over 2 billion active users, which means for Meta that is a great stock of susceptible minds to sell products too, meaning more money.

5) What other methods do social media sites have to generate income e.g. Twitter Blue? 

The blue tick on Twitter (X) used to show that the people who had it were celebrities, politicians, newspapers etc. and that they were verified so people knew they were real and not fake. However Elon Musk removed this and made it a paying fee so to get the tick you had to pat $8 per month, $84 per year, therefore generating more income.

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. 

• Social networks should be required to release information of their algorithms and core functions to researchers in order for them to be vetted
• Adding friction to online sharing to prevent the rampant spread of disinformation
• Statutory building code - mandatory safety and quality requirements for digital platforms

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

A research who worked for Cambridge Analytica.

3) What does Wylie say about the debate between media regulation and free speech? 

That in western countries you are free to say what you want as long as it is not hate speech and that algorithms control what people can see and what they can't.

4) What is ‘disinformation’ and do you agree that there are things that are objectively true or false? 

The spread of false information. Yes I agree that there are things which are true and false on social media. 

5) Why does Wylie compare Facebook to an oil company? 

As oil companies will say that they do not profit from pollution yet pollution is a byproduct of that they sell, just as Facebook claim they also do not profit from hate speech yet hate speech is a harmful byproduct.

6) What does it suggest a consequence of regulating the big social networks might be? 

That there will be more hate speech on social networks.

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

That people post "perfect" images on Instagram which creates an idealistic body image which effect peoples mental health as they do not have that "ideal" body.

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? 

Yes, she should be as it isn't her own opinion and so is being paid for the promotion which then she will make all her fans hooked onto that product causing that business to make money therefore doing an advertisement so she should say she is promoting.

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?

I think she is a mainstream star who is promoting her products as all celebrities do, but to gain publicity she participates in activism and raises concerns about certain issues and also probably gives to charity as she feels guilty and so does it to give back to society for giving her the opportunities she has today.

Read this Guardian article on the Online Harms Bill. What does it suggest regarding regulation of social media companies?

There should be regulation to spot and stop harmful content and protecting our society, especially children as they are vulnerable. An example in this is the 14 year old who ended her own life after reading posts about depression. 

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? 

Yes, I do agree with her message because social media is a place where you are able to reflect your views, opinions, feelings/emotions whether it means posting all the time or staying quiet. Everyone has their own pace and take to situations. Also, its probably more her social media managers posting mor eon her behalf because the brand has a duty to uphold.

This Guardian article also explores the mental health implications of social media. Do you think that strict regulation of social media should happen?

Yes, I believe social media does need to have restrictions and restraints because its not right for children under 16 to be feeling self-conscious about their appearances and go on and follow unhealthy and damaging advise from uncensored resources.