OSP: Audience and Industries 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.

The potential target audience for Marcus is young boy/men who have a passion for football or who is Rashford as a role model of sort. Whereas the target audience for Kim is young girls/women who have a interest in fashion 

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?

Rashford is in a lot of adverts and uses social media to promote brands like Nike or Burberry and others. This could influence young boys to be more/feel like Rashford as some consider him as a role model since he has helped a lot of people

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

Marcus Rashford’s power as an influencer is shown by his engagement rate of 6% (although recently this has dropped to 3.2% due to increasing his follower count and focusing more on football rather than his brand development).Kim Kardashian's engagement rate is lower at 0.33% but she has over 350 million followers so can still reach and engage with huge audiences.

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. 

 surveillance/information, personal identity, personal relationships/social interaction, and diversion/entertainment. 

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

 The preferred reading of Marcus Rashford's online presence would be that of a socially conscious hero, while a preferred reading of Kim Kardashian's would be that of a successful, aspirational business mogul and socialite. An oppositional reading of Rashford might see him as performative or a hypocrite, while an oppositional reading of Kardashian might view her as promoting a shallow, materialistic, and inauthentic lifestyle that contributes to social inequality. 

Industries

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

MR- 60-65 million

KK- 1.5 billion

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

MR- 

• Nike: Rashford has held a long-term sponsorship with the sportswear giant since he was 11 years old. The recent deal includes a significant contribution to his community efforts.
• Burberry: The luxury fashion brand has partnered with Rashford to support youth literacy programs and school libraries.

KK-

• Skims: Her primary venture, a highly successful shapewear, loungewear, and activewear company, is valued at over $4 billion. It is the official underwear partner of the NBA, WNBA, and USA Basketball, and has collaborated with brands like Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana, and Swarovski. A joint activewear brand with Nike called NikeSkims was also introduced in 2025.
• SKKN by Kim: Her high-performance skincare line, launched in 2022 after she shut down her previous KKW Beauty and KKW Fragrance lines for rebranding.
• Skky Partners: A private equity firm she co-founded to invest in consumer, media, and luxury businesses.

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

X (formerly Twitter) is owned by Elon Musk's X Corp, while Instagram is a product of Meta Platforms, Inc. Both primarily make money through advertising, though X also has a subscription model. Last year (2023), X's financial performance was volatile with significant declines in UK revenue, and Meta reported that Instagram generated an estimated $39 billion in revenue. 

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

Worries about Instagram's negative effects include negative impacts on mental health, such as increased anxiety, depression, and body image issues, particularly among young people. The platform is also linked to poor sleep, cyberbullying, and FOMO. Exposure to idealized and often manipulated images is a major concern, as it can lead to unrealistic expectations and damage self-esteem. 

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?

Social media platforms manage online abuse through a combination of automated technology, human moderation, and user-empowerment tools, while Marcus Rashford has highlighted the issue due to the widespread racist abuse targeting him and other Black footballers, particularly after high-profile matches. In the future, this is likely to change due to increased government regulation and more sophisticated platform-led solutions. 

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.

The Online Safety Act 2022 (the Act) is a new set of laws that protects children and adults online. It puts a range of new duties on social media companies and search services, making them more responsible for their users' safety on their platforms. The Act will give providers new duties to implement systems and processes to reduce risks their services are used for illegal activity, and to take down illegal content when it does appear.

The strongest protections in the Act have been designed for children. Platforms will be required to prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content and provide parents and children with clear and accessible ways to report problems online when they do arise.

The Act will also protect adult users, ensuring that major platforms will need to be more transparent about which kinds of potentially harmful content they allow, and give people more control over the types of content they want to see.