ABSTRACT This study examined global media discourses regarding the coverage of an anti-poverty campaign for Africa by celebrities in Europe by comparing media coverage of this event in the UK, US, and African press. The Make Poverty History campaign was organized in 2005 to pressure G8 leaders meeting in Glen eagles Scotland to cancel African aid, increase aid, and make trading conditions fairer. Former rock star, and humanitarian Sir Bob Geldof, rocker Bono, and filmmaker Richard Curtis, were the central figures in organizing this campaign on the global justice movement side of things. On the political arena, former British premier, Tony Blair, also had an agenda that put Africa and climate change at the top of the G8 agenda in 2005. Given Africa's historical negative coverage in the media, this study sought to investigate how a celebrity campaign which sought to change the perception of Africa as a pitiable place in need of charity, to one of a wronged continent in need of justice, would alter, if at all, the traditional coverage of Africa. The study sought to address three questions in particular: what were global media discourses regarding the Make Poverty History campaign; how were the major players in this campaign portrayed by the press in the United Kingdom, the center of the campaign, the United States, the key player in the G8, and in Africa, the continent in which all this attention was being directed to; and lastly to establish to what degree differences existed between media coverage of this campaign, and colonial/postcolonial discourses on the continent. The findings from the Western press showed both continuities and discontinuities of colonial rhetorical modes. These discursive continuities are classification, affirmation, debasement, idealization, and negation. These discourses are not static but have variations and shifts but some clear outlines of a continuation of colonial discourses were apparent. Classification refers to arranging nations according to a single standard of political and economic development. The Western press constantly held up industrialized countries as the ideal for Africa to follow. Affirmation has to do with confirming the moral superiority of the rich nations' publics. The Western media esteem the ability of the Western public, for example, to serve as the conscience of big business to restrain them from exploiting Third World countries. The leaders of the campaign also painted outstanding leaders on a mission to save the world, while the beneficiaries of the campaign were not involved. Debasement has to do depicting the "Other" in a degrading manner. This recurred in the coverage except the trope of debasement and idealization operated together with African leaders acting as the "villains" and the ordinary people as "noble" and "unspoilt" continuing the ambivalence of colonial discourse. Negation had to do with the media being ahistorical and denying historical links between Africa's deprivation in the past and its present reality. Even the campaign itself was in denial of Africa's past by adopting its slogan as Make Poverty History. Nonetheless, accommodation is a new discourse that came out of the reading and signified diverse perspectives within Western media coverage. Some perspectives from the activist public considered left-wing have entered the mainstream, for example, acknowledgment that subsidies given to farmers in wealthy countries make African countries less competitive contributing to poverty levels. African media texts had different perspectives. These can be classified as: self-affirmation (quest for global inclusion and /raising Africa's global profile); sovereignty (quest for economic independence); and self-reliance. African publications sought to reaffirm the place of Africa within the community of nations. They also sought resist what they considered undue interference by outsiders in the inside affairs of the continent. But there was some ambivalence because they still expressed concern over being forgotten by the rest of the world. Lastly, African media texts called for Africans to fashion their own solutions to the problems they encounter instead of waiting for outside help. These discursive strategies could be seen as defensive and in direct response to Africa's portrayal in the international media. Nevertheless, the African media provided perspective and continually drew the link between Africa's current problems and its historical development and place in global relations. While the Western press focused on Africa's present dilemma, the African press provided an alternative reading of the situation by illustrating global connections in Africa's plight.

Social media enable celebrity to interact with their followers and enable followers to build the relationship through the interaction. Former research has found that openness and perceived interactivity are antecedents for parasocial interaction. In order to investigate the way to increase user’s engagement in celebrity’s social media page, this research examines the relationship between celebrity’s posts employ openness and perceived interactivity, other user’s posts employ openness and perceived interactivity, parasocial interaction, parasocial relationship, and social media engagement. Survey data were collected from 595 followers of one Chinese celebrity through an online survey. The results indicate that neither celebrity’s nor other user’s posts employ openness and perceived interactivity direct lead to user’s social media engagement. However, PSI and PSR, which increased by celebrity’s and other user’s posts employ openness and perceived interactivity, have a positive relationship with user’s social media engagement. It provides support for the mediating role of PSI and PSR to social media engagement.

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'apporter de nouveaux éclairages théoriques et empiriques sur les mécanismes de construction de réputations et de célébrité dans les industries créatives. Particulièrement focalisée sur le champ organisationnel de l'architecture française contemporaine, cette dissertation traite de trois problématiques de recherche : Exportation d'une réputation auprès d'une audience externe à un champ organisationnel; Construction de plusieurs réputations dans un champ organisationnel; Réputations et célébrité : reconnaissance auprès d'un large public. Cette recherche propose de contribuer à la perspective institutionnelle de la réputation, à la théorie de la célébrité et à la sociologie de l'art en améliorant la compréhension des mécanismes de reconnaissance d'un artiste au sein d'une industrie créative. / The objective of my PhD is to better understand the theoretical and empirical mechanisms of reputation-building in creative industries. Especially focused on the organizational field of contemporary French architecture and on architects' professional trajectories, this dissertation centers on three research questions: Reputation-testing by an audience external to the organizational field; Construction of several reputations in an organizational field; Reputations and celebrity: recognition within a large public. This research aims at contributing to the celebrity theory and that of the institutional view of reputation, by improving our understanding of an artist's recognition mechanisms in a creative industry.

Whether they are gracing movie screens, tweeting about the size of their baby bump, or being photographed by the paparazzi in their swimwear accidently on purpose, celebrities compel consumers to care. Despite the pervasive consumer interest in celebrities, the fundamental process of how and when consumers develop relationships with and attachments to them is a subject that has been underexplored by marketing scholars, a discipline whose activities are often turbocharged by celebrities. In this research project, celebrities are viewed as brands in and of themselves, and accordingly, are examined through the prism of marketing's brand relationship literature. Drawing upon that literature and narrative transportation theory, a theoretical model of the celebrity brand attachment process is developed and empirically tested over the course of four online experiments. Results indicate that narratives about celebrity brands transport consumers to a place where they feel and behave as if they are in a communal-like relationship with the celebrity brand, despite their awareness of the contrary. These feelings and behaviors are lasting and manifest themselves back in the real world with increases in attachment and intention to consume more celebrity brand narratives. Furthermore, differences in the narrative type (on-stage vs. off-stage) and celebrity brand type (achieved vs. attributed) are found to impact the relationship between narratives and attachment level, while brand type and attachment style type are not found to significantly impact the narrative - attachment relationship.

The ultimate objective of this study was to establish whether female celebrities portray the beauty ideal and have influence over young females today. The literature review presents an analysis of feminism, beauty ideals, self-­‐ objectification, and the influence of media and celebrities, in an attempt to establish whether celebrity images are of a ‘self-­‐made’ hypersexual nature and whether these images influence young females’ self-­‐concept and role in society. The literature was further triangulated with a combination of primary and secondary data. Images of females within the famous Kardashian/Jenner family were studied in an attempt to understand how female celebrities portray themselves today. Furthermore, a focus group was conducted in an attempt to understand whether female youths are to some extent influenced by female celebrities. Through the research conducted it was evident that female role stereotypes still prevail in contemporary media. Furthermore, two themes prevailed throughout the study, which was that women can use their bodies for profit and as a means of power, and the conflicting nature of femininity versus feminism today. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / zkgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

This Practice-Based Ph.D. thesis is in two sections, the written element presented as a sequence of eight Fascicles, and the practical element presented as an inter-related set of nine Artist’s Books and Multiples. This thesis presents a series of Artist’s Books and Multiples of graphic expressions of anxiety, each informed by a comparative study presented as a sequence of Fascicles of the visual strategies used to advertise cigarettes in America in mass-circulation magazines between 1945 and 1964. The thesis is presented as a boxed object containing the eight Fascicles (each containing a Gatefold Image) and the nine Artist’s Books and Multiples. The thesis identifies specific design and illustration solutions in cigarette advertising such as considerations of artwork, photography, layout, typography, characterisation, and diagrammatic representation of process. The conclusions are then used as the basis for 9 books and multiples in which I explore, within my own artwork, the dynamics of visual instruction, and the devices for reassuring the anxious consumer using irony and humour throughout. Each Fascicle has a Gatefold visual montage with juxtaposed imagery central to the theme. The thesis combines visual analysis and the making of imagery in equal measure. The vast proportion of original visual examples used in the Fascicles are reproduced for the first time in colour from a wide range of contemporary magazines. Particular emphasis is placed on the professional manuals generated by the advertising profession itself. A brief study of the cigarette market in the pre-1945 period identifies early anxieties about the product and how the tobacco industry and the advertising industry sought to address them. The thesis identifies the industries’ invention of the 'Safe Cigarette' and then explores the anxieties implicit in that concept, presenting visual means by which anxiety is depicted. Visual strategies of reassurance in the form of personifiers are compared - ranging from people in socially esteemed professions through to the use of animals (dogs) and visual fictions (Santa Claus). Two factors in particular have been identified to distract consumers from the gathering sense of unease in the safety of the product that culminated in the report of the American Surgeon General in 1964 - the appeal to the consumption of the cigarette in the outdoors and the corresponding success of menthol cigarettes, and the appeal to the reassurance that technology can impart - in the success of the Filter-Tip market. The twin polarities are reflected in the Artist’s books, 'Which Filter Works?' and 'Menthol Daze'. In the last Fascicle the techniques of persuasion after 1945 are compared with those used by the American Huckster of the early twentieth century and the thesis concludes with an assertion of the role that visual humour can play in exposing fallacious marketing.

This thesis offers a feminist analysis of the gendered public discourses surrounding notions of talent, authenticity and containment. Using two of the most polarizing stars in North America – ‘Snooki’ and Kim Kardashian – the author offers an analysis of how both hard and soft news frame our everyday understanding of women’s public work. Textual analyses of news articles demonstrated that displays of sexual power were most undermined by the media while attempts to venture beyond the reality television texts were contained. On the other hand, the news media were more likely to use positive framing when women were seen to be fulfilling more traditional roles such as wife and mother. The empirical research approach provides an original framework which can be applied to other female public figures to examine how such ideological and gendered discourses shape our understanding of women’s work as well as, more generally, women’s roles in our society.

Musicians who die young often become more famous after their death and moreover, this popularity sometimes continues to exist years or even decades afterwards which consequently has a chance to turn these musicians into legends. Research has shown that the development of media and the growing celebrity culture have impacted the ways individuals perceive famous people. The fans may often view celebrities as a part of their personal lives which may be a reason for them to strive for maintaining the presence of deceased artists by, for instance, listening to their music or posting content connected to them on social media. This study aims to determine the ways in which individuals mourn and grieve over their idols, the role of media in this process and as a result, how the presence of deceased musicians is maintained in a long-term by the forces of fans, media or other heritage left after the artists. With this in mind, the research questions of this study cover such aspects as the extent to which fans’ lives are affected by their idol, common practices of mourning and grieving over deceased musicians, the role of media in this process, and the role of the audience in the growing popularity of deceased musicians. After exploring previous research and preparing the theoretical framework for the study, an online survey was distributed to the fans of the chosen deceased musicians. Respondents were asked questions about celebrities and their deaths, the ways in which the participants were coping with loss, the role of media in this process, and the reasons for them to continue getting back to the art created by those musicians. Analysis of the responses demonstrated that the development of media has made it easier for the fans to share their feelings, discuss difficult topics, and open up about their struggles online. Additionally, it turned out that despite a strong emotional connection with the late musicians, when listening to their music, the fans, in fact, were reconnecting not with the musicians, but with their own past that the music reminded them of. Given these points, it may be concluded that media performs an important function for individuals who have experienced loss through granting them a chance to speak openly about their feelings or struggles, connect with other adherents, and even more so, connect with their true selves.

The purpose of this study was to explore how a consumer's brand loyalty will be affected by a celebrity he/she adores, as the celebrity begins to cooperate with a competitive brand. The methods of this research have been done through qualitative research, and the interviews were conducted in a semi-structured way. The results showed that in a scenario where the respondents' favourite celebrity endorses competitive brands, some consumers will overlook marketing activities from the celebrity that advises them to purchase substitute (competitive) brands. The results showed that some respondents would purchase substitute (competitive) brands and that some would not. However, in most cases the respondent would not last over time as they would go back to the original brand, while others would only stay for as long as the celebrities are in collaboration with the competitive brand. Lastly, in terms of brand loyalty, unexpected findings were found of the research, that the respondent’s loyalty can be negatively influenced if a celebrity’s expertise and its product category are incompatible.

No abstract / Mini Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Public Law / MPhil / Unrestricted