Humanitarian Aid and the Impoverished Rhetoric of Celebrity Advocacy

Marouf A. Hasian

• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781453918593
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Providing a comparative study on celebrity advocacy – from the work of Bono, George Clooney, Madonna, Greg Mortenson, and Kim Kardashian West – this book provides scholars and readers with a better understanding of some of the short-term and long-term impacts of various forms of celebrity activism.
Each chapter illustrates how the impoverished rhetoric of celebrities often privileges the voices of those in the Global North over the efforts of local NGOs who have been working for years at addressing the same humanitarian crises. Whether we are talking about the building of schools for young women in Afghanistan or the satellite surveillance of potential genocidal acts carried out in the Sudan, various forms of celebrity advocacy resonate with scholars and members of the public who want to be seen «doing something.»
The author argues that more often than not, celebrity advocacy enhances a celebrity's reputation – but hinders the efforts of those who ask us to pay attention to the historical, structural, and material causes of these humanitarian crises.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Chapter 1. The Growing Influence of Celebrity Advocacy and the Questions Raised by 21st-Century Celebrity Humanitarianism
• Chapter 2. Bono’s and Geldof’s Legacies, Compassionate Consumption, and the Mythic Rise of “Band Aid” Celebrity Humanitarianism
• Chapter 3. Madonna, Malawi, and the Role Celebrity Advocacy Plays in 21st-Century Adoption and Children’s Rights Controversies
• Chapter 4. Three Cups of Tea, Militarized Celebrity Advocacy, and the Ideological Resonance of National Mythologies During Times of War
• Chapter 5. The Ambivalent Power of Social Media and the Indigenous Paths Not Taken in Kony 2012
• Chapter 6. “Angelina Touched Our Souls”: The Mixed Reception of Angelina Jolie’s In the Land of Blood and Honey and the Quest for Justice for Rape Victims
• Chapter 7. Kim Kardashian, “Fame for the Forgotten,” and Transmediated Remembrances of the Armenian Genocide
• Chapter 8. “Not on Our Watch”: George Clooney’s Celebrity Activism in the Sudan and Neoliberal Calls of Genocide Prevention
• Chapter 9. 21st-Century Lessons Learned and the Future of Celebrity Advocacy
• Bibliography