Seeing Beyond Celebrity

The research discussed in this paper, published in the Glocal Times, looks at one particular communication for development strategy: the use of famous supporters to educate and inspire change. Traditionally, author Varihi Scott explains, this strategy has involved enlisting famous entertainers to front campaigns or appear in broadcasts geared toward Western audiences. Her research is designed to compare this traditional approach to 4 development-oriented initiatives created by or collaborating with famous entertainers whose actions cohere with thinker Robert Chambers by participating in a sort of "pedagogy of the non-oppressed". According to Scott, Chambers describes this pedagogy as involving analysis of and innovation in personal change, as well as enabling the wealthy to understand more of the effects of their actions and inactions, and the benefits of having less.

The organisations whose work she discusses here are Louverture films, SixDegrees.org, FilmAid International, and the Rwanda Cinema Centre. The traditional forms of using famous supporters that she explores are: telethons, with the United Kingdom (UK)'s biennial "Red Nose Day" as an example; concerts, with "Live Aid" and "Live8" as examples; and the work of goodwill ambassadors, with several examples. Scott draws upon Silvio Waisbord's 5 key ideas in development communication as a framework for examining how the 4 new initiatives compare to traditional forms of making use of famous supporters. The 5 key ideas are: 1) the fostering of community empowerment; 2) an integration of top-down and bottom-up approaches; 3) the use of a tool-kit of communication strategies; 4) the use of personal communication with multimedia activities; and 5) the use of approaches that take into consideration factors affecting the individual as well as their environment.

Scott's detailed analysis and comparison lead to the conclusion that, amongst the traditional uses of a celebrity supporter, it is the goodwill ambassador that, on the whole, offers most within the categories. For example, "[g]oodwill ambassadors have the most diverse community of all as an audience, as it is anyone that the ambassador addresses within their role. This can include the most destitute, heads of state, and everyone in between." Furthermore, because of this wide range of access, they are in a position to integrate top-down and bottom-up approaches, as well as to draw from a varied toolkit of communication strategies (e.g., social marketing, entertainment-education, social mobilisation. Ambassadors are chosen for their ability to communicate in person (among other means), and their wide travel makes them potentially the most flexible in terms of taking into consideration factors affecting the individual and his or her environment.

Scott stresses that diversity among individual ambassadors will cause variation in effectiveness. However, she emphasises the promise of this strategy through the following comparison with 2 other traditional strategies: large concerts and celebrity-laden telethons. That is, while these might "attract difficult to reach members of the Western audience...their strength is in attention grabbing and there has to be follow-up for any meaningful communication of issues or long-term involvement of the audience....Also...the very top-down, prescriptive approach used by concerts and telethons towards their Western audiences seems to be lagging behind." With regard to the 4 non-traditional uses of high-profile supporters, Scott again indicates that benefit may be traced to the particular skills of the celebrities involved. For instance, they "might have skills to offer in voice and drama techniques to help people stand up for themselves and get their messages across; they might be able to advise on working with different media to help people take their stories directly to a wider audience, or they could work with local teachers..."

Scott concludes that, "[b]ecause there are already qualified teachers of these subjects, because jobs should not be withheld from people who are capable of fulfilling them locally, and because entertainers already have jobs, short-term contracts, consultancy or guest-lecturer type jobs might be suitable. The work experience could lead to better-informed supporters, and as many performers go on to get involved in producing and directing, it could even lead to more nuanced and diverse mainstream media in the future."