Level: Grades 7 to 12 

Overview

In this four-day unit, students will examine the role of popular culture celebrities in creating awareness of world issues. Students will debate whether celebrity involvement is important and positive, or whether such involvement brings too much attention to the celebrities themselves, overshadowing the central messages of a campaign, organization, program or issue.  

As well, students will examine issues such as:  

• Who sets the agenda for the public awareness and perception of the issues?
• How do the media, sponsoring organization and celebrities frame the issues in developing nations?

Learning Outcomes

Students will:

• demonstrate critical thinking in considering the impact of celebrity-based campaigns on our views of global development issues
• express and support their opinion on whether celebrity involvement in global development issues is positive
• demonstrate a broadened understanding of global development issues
• express their learning through creation of a media product

Unit Timeline 

Day One: Celebrities

Activities

1. Class discussion and definitions of “developing nation” and “global development” (optional, 20 minutes)
2. Research on celebrity involvement in development causes (30 minutes)
3. Class discussion and definition of “celebrity” (20 minutes)
4. Reflection (20 minutes or homework)

Day Two: Celebrity Causes 

Activities 

1. Modelling activity: comparing celebrity causes (20 minutes)
2. Research on celebrities and global development causes (30 minutes)
3. Deconstructing a celebrity involvement media representation piece (25 minutes)
4. Reflection (20 minutes or homework) 

Day Three: The Other Side 

Activities 

1. Reading and responding to article (50 to 75 minutes) 

Day Four: Development of a Media Campaign 

Activities 

1. Research (30 minutes)
2. Designing a media campaign (45 minutes) 

Preparation and Materials 

A recommended backgrounder to this lesson is Working with Celebrities: A Behind-the-Scenes Look from Charity Village

• Have dictionaries, lined paper and art supplies on hand for various activities
• Ensure that you have access to computers with art or Web publishing facilities for the research and media creation activities
• Review the Web site The Celebrity Causes Database
• Photocopy or make overheads of the following, as required:
  • celebrity involvement screen captures, from
    www.emmylou.net/causes.html and
    www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/help?id=3f94ff664
  • Celebrity Information Chart handout
  • Deconstructing a Media Representation Piece handout
  • Article by Uzodinma Iweala, entitled Stop Trying To “Save” Africa, published in the Washington Post, July 15, 2007, Page B07

Procedure 

Day One: Celebrities 

Definitions of “developing nation” and “global development” 

Note: This activity may be omitted if you have completed Unit One, Beyond Media Messages: Media Portrayal of Global Development. 

Provide students with the following definition of the term “developing nation”: 

A country with a low standard of living, generally indicated by severe poverty, low income and education levels, high birth rate, and poorly developed social, economic, and technological infrastructure.

-PBS

To make the concept more concrete to students, explain that many people in developing nations lack many of the basic amenities we take for granted, such as plumbing, clean drinking water, education, health care, and reliable electricity or public sanitation. Stress that we use the term “developing nation,” and give some examples of nations that have advanced significantly in providing these amenities in different ways (South Korea in economic terms, India in terms of democracy, Bhutan in terms of transition to modernity, etc.). Also touch on the differences between the term “developing nation” and the older term “third world”: what negative stereotypes are associated with the older term?

Discuss with the class what might be meant by the term “global development.” What might be various aspects of global development? (For example food aid, disaster relief, promoting women’s rights, building infrastructure and ensuring access to clean water.) How can countries like Canada be involved in helping the development of less developed nations? What types of people or organizations, other than governments, may be involved in global development? (For example individuals, non-governmental organizations, the United Nations and celebrities drawing attention to a cause.) 

Celebrity involvement in development causes 

Ask each student to select a celebrity who is involved in a cause related to global development issues. Oprah, Bono, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Princess Diana, Bill Gates and Madonna are examples of celebrities who are or have been involved in organizations helping in developing countries. You may also consult the list of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors at www.unicef.org/people/people_ambassadors_international.html.

Note: Conduct some research to make sure you have current examples for the students. This information can be found at www.celebcauses.com/index.htm. When you go to this Web site, select the causes Disaster Relief, Land Mines, Refugees, UNICEF and World Poverty & Hunger from the drop-down All Causes box.

Ask students to fill in the first four columns of the Celebrity Information Chart handout for the celebrity they have selected.

Celebrity Information Chart 

Have students move into groups of four or five and share their results. Instruct them to record the other students’ findings in their charts. At the end, each student should have results for three to five different celebrities.

Class discussion: What is a celebrity? Why is a certain person a celebrity? 

Discuss as a class what makes someone a celebrity. Steer the discussion to include the following ideas: 

• celebrity status is not always tied to achievement 
• people can become celebrities as a result of being famous for bad behaviour as well as for good behaviour

Ask the students, as a class, to consider the celebrities listed in their charts. What do their choices say about the concept of a celebrity, and about our culture? What is most likely to make someone a celebrity? Why do we celebrate the people we do, and what does that say about us?

Reflection 

Ask the students to write a short response to the class discussion, considering the following points: 

• What makes someone a celebrity in our culture?
• Do the students admire the people they consider to be celebrities, enjoy watching their lives, or both?
• Do we, as a society, pay too much attention to celebrities? Why or why not?

Day Two: Celebrity Causes 

Modelling activity: comparing celebrity causes 

Distribute or project the following images:

1. Screen capture from Emmylou Harris’s Web site, detailing her involvement in land mine removal
2. Screen capture from the United Nations Refugee Agency Web site, detailing Angelina Jolie’s involvement in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Explain that you will be looking at media representation pieces of celebrities involved in development issues; a media representation piece may be an advertisement, infomercial, news report or public service announcement.

Discuss as a class the following questions, comparing these two sites:

• How prominent is the celebrity in the media representation piece?
• How do her actions in the media representation piece reflect, demonstrate and support her commitment to the cause, issue, product, program, agency or organization?
• Who and what is around the celebrity?
• What type of language is used in the text to describe her involvement and the event?
• How is the celebrity represented, visually and through text? What image of her is presented?
• What is the message of the media presentation piece for the general viewing/reading public; for the cause, program or organization; and for the celebrity’s fans? 

Individual assignment: celebrities and global development causes  

Ask students to use their Celebrity Information Chart from Day One and The Celebrity Causes Database to see what cause, program or organization their selected celebrity supports or is involved in.

Ask students to research their celebrity, starting with the official Web sites (if any) to see how, when and why he or she supports the cause, program or organization. What does she or he actually do? Ask students to add this information to the Celebrity Information Chart, using the last two columns.

Celebrities and global development in the media 

Ask students to find a media representation piece about one of the celebrities in their chart who is actively involved with the cause, program or organization. For example, this may be an advertisement, infomercial, news report or public service announcement.

Ask students to deconstruct this media representation using the questions in the handout entitled Deconstructing a Media Representation Piece.

• Where does the media representation appear – for example a mainstream news outlet, entertainment news outlet, sports news outlet, tabloid, TV, magazine, E-zine?
• Is the celebrity visible?
• Is this candid or staged?
• What is the celebrity actually doing?
• How do his/her actions reflect, demonstrate, and/or support his/her commitment to the cause, program or organization?
• Who and what is around the celebrity?
• When did this event happen – time of year, near another event in the celebrity’s life such as an award show or the premiere of a movie or a championship win?
• What type of language is used to describe the celebrity’s involvement and the event?
• How is the celebrity dressed / accessorized so as to reflect the correct posture and tone for the event?
• How is the celebrity represented, visually and through text? What image of the celebrity is presented?
• What is the message of the media presentation for:
  • the general viewing / reading public
  • the cause, program or organization
  • the celebrity’s fans

Reflection 

Ask the students to write a short summary of their deconstruction, considering the following points:  

• Where was the attention of the reader/viewer directed?
• What did the student learn about the cause from the media representation piece?
• Overall, was the piece more about the cause or about the celebrity?
• Did the media representation piece change the student’s view of the cause or the celebrity? 

Day Three: The Other Side 

Ask students to read the article by Uzodinma Iweala, entitled “Stop Trying To ‘Save’ Africa,” which was published in The Washington Post. Have them answer the following questions, included in the handout:

1. How does the author describe “the West’s new image of itself”?
2. How does the author see Africans being portrayed in Western media images of Africa?
3. How does the author suggest media images of Africa affect our views of the continent and its people?
4. According to the author, how does the news media present a biased view in its coverage of events in Africa?
5. Why does the author say “Africa doesn’t want to be saved?”
6. The author suggests that we rarely see images of African leaders active in helping their countries. What other images are missing from our perceptions of Africa and developing nations in general? (Include at least three missing images.)
7. Consider the images you listed in Question Six. Why do you think these images are missing from media representations and our ideas of Africa and developing nations in general?

Day Four: Development of Media Campaign  

Research 

Ask students to select and research a specific cause, program or organization related to a global development issue that they would like to support. Students must specify why they have chosen this cause, program or organization.

Designing a media campaign 

Instruct students to design a media campaign to publicize and build support for the issue they have chosen. Have them include the following steps:

• choosing a medium for the campaign (TV, print, online, etc.)
• identifying possible audiences for the media campaign
• selecting an audience
• deciding whether to use a celebrity in the campaign and, if so, selecting the celebrity
• deciding what kinds of images they will use in promoting the campaign

Evaluation 

Instruct students to produce a written overview of the media campaign. Tell them to:

• include a list of suggested media products
• prepare a mock-up of one media product (a print ad, Web page, Facebook page, podcast, broadcast ad, etc.)
• write a short piece in which they justify the choices they made in their overview and media product