Celebrity humanitarian activism in conflicts: a critical descriptive study

Abstract

The phenomenon of celebrities becoming involved in humanitarian activism is by no means new, and yet recently the amount of international attention that it attracts has increased dramatically. It appears that certain advances in media technology, coupled with shifts in international political power relations, have allowed for celebrity humanitarian activism to develop into a prominent international phenomenon. Academic studies on the topic are still relatively scarce. It is therefore the intention of this dissertation to help fill this gap by providing a descriptive analysis of the emergence and development of celebrity humanitarian activism.